This can be a good idea, and I agree with the general design and goals of your project.
I'm not sure whether this should be a replacement for WiaB, or just a parallel project that can evolve side-by-side, but if you go forward with it, we'd just have to wait and see how users and possible contributors react to it (I'd definitely contribute however I can, be it code, paypal-beers or whatever! :-) Random suggestion: I'd try to direct/promote the project (amongst other people, of course) towards those who want nsa-resistant* and open source whatsapp alternatives. (*) whatever that means... (it can not be worse than current email protocols hehe) On 12/01/13 05:03, Joseph Gentle wrote: > I still really want to make the wave platform we've been talking about > for awhile. I just don't have any time because I need to work to eat. > > So I've spent the last month thinking about running a kickstarter to > fund the work. Christian's email was really timely. > > > I want arbitrary JSON documents, or arbitrary embedding like we talked > about a few months ago. > > I want a protocol based on real P2P algorithms rather than the hacky > mess we have at the moment with trees of servers connecting via an > XMPP extension > > I want the same fundamental protocol to work server-server or > server-client. The OT stuff should work like git. > > No single person can maintain our 500k of legacy java code. I want to > write a better version with much cleaner separation of OT protocol and > application specifics. I still want a web client, but it should be > written in pure javascript. > > Messages should be cryptographically secure from snooping. > > > The way I see it, there's fundamentally three pieces that make up wave: > > 1. A set of OT primitives which allow peers to generate & interpret operations > 2. A platform on top of (1) for exchanging operations between networked peers > 3. An application on top of (2) which is trying to replace email > > These pieces should be separate from one another, and usable in other > contexts. > > I have a clear idea of how we can make (1) and (2) work. The OT part > we've talked about on the list and I've been slowly prototyping out > here: http://github.com/josephg/tp2stuff > > I have a bunch of applications I want to build on top of a platform > like this. For example, I want my text editor, compiler & unit tests > to all talk to one another so my text editor doesn't need > language-specific completion or syntax checking, and so my friends can > jump in and help me code. > > I don't know what the best way to build (3) is - but I'm more than > happy to build the platform that a new kind of email could be built on > top of. Maybe the current WIAB design is totally fine for that part - > though I want end-to-end encryption. > > I don't know when the right time to do this would be. I don't know if > I should work alone or if we should put a team together (Hi Ali!). If > I were to do this properly it would take about a month of prep to get > a kickstarter together, and if it is successful I'd want to quit my > job to do it. I think it'd take me about 6 months to a year of work to > get a stable, secure platform working (probably closer to a year), and > I'm also not allowed to stay in the US without an employer on my visa. > > The earliest this will probably happen is the end of the year. > > Kickstarter might also not be the right way to fund it. Cryptocat was > funded in 2012 mostly by Radio Free Asia's Open Tech Fund[1] to the > tune of ~$100k. A kickstarter would give us users (great) and > publicity, but the right private sponsor might also work. > > Maybe the most contentious part of all, I don't think I'd want to call > it wave. But it really would be the grandchild of what we've been > working on all this time. > > Thats my thoughts. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. As I say, > I'm keen to build this, but I'm too old to live on ramen in a granny > shack. This thing we've been working toward has real value, and could > be put to great effect if we can actually make it good. > > -J > > > > [1] https://crypto.cat/documents/report-1213.pdf https://www.opentechfund.org/
