An invitation for the visionaries in Xwiki to talk about the next evolution in global collaboration

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Introduction

Hey all, I’ve started a global initiative called Cocreate Earth, a decentralized movement for facilitating the emergence of collective intelligence in harmony with Earth. This is based on whole systems thinking.
To support that online, I’m comparing open source systems like Xwiki, Tikiwiki, Drupal, Mediawiki, etc, in order to see what best suits the needs for such a global collaboration network.

Potential of Xwiki

I see Xwiki’s potential in that regard in the combination between modularity (like Drupal CMS) as well as the well implemented wiki functionality (which is lacking in Drupal). However, there is more to consider to seriously assess Xwiki as a potential framework for a new way of communicating and collaborating in the next version of human society.

Requirements

For such a very large and decentralized network of connected sites and workspaces, the requirements are different than a regular company or even commercial multinational. I am aware that as good as all commonly known applications for collaboration are still based on the idea of the needs of a capitalistic competitive society, and thus relatively focused on centralized corporate structures. Examples of requirements are:

  • Connectivity - The decentralized structures created, for example interconnected sites need to have access to all information on all (interwiki) sites.

  • Performance - quick page loads regardless of number of concurrent users (think google, etc)

  • Scalability - easily replicate whole structures like workspaces, sites or clusters of sites without performance or user experience issues, or the need for senior developers.

  • Workspaces - users need to be able to create their workspace and assign access rules to it.

  • Users and contacts database system - The idea is to match skills, passions and experiences of people, users and contacts, throughout the whole system. These entries need to have similar access rules if they are part of restricted workspaces.

  • Many to many relationships - Because of the importance of connectivity and the meaning of relationships, Instead of only tags, references or hierarchical taxonomies, all entities in the system (pages, custom content types, users, media, contacts etc) need to have

  • Native mobile app - Since this way of collaboration will become a new lifestyle as being ‘always connected to other collaborators’, a mobile app is a must. Could be a headless mobile implementation of xwiki. The performance and ux of a web based app probably wont be enough.
    Feedback and input channels - Any development in the whole system needs to allow active participation of any user of the system at multiple levels of collaboration.
    Forums - I like Discourse very much, but it means yet another separation from a main system. We could invite the Discourse developers to collaborate on better integration with Xwiki.

  • Community development - A global collaboration system can grow thanks to a growing user base and a thriving community of developers and contributors.

  • Decision making systems - Especially decentralized decision making like Holacracy, Sociocracy, S3.0 etc. To be integrated through API’s or as own version.
    Communication systems - APIs or own implementations of audio/video calling, messaging, etc.

  • Some other potential needs:

    • Rating systems
    • Complementary currency systems
    • Challenges & Ideation system
    • Crowd sourcing
    • Github or similar integration

Invitation to brainstorm

I like to connect with people, especially the founders, core developers and or visionaries of applications like Xwiki, that envision human society to evolve in a more sustainable and decentralized way, supported by systems that primarily are made for that purpose.

If you are interested in, or already working on ideas that correspond with such a future, please let me know, so we may brainstorm about this further, of course in the context of Xwiki as open source project and community, and how Xwiki and/or its connectivity potential can evolve to support and benefit from the current rapid change of human society.

Potential questions to discuss are:

  • Do the current core developers of Xwiki have serious plans to bring Xwiki to the next level in line with future needs, or is it supporting the current user base and corporate wiki purpose?

  • If Xwiki is not intended to support a use case as mentioned above, are there plans to create a new application that comes closer to the needs mentioned above?

  • What is your personal vision or motivation for the next leap in social change, the current global challenges, and how do you like to see things change for the better, with regard to collaboration systems?

  • What is your experience with open source vs commercial applications, and do you believe that a global application system without premium paid modules, but for example with paid support or development, is viable?

  • You think it will benefit the Xwiki growth if there comes more focus on collaboration with other systems (API’s) and system developers (partnerships), in order to prevent isolation of the project?

  • Would it benefit Xwiki, the developers and users of Xwiki, if there are more intentional brainstorms and community input, also inviting other communities, about the overall vision and purpose of Xwiki?

  • Would it be possible to see Xwiki as a community with multiple applications, not only the Xwiki app, that aims to continue develop and change according to the needs of a more interconnected global human civilization?

  • How much are the questions above dependent on the vision, approval and decisions of the founder(s) of Xwiki?