Editing Consumerium:Retrospection

===Original concept implementation plans===

The original design paradigm dates back to 2001 when [[User:Juxo|Juxo]] had no knowledge of the existence of such ''collaborative editing software'' such as ''[[wiki]]'' and the original plan was to 

*Use [[XML]] for both ''facts'' and ''opinions'' to keep it human readable and editable to avoid becoming too ''technocratic''
::Since then, wikis have proven that large numbers of people can adopt and use even a fairly complex [[wikitext standard]], but much fewer have proven able to write XML.

*Keep Consumerium workable by applying strong algorithmic checks on insertion of data.
::This [[permission-based model]] is not the [[wiki way]];  the [[large public wiki]]s all became large by relying on "fast [[revert]]" of [[vandalism]] and some process of dealing with [[trolls]] - although most do that rather badly;  Division into [[Signal Wiki]] (strict) and [[Research Wiki]] (looser) may serve to allow for the open-ness and the strictness in different forums.

*Store historical data ''persistently'' so that later on ''trends'' could be discovered from the functioning of [[Consumerium Services]] mostly [[The Consumerium Exchange]] which is a metaphor for a place where [[NGO]]s can bring their [[campaigns]] to see which campaign and which [[campaigner]]s have the broadest support
::This could provide lots of [[use case]]s for testing too, a whole [[test suite]] of [[user story]] fragments.

*The distiction between [[core data]] (in centralized databases, verified by "staff" or some trusted [[faction]], and used to generate the [[Consumerium buying signal]]) and [[scatter data]] where the only required information to be inserted into the system would be the [[URI]] to fetch the data. This was sort of to allow [[free circulation of fiction]] as "external" or "scattered" XML could be delivered and parsed for the [[Consumer]]

*Distinguish presentation of information onto a program called the [[Consumer Agent]] from the storage

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===On data format===
Later this ''"use XML for everything"'' was revised to store facts in a wiki called the Signal/[[Content Wiki]] to distinguish from this R&D wiki and store Campaign/Research/[[campaign|opinions]] in [[XML]] grammar called [[ConsuML]] for [[The Consumerium Exchange]]

===On user interface (UI)===
Laziness and general lack of algorithmitically competent developers led to the [[UI]] being done by (X)HTML rather then the dedicated [[Consumer Agent]]

===On automated data aggregation===
Even later on this was revised to utilise [[wiki code]] for almost everything as [[The Consumerium Exchange]] gave way for [[Opinion Wiki]] where opinions could persist and thru strict syntax rules data could be propagated into a view by code plugged into a [[MediaWiki modifications|modified mediawiki software]]

===Relation to [[Wikimedia]] projects===

Recently the [[consumerium]] [[trolls|house trolls]] have been on the war path with [[Wikipedia]] that a long time ago was designated as a reference point for keeping facts as facts and not allowing every rumor to persist as a fact.  If [[Wikimedia]] develops that discipline, that would be good, but it doesn't have it now.   The [[GFDL text corpus]] as a whole still usually has one good article on any key issue.  Trying to duplicate encyclopedia and dictionary functions would lead to ''information inflation'' wherein [[Consumerium]] loses it's [[trust]] it may sometime have had.  The [[Simple English Wikipedia]] was a potential ally, then maybe not, and it's hard to tell where that project is going, since it is not using a [[vocabulary]] rich enough to discuss the kind of moral decision issues covered in the [[glossary]].  ''At least [[2000 words of English]] are required for this, and "SEW" is now using only 1000, which is not even good enough for translation.''

===On software===

Also the implementation of the [[Python]] programming language on smartphones is directing our attention towards [[Alternate wiki-implementations]], mainly [[MoinMoin]] which is modular in it's design and written in Python.  It may be useful also to settle on one [[mobile device vendor]] at least for the [[pilot project]].