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Revision as of 21:49, 14 December 2003

Fair trade, political consumerism and moral purchasing trends are coming together to create what we call moral purchasing power:

Consumerium is a not-for-profit project to focus that power. We are collaborating under the GFDL license, to design a healthy buying infrastructure. We are identifying hardware requirements for storage, transport and display of varying levels of product information to consumers at the point of purchase. We hope to be part of an evolving healthy signal infrastructure that all essential projects can participate in.

Q: Will every element of this be free software?

Not necessarily. Free software and open source models have problems especially when they have to work together all over the planet at once, where strong self-interest is involved, and where many entities may have incentives to skew the data. A Consumerium Governance Organization may also develop or aggregate "non-free" software to assist in the compilation and validation of information to guide purchasing. For integrity reasons and to prevent bad copies and misleading competitors, this may require a more specific Consumerium License regime. We reserve the right to use your contribution to achieve the general goals of Consumerium, and the discussions remain GFDL.

Q: What exactly will this look like to me as an end user?

A: here's our best current guess:

Our front end will be seen by the end user as a red/yellow/green light traffic-type signal, or as a score easily translated into a price premium, or as a note in Simple English about issues with, or merits of, the product. Release of this advice is keyed to bar codes.

Q: How will this data be updated to the users' device?

There are several ways to connect back to front end: we may rely on frequently updated data embedded in hand-held devices, and/or dynamic retrieval via short-range wireless to the shelf front. Where possible, reasons for making buying decisions, or refusing a certain product, will go as feedback to the producers.

Q: How will this data be kept accurate?

Our back end relies on opinion wiki comments compiled by software using a wikitext standard. Semantic link standards may be required also. To work out the conventions and issues involved, we are working through a wiki in the R&D phase.

This is that wiki. We invite you to participate by editing proposals and discussions below. Any page can be edited by anyone, or restored to a previous state by anyone, which is the convention we assume will also apply in operation:

Selected articles

Looking for info on companies and products now? - Planned Features to The Consumer - Consumerium Services
Opinion Wiki - Content Wiki - The Consumerium Exchange - Current Design Paradigm - Essential projects
Fairtrade On Demand, Consumerium User Stories

New to Consumerium or Wiki?

Ready to contribute?

Other

Use w:Wikipedia to link to http://www.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia (and m: to meta). Avoid unnecessary replicating, we're in the GFDL part of the world after all :)

_{Thanks to http://pingviini.net for hosting us. Thanks to http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net for this great Wiki software}

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 __NOTOC__
-[[Consumerium]] is a not-for-profit project, being designed under [[GFDL]] [[licences|license]], to develop [[w:free software|free software]] and [[Hardware Requirements|infrastructure]] for storage, transport and display of varying levels of [[Features|product information]] to [[consumer]]s at the [[point of purchase]].
-Major activism trends to promote [[fair trade]] and [[political consumerism]] are driving several [[essential projects]] that are trying to make [[moral purchasing]] more accessible.
+[[Fair trade]], [[political consumerism]] and [[moral purchasing]] trends are coming together to create what we call '''''[[moral purchasing power]]''''':
-Consumerium hopes to focus this [[moral purchasing power]] to keep this planet as hospitable as possible for life by enabling people to detect and act on negative and positive cycles all over the world.
+[[Consumerium]] is a not-for-profit project to focus that power.  We are collaborating under the [[GFDL]] [[licences|license]], to design a [[healthy buying infrastructure]].  We are identifying [[hardware requirements]] for storage, transport and display of varying levels of [[features|product information]] to [[consumer]]s at the [[point of purchase]].  We hope to be part of an evolving [[healthy signal infrastructure]] that all [[essential projects]] can participate in.
+Q: Will every element of this be [[free software]]?
+:Not necessarily.  Free software and open source models have problems especially when they have to work together all over the planet at once, where strong self-interest is involved, and where many entities may have incentives to skew the data.  A [[Consumerium Governance Organization]] may also develop or aggregate "non-free" software to assist in the compilation and validation of information to guide purchasing.  For integrity reasons and to prevent bad copies and misleading competitors, this may require a more specific [[Consumerium License]] regime.  We reserve the right to use your contribution to achieve the general goals of Consumerium, and the discussions remain GFDL.
+Q:  What exactly will this look like to me as an end user?
+A: here's our best current guess:
+:Our front end will be seen by the [[end user]] as a [[red light|red]]/[[yellow light|yellow]]/[[green light]] traffic-type signal, or as a [[score]] easily translated into a [[price premium]], or as a note in [[Simple English]] about issues with, or merits of, the product.  Release of this advice is keyed to [[bar code]]s.
+Q: How will this data be updated to the users' device?
+:There are several ways to connect back to front end:  we may rely on frequently updated data embedded in hand-held devices, and/or dynamic retrieval via [[short-range wireless]] to the shelf front.  Where possible, reasons for making buying decisions, or refusing a certain product, will go as [[feedback]] to the [[producer]]s.
+Q: How will this data be kept accurate?
+:Our back end relies on [[opinion wiki]] comments compiled by software using a [[wikitext standard]].  [[Semantic link]] standards may be required also.  To work out the conventions and issues involved, we are working through a wiki in the R&D phase.
+''This'' is that wiki.  We invite you to participate by editing proposals and discussions below.  Any page can be edited by anyone, or restored to a previous state by anyone, which is the convention we assume will also apply in operation:
 <center>
 ===Selected articles===
-'''On Consumerium''' - '''[[Features|Planned Features]]''' - '''[[Consumerium Services]]''' - '''[[Opinion Wiki]]''' - '''[[Content Wiki]]''' - '''[[Design paradigm|Current Design Paradigm]]'''<br>
+'''[[Links|Looking for info on companies and products now?]]''' - '''[[Features|Planned Features to The Consumer]]''' - '''[[Consumerium Services]]'''<br>'''[[Opinion Wiki]]''' - '''[[Content Wiki]]''' - '''[[The Consumerium Exchange]]''' - '''[[Design paradigm|Current Design Paradigm]]''' - '''[[Essential projects]]'''<br>
-'''Links''' - '''[[Links|Looking for info on companies and products now?]]''' - '''[[Essential projects]]'''<br>
+'''[[Fairtrade On Demand]]''', '''[[Consumerium User Stories]]'''
-'''Misc.''' - '''[[Fairtrade On Demand]]''', '''[[Consumerium User Stories]]'''
 </center>
 ----
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 <td>
 ===New to Consumerium or Wiki?===
-* [[Brief introduction]] [[(NEW)]]
 * [[Consumerium:Welcome, newcomers|Welcome, newcomers]]
 * [[Motivation]]

Revision as of 21:49, 14 December 2003

Selected articles

New to Consumerium or Wiki?

Ready to contribute?

Links

Software

Hardware

Other