Encyclosphere

From HandWiki

The encyclosphere is a universal network of encyclopedias[1] that gives an equal voice in expressing knowledge, and in rating those expressions of knowledge. The encyclosphere is not an encyclopedia; rather, it is a network of encyclopedic content. The encyclosphere is to encyclopedias what the blogosphere is to blogs.

The encyclosphere is being brought into existence by the Knowledge Standards Foundation, which will facilitate the creation of the necessary standards. The encyclosphere was invented in response to problems with biased opinions in Wikipedia[2].

Encyclosphere
An incomplete sphere made.
The logo of Encyclosphere of the Knowledge Standards Foundation
Screenshot
Type of site
Distributed networking
Headquarters
 United States
OwnerKnowledge Standards Foundation
Created by
Websiteencyclosphere.org
CommercialNo
LaunchedOctober 15, 2020; 3 years ago (2020-10-15)
Current statusActive

Proposed concept

As it is planned, the encyclosphere will allow writers and publishers to post feeds of encyclopedia articles (or metadata about articles, and ratings of articles). App developers would be able to collect the data from all of those feeds and use the data to construct massive search engines, and other neat features, for all the encyclopedia articles in the world. No one app would be privileged, but all would tap into—and help build—a “knowledge commons.” Ultimately there would be a massive knowledge competition to best express human knowledge on every topic and from every point of view.

  • Writers should be able to publish their own articles wherever and whenever they want, without asking anyone.
  • Raters—the general public, including people identified as experts—should be able to rate those articles.
  • The data for both articles and ratings are published according to standards, or a single common format, in a feed, similar to an RSS feed.
  • Users should be able to sort and re-sort articles according to all ratings, or selected ratings.
  • The control over whose ratings to pay attention to should always be in the hands of the user.
  • The data is slurped up and aggregated into different databases, including distributed databases such as IPFS, and open APIs.
  • Many competing apps, all around the world, use the aggregated data to build encyclopedia readers according to their own editorial standards. The Foundation’s technical standards will be completely neutral with regard to such editorial standards.

Encyclosphere projects

In Dec 2022, the Encyclosphere had the following projects:

  • EncycloReader [3] a web designed for reading multiple online encyclopedias
  • Encyclosearch[4] - an open-source encyclopedia search engine.
  • FactSeek [5] - search multiple free online encyclopedias at once.
  • Minifeed [6] - control your social media data.
  • Decentralizers [7] blog focused on the technology of decentralization

Encyclosphere also runs the peer-to-peer (P2P) network based on the Hypercore Protocol. Articles viewed in EncycoReader are sent to this network and can be shared.

External links

Official website

References

  1. The official web page of encyclosphere.org. https://encyclosphere.org/ (retrieved Dec 2020)
  2. Larry Sanger, Introducing the Encyclosphere https://larrysanger.org/2019/10/introducing-the-encyclosphere/ (retrieved Nov 2020).
  3. EncycloReader https://encycloreader.org/
  4. EncycloSearch https://encyclosearch.org/
  5. FactSeek https://factseek.org/
  6. Minifeed https://minifeed.org/
  7. Decentralizers.org https://decentralizers.org/