===============
Espra Bootstrap
===============
 
A Command Line for the Internet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
:Abstract:
 
    Espra Bootstrap is a meta `mashup
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid)>`_ which glues
    together existing web applications to enable effective collaboration.
 
    This document provides a rough functional overview of Bootstrap.
 
.. contents::   Table of Contents
                :depth: 2
                :backlinks: none
 
 
**Note**:
 
  This document is out of date and is here for historical purposes only. See the
  video on the `Espra — Create Weapons of Mass Construction
  <http://tav.espians.com/espra-create-weapons-of-mass-construction.html>`_
  article for more up-to-date details.
 
---------------
Getting Started
---------------
 
.. image:: http://cloud.github.com/downloads/tav/plexnet/gfx.username-password.png
           :class: float-right
           :alt: Password frustration comic
 
Seeing as how people have enough username/passwords already, they will not be
required to "sign up" to Bootstrap. In fact, they will not even be able to.
Instead, they will be given the option of logging in via:
 
* `Facebook <http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?doc=login_web>`_
* `Google <http://code.google.com/apis/accounts/docs/AuthForWebApps.html>`_ (Gmail or Hosted)
* `OpenID <http://openid.net>`_ (including `Yahoo <http://openid.yahoo.com>`_,
  LiveJournal, &c.)
 
The login box will look something like:
 
.. raw:: html
 
  <blockquote><form>
    <input type="text" id="openid_identifier" name="openid_identifier" />
    <script type="text/javascript" id="__openidselector"
    src="https://www.idselector.com/selector/75286238997cee5972a869db49e21980afa2c673"
    charset="utf-8"></script>
    <input type="submit" value="Login" style="vertical-align: middle;">
  </form></blockquote>
 
.. raw:: html
 
  <strong></strong>
 
Once logged in, the usual basic profile information will be asked of the user --
full name, display name, profile picture, timezone, &c. Some hassle should be
saved if they've used either Facebook or a decent OpenID provider.
 
Users will be able to update the information later in the ``Settings`` pane.
Here, they will also be able to add alternative logins. For example, if they
first logged in via Facebook, they can also add their Gmail account as an
alternative login.
 
At no point will a user's password be stored on Bootstrap. This liability will
be left in the hands of the various identity providers. The respective APIs will
simply be used to authenticate the user.
 
Users will be allowed to have multiple Bootstrap accounts and the interface will
support easily switching between these different accounts -- so as to facilitate
separate online identities for different types of activities.
 
A unique id will be generated for each user and a related subdomain
``<unique-id>.player.espra.com`` created for purposes of security. This may
later be extended to allow users to map their own domains/subdomains onto
Bootstrap.
 
.. Google AuthSub
.. Facebook API
.. OpenID
.. Simple Registration Extension
.. Profile picture handling
.. EntityID type
.. Login type
.. Crypto key generation
.. Many-to-one Mapping of Login->EntityID
.. Settings pane
 
---------
Interface
---------
 
Bootstrap will be primarily accessed through the various web browsers:
 
* Firefox 2+
* IE 7+
* Opera 9+
* Safari 3+
 
The interface will degrade gracefully for most older browsers -- including
text-only console clients like lynx. Special consideration will be given for an
iPhone-specific web interface and accessibility for the visually challenged.
 
The main interface will be a live-updated "Lookout" home screen. This will be
slightly analogous to an IRC chat window or an updated-in-real-time
RecentChanges page on a wiki.
 
A rough layout of the Lookout screen:
 
.. raw:: html
 
  <div class="center">
    <img src="http://cloud.github.com/downloads/tav/plexnet/gfx.espra.screen.2007.jpg"
         alt="Bootstrap Interface" />
  </div>
 
The idea is that users will keep this page open all the time -- much like an
Instant Messaging application. And intelligent use will be made of basic
capabilities of browsers like back, forward and bookmark buttons.
 
The focus will be on an input box at the bottom where users could write messages
and entries. This will have a small drop down box on the side which will allow
them to specify the context(s) of the message.
 
At the very top will be the usual login and settings links. And right below that
will be user-configurable toggle-able buttons which will turn on/off different
elements in the data they are viewing.
 
The core of the layout will be taken up by 2 columns. On the left will be a
drop-down media player and below that the main "application" space. And on the
right will be a search system with configurable filters and application-specific
commands menu below that.
 
By default, the "application" space will show the latest happenings across all
contexts -- a bit like Facebook's Newsfeed. And when users choose specific items
or actions, the application space will change to reflect it but the other
elements would stay put.
 
This means that users could be watching a movie whilst reading up on people's
responses to an unrelated blog entry -- or perhaps even composing an article
themselves. Multi-tasking within the web page.
 
The Media Player will play various media files from the web. Supported file
formats will include:
 
* MP3 (including Internet Radio)
* H.264 (Quicktime, Flash, iPod)
* On2 VP6 (Flash)
* Windows Media Format (Windows Media Player)
* Flash Video (Flash)
* DivX (DivX Web Player)
* Other formats (Mplayer)
* YouTube (YouTube Player using JS & Flash)
 
The exact formats supported will depend on the plugins the user has installed on
their browser. Users will be able to make and share playlists. And generally
use it like a normal desktop media player.
 
Given that users may want to share files with each other -- a special external
Bootstrap client will be provided. This will create a pseudo peer-to-peer
network amongst the various users using some of the features from the `Plexnet
<http://tav.espians.com/plexnet.html>`_.
 
Support for this client will be auto-detected when users connect to Bootstrap
and taken advantage of if available. For example, it can be used to cache the
media files the user is viewing so that the user can watch them again without
having to repeatedly download the files.
 
The external client will also gradually support additional functionality, e.g.
encoding media files in HD quality, access to remote Airtunes speakers, or
providing location awareness if the user wants to provide it to enable the use
of location-based services.
 
Offline access to Bootstrap's functionality and data -- that is, ability for a
user to use Bootstrap whilst offline -- will also be supported via this external
client. This same functionality will act as the mechanism for users to
export/backup their personal data from Bootstrap.
 
If time permits this client may also be developed for Firefox, Nokia S60,
Android, Pre and Blackberry platforms in addition to the default Windows, OS X
and Linux ones.
 
----------
Trust Maps
----------
 
.. image:: http://cloud.github.com/downloads/tav/plexnet/gfx.trust-maps-mary.png
           :alt: Trust Maps -- Trusting Mary in the context of Cars
           :class: float-right
           :width: 352
           :height: 321
 
Users will be able to add others to their "Trust Map". This is just specifying
who and in what contexts and level limit -- a bit like following someone on
Twitter. The context is pretty simple and should be familiar as "tags" to users
of sites like `Delicious <http://del.icio.us>`_ and `Flickr
<http://www.flickr.com>`_.
 
Example contexts might include:
 
* Architecture
* Electronic Music
* Microcredit
* Javascript
* French Cuisine
 
Whilst people will be free to use contexts as they like, convergence will be
encouraged through the use of relations which people can specify. Relationships
between contexts are limited to the basic:
 
* Equivalent
* Broader
* Narrower
 
Contexts will be normalised since computers can't by default tell the difference
between cases across different languages, e.g. "Straßenfest" will become
"strassenfest". Users will also be encouraged to specify a qualifier for
contexts, e.g. ``Animal/Jaguar`` or ``Car/Jaguar`` instead of just ``Jaguar``.
 
The level limit will act as an additional filter for information flow through
the various Trust Maps. It will set a maximum depth to which a user is willing
to accept another's information flow.
 
Adding people to a Trust Map is referred to as "Alignment" and not all alignment
needs to be public. A special "Connection" alignment will be provided to allow
people to add others to their Trust Maps privately. A special personal
blacklisting feature will also be supported which will block any flow from
blacklisted users to the specific user.
 
Users will be able to take advantage of relationships they've already
established on other services, e.g. Flickr, Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, &c. And
as they increasingly use Bootstrap, recommendations will be made relating to
their Trust Maps.
 
.. Trust Horizon -- 1, 2, -1
.. Private Connections
 
-----
Items
-----
 
Much like wiki pages are the heart of `Wikipedia <http://www.wikipedia.org>`_,
"Items" will be the heart of Bootstrap. There will be a handful of different
Item types:
 
* Message
* Action
* Question
* Answer
* Pecu Allocation
* Transaction
* Requirement
* Shaila
* Text
 
All items will be automatically versioned. All unmarked previous versions will
be deleted when regular "compacting" processes are run.
 
The default Item type will be **Message** -- a single text input -- much like
`Twitter <http://www.twitter.com>`_ -- with a context. This is the default type
for replies/comments to other Items. **Action** will be the same with an
additional time scope/limit field.
 
Users will also be able to ask specific **Questions** which could have
structured **Answers**. These answers could be free form, boolean (yes/no) or
multiple choice, e.g Conservative, Labour, Liberal. This will allow for easily
analysable data to be gathered.
 
  *Some default sections will be automatically generated from free form
  questions, e.g. "What do you have to offer?", "Where are you now?", &c.*
 
The **Pecu Allocation** type will be like a Message with the additional fields:
 
* Amount
* Valid until
 
This will be used by users to allocate pecus (personal economic currency units)
-- a form of reputation currency -- to others. Pecu allocations cannot be
traded, but will be used as part of many transactions and decision making
processes.
 
The **Transaction** type reflects the basic transaction record in `double-entry
accounting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping_system>`_.
Amongst other things, it could be used to facilitate and record the trade of
resources between users. Unlike most other types which, when created, stay
within just the user's namespace, Transaction items will be signed and copied to
all involved parties.
 
The **Requirement** type will be a special type which can be placed as a
"requisite" in front/after other types. The type will define a set of boolean
parameters -- which, when fulfilled -- will either trigger the publishing of a
predefined Item or make a service call.
 
This can be used for many interesting purposes. For example, one could use it to
ensure that certain criteria are fulfilled -- by the answering of Questions by
others in specific ways -- before money is released via a Transaction. In this
way specific types like Contracts no longer become necessary.
 
Reuirement types will be able to leverage the various Trust Map calculations
too. And a default setup will be provided which allow users to specify
permissive Transactions when users match certain percentiles for a given
Context.
 
User could also attach Requirements to a specific context so that whenever Items
matching certain patterns are received from others via the Trust Map, certain
services can be called.
 
**Shailas** will be used as contextual "summaries". They will allow a running
summary of dialogue and action to be kept. The interface for creating shailas
will allow the user to also specify which Items have been incorporated into the
Shaila.
 
The aim here will be to avoid the needless repetition that usually takes place
across forums and mailing lists and encourage living summaries. Shailas could
also be used as guides to introduce people to new spaces. The art of hosting
taken virtual.
 
The **Text** type will be very similar to a Message but instead of the default
input format which accepts a combination of Rich Text and HTML, users will be
able to specify any one of the supported formats on the opening line, e.g.
 
::
 
  #! markdown
 
The initially supported formats will include:
 
* css: Cascading Style Sheets
* genshi: `Genshi <http://genshi.edgewall.org/>`_ Templates
* html: Raw HTML
* markdown: `Markdown <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>`_
* naaga: Capability-secured Services
* rst: `Restructured Text <http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html>`_
* text: Rich Text + HTML subset
 
The Naaga format would be in a secure subset of the `Python
<http://www.python.org>`_ 3.0 Syntax. It will be compiled into Python 2.6 syntax
for backend services and to Javascript syntax for browser/interface services.
Besides unifying backend and frontend services to a simple syntax, Naaga's key
features will be the builtin support for:
 
* Capability security
* Functional reactive liveness with automatic dependency chaining
* Rich builtin namespace
 
Variable substitution will be supported in some of the formats with banana
brackets, e.g. ``(|first_name|)``. This will allow Items to be used as Templates
which, as `Wikipedia has proven
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages>`_, could be quite
useful.
 
Web links in all Items will be automatically extracted and queryable. Special
syntax will be supported for wiki-style \[[plex links]] which could be used to
refer to contexts, items and some structured data, e.g. price, geo-location,
date/time, &c.
 
Curly brackets will be used to include the contents of an Item within another --
a form of `transclusion <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion>`_. Specific
sections of an Item could be referred to if it has named sections, e.g.
 
::
 
  {{some-item#some-section-name}}
 
The same syntax can be used to include outputs from Naaga services, which are
addressed by a leading .dot, e.g. a currency conversion of 25 pounds sterling to
dollars could use the ``.convert`` service::
 
  {{.convert 25 GBP to USD}}
 
Output could be piped from one service to another in a manner similar to UNIX
using the universal pipe symbol: ``|``. Service output could also be seen
directly -- a bit like using IRC bots like `phenny
<http://inamidst.com/phenny/>`_ -- if users start their Messages with a dot
(call to a backend service) or an exclamation mark (call to a frontend service),
e.g.
 
::
 
  !pause
 
Bootstrap will be built on a true `capability-based security system
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability-based_security>`_ and will be secured
from traditional Web attack vectors in HTML/CSS/Javascript:
 
* `XSS <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting>`_
* `CSRF <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSRF>`_
* `Dom Injection <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting#DOM-based>`_
 
Users will be able to refer to all items published by themselves under the
special `tilde
<http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/10/04/history_of_the_tilde>`_ (``~``)
namespace. For example, to refer to this item, I could use
``~/articles/eapra-bootstrap.html``.
 
Items will be automatically given a unique ID and be accessible under the
special item namespace, e.g. ``~/item/<unique-id>``. Users will also be able to
give an item a specific name if they so choose.
 
Whilst ``/`` can be included in these names, in reality it will be a flat
namespace and there will be no directories involved. Prefix matching will be
supported though -- and this could be used to give the semblance of directory
support if wanted.
 
.. Quick Notes to Self
.. Commenting -- as Messages in "link" contexts
 
-----------------
External Services
-----------------
 
Bootstrap will enable users to aggregate their activites on various web
services. The following services will be integrated given their utility and
widespread usage.
 
Aggregators:
 
* `FriendFeed <http://friendfeed.com>`_
* `Google Reader <http://www.google.com/reader>`_
 
Books:
 
* `Amazon Wishlists <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/wishlist/>`_
 
Classifieds:
 
* `Craigslist <http://www.craigslist.org>`_
 
Commerce:
 
* `Amazon <http://www.amazon.com>`_
* `eBay <http://www.ebay.com>`_
* `Google Base <http://www.google.com/base>`_
* `Paypal <http://www.paypal.com>`_
 
Events:
 
* `Dopplr <http://www.dopplr.com>`_
* `Facebook Events <http://www.facebook.com/events.php>`_
* `Google Calendar <http://www.google.com/calendar>`_
* `Meetup <http://www.meetup.com>`_
* `Upcoming <http://upcoming.yahoo.com>`_
 
Feeds:
 
* `Atom <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard)>`_ Feeds
* `ICAL <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar>`_ Feeds
* `RSS <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS>`_ Feeds -- including `Podcasts
  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast>`_, `GeoRSS
  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoRSS>`_, &c.
 
File Sharing:
 
* `Box.net <http://www.box.net>`_
 
Links:
 
* `Delicious <http://del.icio.us>`_
* `Digg <http://www.digg.com>`_
* `Google Shared Stuff <http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff>`_
* `Reddit <http://www.reddit.com>`_
 
Location
 
* `Fireeagle <http://fireeagle.yahoo.net>`_
* `Plazes <http://www.plazes.com>`_
 
Mail:
 
* `Gmail <http://mail.google.com>`_
* `Yahoo Mail <http://mail.yahoo.com>`_
 
Mailing lists (Public Only):
 
* `Google groups <http://groups.google.com>`_
* `Yahoo groups <http://groups.yahoo.com>`_
 
Maps:
 
* `Google Maps <http://maps.google.com>`_
* `Yahoo Maps <http://maps.yahoo.com>`_
 
Movies:
 
* `Netflix <http://www.netflix.com>`_
 
Music:
 
* `iLike <http://www.ilike.com>`_
* `Last.fm <http://last.fm>`_
 
Open Source Development:
 
* `GitHub <http://www.github.com>`_
 
Photos:
 
* `Facebook Photos <http://www.facebook.com/photos.php>`_
* `Flickr <http://www.flickr.com>`_
 
Presentations:
 
* `SlideShare <http://www.slideshare.net>`_
 
Publishing:
 
* `Blogger <http://www.blogger.com>`_
* `Disqus <http://www.disqus.com>`_
* `Livejournal <http://www.livejournal.com>`_
* `Tumblr <http://www.tumblrcom>`_
* `Twitter <http://www.twitter.com>`_
* `Wordpress <http://www.wordpress.com>`_
 
Reference
 
* `Wikipedia <http://www.wikipedia.org>`_
 
Search:
 
* `Google Search <http://www.google.com>`_
* `Yahoo BOSS <http://developer.yahoo.com/boss>`_
* `Yahoo Search <http://search.yahoo.com>`_
 
Social Networks:
 
* `Bebo <http://www.bebo.com>`_
* `Facebook Connect <http://www.facebook.com>`_
* `Hi5 <http://www.hi5.com>`_
* `imeem <http://www.imeem.com>`_
* `LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com>`_
* `MySpace <http://www.myspace.com>`_
* `Ning <http://www.ning.com>`_
* `Orkut <http://www.orkut.com>`_
 
Video:
 
* `Seesmic <http://www.seesmic.com>`_
* `Vimeo <http://www.vimeo.com>`_
* `Youtube <http://www.youtube.com>`_
 
Virtual World:
 
* `Second Life <http://www.secondlife.com>`_
 
VoIP:
 
* `Skype <http://www.skype.com>`_
 
.. Of special inclusion will be the lovely popurls and hype machine services.
 
Some of `these other services
<http://movers20.esnips.com/TableStatAction.ns?reportId=100>`_ may be included
depending on time.
 
-------------
Functionality
-------------
 
**Certification**
 
All items -- whether created by a user or from one of the external services --
could be certified by a user within particular contexts. The default mode of
certification will be to give a "thumbs up" -- sort of like giving a +1 on Digg
or re-tweeting on Twitter.
 
Similarly, users will able to certify other users as one of the following for a
given context:
 
* Novice
* Apprentice
* Journeyman
* Master
 
Together, this will hopefully help identify the most reliable, useful and
relevant person or item for any given context.
 
Information will flow through Trust Maps as the main communications medium
within Bootstrap. This means that only those who are aligned to a user in a
particular context -- i.e. have the user in their Trust Map -- will receive
messages/items from them.
 
Fundamentally, when things are certified, it will act as a promotion of them
above others. The exact additional weighting a certification gets will decrease
the further away from a user's direct Trust Map someone is.
 
For example, if Matt has Katy and Indy in his Trust Map for Architecture. Katy
has just Alice and Indy has both Alice and David in theirs, then one can imagine
that the relative weight of certifications for Matt will be biased in the
following order: Katy/Indy then Alice then David. Alice will have a greater
influence than David as she is in both Katy and Indy's Trust Maps whilst David
is only in Indy's.
 
**Auto Certification**
 
When adding others to a Trust Map, users will be able to specify whether they
want to auto-accept certifications from them. If so, a user will automatically
certify in the same way as that person.
 
This will be combined with the Requirement item to create rather useful systems,
e.g. `Liquid Democracy-based <http://wiki.uniteddiversity.com/liquiddemocracy>`_
decision making for the Commons.
 
**Direct Communication**
 
There will initially be no explicit support for one-to-one communications within
Bootstrap. We already have excellent communications channels for that:
 
* Face to Face!
* Phone
* E-mail
* VoIP (Skype/SIP)
 
These will be promoted for occasions when direct personal communication is
needed. The lack of direct communications channels is not seen as a major
problem since Trust Maps are transitive.
 
If time allows, direct communication will be supported with the addition
of a default payment Requirement. That is, unless a person is in an individual's
Trust Map, they will have to make a payment to the user in order to send a
direct message.
 
The exact amount will be configurable by the user. With this simple addition,
Bootstrap users will hopefully be saved from the hassles of spam as spammers
will now have to either be legitimate or spend money.
 
**Views**
 
On the Lookout page, by default, items will be sorted by most recent and will
come from contexts in which the user has most recently been active. That is, in
contexts the user has most recently done a lot of Actions in.
 
Users will be able to use the configurable filter system on the page to look at
specific contexts. Or even to drill down to only certain Items from specific
users in specific contexts containing specific words...
 
A given set of filters will be called "Views" and these could be saved for quick
browsing later on. Views will be shown as a list by default but different
templates could be applied -- with some builtin ones being:
 
* Google Map Template
* Calendar Template
 
Users will be able to create new templates as Text items and share those along
with the views if they wish. Views could be ordered in 2 separate ways: by most
recent or most relevant.
 
When sorted by most recent/buoyant items, the search results would behave like a
news site like Digg. And when sorted by most relevant, the results would become
a bit like Google search results.
 
And in both cases the results would reflect the user's personal perspective (via
their Trust Map) -- as opposed to the current sites where a global perspective
would be generally provided.
 
When viewing the most recent items, the view will switch to a "live update" mode
and the items in the view will get updated without the user having to constantly
refresh the page. This will allow the view to be used much like a chat channel.
 
**Global View**
 
Once logged in, a user's perspective will be entirely influenced by their Trust
Map. However, for the purposes of general browsing, discovery and indexing by
search engines, a "Global View" will be presented.
 
Bootstrap deployments will be able to specify certain users as "seed" users. The
collective Trust Maps of these users will be used to present a generic global
perspective to any anonymous user.
 
Only those adequately "near" the seed users -- in the varying contexts -- will
be represented in this global view. This is to ensure that spammers won't get
coverage. Legitimate users will be expected to be represented in the global view
with time as Trust Maps expand.
 
All published user material will however be accessible from their unique
subdomain at all times. But this will have a ``robots.txt`` file denying access
to search engines to ensure that spammers won't get to abuse Bootstrap.
 
**Quota**
 
Seeing as Bootstrap will be centralised, resources will be limited. Thus
specific user quotas will have to be set. There will be support for monitoring
the resource usage by users and keeping them within the quota limits.
 
This will also be tied to an "invite" service where existing users could invite
others to join the service. This will allow for the gradual ramp-up of Bootstrap
deployments as new servers are resourced.
 
**Crypto Services**
 
Some useful generic crypto services will be provided for use in applications:
 
* Time-stamping
* Random Number Generation
* Blinded Signatures
* Election by Lottery
 
**Aditional External Services Support**
 
Bootstrap will obviously support RSS feeds. But given the number of users still
using email, mail in and mail out will also be fully integrated. People will be
able to post items, receive items and reply to items using email. This will be a
bit like ad-hoc mailing lists.
 
The same will apply to SMS which will be limited by user quotas. The extent of
the integration will be limited to the activites which can be handled within the
message size limits of SMS txts.
 
Some of the functionality from the external services listed above will be
integrated in the items stream of Bootstrap. Notable amongst this will be:
Google Maps, Paypal and Skype.
 
A special "clusters" mode will be implemented for Google Maps which will allow
for the grouping of pointers on Maps -- so as to improve usability and minimise
load times.
 
Paypal will be closely integrated with the Transaction type so that users can
pay and receive money from each other using Paypal if they wish. Likewise, Skype
will be closely integrated so that collaborators can easily make conference
calls.
 
**Annotation**
 
Annotation will be natively supported in the user interface to enable users to
"deep tag" resources -- whether it be text, video or structured data. If time
allows, this will be extended to allow for rich media features like subtitling
and translations.
 
**External Applications**
 
Users can currently install applications on their desktop which will associate
themselves with certain file types. For example, if you access a spreadsheet
file on the web, it may open it within Microsoft Excel. This is done using
something called "Content Type".
 
Bootstrap will enable users to register any supported **web** application as a
handler for specific content types. This will mean that users will be able to
choose their preferred **web** application for the purposes of handing different
content.
 
Want to use the ACME Image Editor web app? Sure. Prefer the Photoshop.com Image
Editor web app? Sure. The choice will be in the hands of the users. Data
security will be maintained at all times -- enabled by `OAuth
<http://www.oauth.net>`_ and friends.
 
**Collaborative Editing**
 
Paragraph-based `collaborative editing
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_editing>`_ -- that is, simultaneous
live editing of Text items -- will be supported for a maximum of 4 users per
item and a single session per user. Whilst limited, this will hopefully be
better for collaboration within small teams than emailing documents back and
forth.
 
All items will be auto-saved as "drafts" if not published within 30 seconds.
This will be to help in the case of unavoidable circumstances like power
failures or browser crashes.
 
**Internationalisation**
 
In the spirit of catering to the global internet audience, all textual content
will be stored as `Unicode <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode>`_ and the
backend will be fully internationalised from the start. This will include
support for bi-directional scripts, date/time rendering and upper/lower case
handling.
 
**API**
 
A `RESTful <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer>`_ API
using `JSON <http://www.json.org/>`_ will be supported for most of the
functionality provided by Bootstrap. And third-party developers will be
encouraged to use the given functionality within their given applications.
 
A generic bookmarklet will available for users to easily publish items from
their web browser. And an embeddable widget will allow users to configure and
republish their activities on Bootstrap on their own websites/blogs.
 
**Data Mining/Visualisation**
 
In addition to the usual logging that will take place for purposes of site usage
analytics, some extensive logging of service usage will also occur. This will
cover things like commons usage, items usage and contextual activity. This could
be used for the purposes of commons contribution for gift economies or
micro-patronage.
 
Detailed coverage of engagement metrics will be available for users to make
evaluations on the effectiveness of their content and actions. The aim is for
this to be a key part of the feedback loop that influences people's activities
in a beneficial manner.
 
A generic visualisation framework will be available that will allow users to
easily create and configure visualisations of activity within their "network".
For example, a visualisation could easily be created that shows the most active
people in your Trust Map over the last 6 months for a given context.
 
Of course, user privacy will be respected as appropriate.