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Javul.org: Introduction

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet appeared on Reddit for a Q/A session. A user asked him “Hi! What's the best thing to come from the Internet?” and he responded: “The spirit of global collaboration among all the people working on it.”

Javul is a hungarian word which means “to improve”. The name was chosen because of its meaning, its short and the domain was available. This name is tentative and can be changed later if needed.

What is the world that we want to live in and how do we get there? If everyone thought about this question on a regular basis and made efforts related to it, humans would be in a better situation than they are today.

The basic idea behind the Javul project is community-based problem-solving assisted by technology. People have been solving problems for a long time. This project’s goal is to use technology to bring people together and make it easier and more effective to solve problems in society of any kind. Human welfare is the primary goal. Similar to open-source software which is maintained by volunteers and subject-level experts, Javul would help to create an ‘open-source society’ in which anyone can contribute.

It is suggested that all the documentation about Javul should be read carefully forming opinions about the project. It should also be kept in mind that the same improvement tools and mechanisms provided by the project will be used to improve the project itself and its features. Therefore nothing written here is fixed. To be more useful, intuitive and easy to use, the project may need more or less complexity than what is observed in the first version of the site. It may need significant improvement to be of any use at all. Using the tools provided by the project, people can create suggestions on how to improve the project, what goals and policies to create, what features to add, remove or change so it is always undergoing constant improvement using its own features. There is also a section near the end that addresses criticisms of the project.

The contents of these pages may be long but they have no difficult or complex ideas. The concepts are very simple and intuitive. Many of them are not new but have been taken from existing situations. It is easy to talk about ideas like this. The difficult part is an actual successful implementation of this project and it is the only criteria by which the success of this project should be judged. Currently the project’s implementation is very simple. It will need to keep evolving for greater effectiveness and impact.

Background

Technology and internet is already being used by different websites like Wikipedia (readers and editors), Ebay (buyers and sellers), Reddit (entertainment), Facebook and Twitter (social media). In these websites people connect from all over the world for different reasons. The closest example is Wikipedia where volunteer editors work on a source of free knowledge used by all. Its the 6th most popular website in the world. These websites provide inspiration for the Javul project. There are some other existing websites like Kickstarter (raising money), CUUSOO (product designs) and others but none of them provide the planned functionalities of Javul.org.

Problems We Face Today

Here are some of the major problems that we face. They are complex, high-level problems that have detrimental effects on multiple levels and are the root cause of many other problems:

1. Inefficient or corrupt governments
2. Organizations/Corporations/Industries operating sub-optimally/inefficiently or controlling and manipulating the system for maximum profit with minimum concern for customer satisfaction.
3. Bad/dysfunctional parenting
4. International and regional hostilities
5. Environmental damage
6. Poor management and/or uncontrolled usage of Earth’s resources

With regards to governments, we have to create new ways that society can use to manage itself and with regards to organizations, we have to create better ways of making products and services.

Many solutions depend on solving problems #1 and 2. We have to start tackling all these problems gradually, starting with #1. These problems have deep and wide-spread roots and resolving them in any significant way will take a long time. However we have to remember that there are brilliant and capable people with good intentions who are wanting to help if given the opportunity.