Cool idea from Toxin labs.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-06/st_thompson

This reminded me of an idea I had two years ago, which I called position papers. It was intended as a system to support logical thinking, but pooling the reasoning abilities of multiple individuals, as does Wikipedia.

Not everyone thinks the same way. Of course.

But not everyone disagrees totally.

Wikipedia is great as articles generally tend towards a good, argued, mainstream view of the world. Which is what the mainstream believes. And this is generally not too far from the truth.

But sometimes people differ on particular aspects of the issue, and sometimes the mainstream is wrong.

For example, I might want my Wikipedia to state that UFOs existed and were flying about the earth today, with the covert assistance of, naturally, the US government.

My idea is a system where you can present an argument or fact, and others can add that content into their own wiki/system if they believe
it, ignore it, or flag it as not believed if they so wish. They could incorporate the same material that one persons claims supports their argument, as refuting the argument. Others in the same discussion can accept or refuse material added by other users, wherever they are in the flow of discussion. There is no need for this to be a linear process - information should be able to flow in any direction, from originator of the topic to latest joiners, or vice versa. Each factoid should be atomic, so that all possible permutations of fact and opinion are possible. And so, gradually, you build up a wiki that represents your personal position on a subject, with other interpretations present and flagged as believed or not believed.

As you build up your position paper on an issue, you'll find people who think just like you, and those who don't. Which will make it very easy to sell dating services, target adverts to users, establish terrorist cells or UFO hunting groups.

So there is not one Wikipedia for everyone, there is one Wikipedia for each person.

Cool, if you're a geek and think in terms of logical reasoning. It's just a more personal Wikipedia, where everyone can build his or her own little conceited universe.