The Edosian Manifesto
This manifesto is still an early draft and pretty incomplete. I'll add stuff soon.
First of all Edosia wants to empower you. How? By offering a no-nonsense place to publish your thoughts and work(s) online. It's a platform all right, but one that intends to set you free instead of locking you in. Your content is yours, and you'll always be able to leave with your data if you should want to. In a nutshell: user-friendly, minimalistic, no branding, opinionated and with open data policy.
Hasn't this been done before I hear you ask? Many times, without doubt. But with Edosia I want to stay away from traditional corporate and/or startup conventions. I made the application to suit my own needs and if it can be of any use to you too, be my guest. If Edosia should ever grow we'll let it evolve into some kind of anarcho-technological entity where all the stakeholders share ownership. I will develop this idea further in a following version of the manifesto.
The platform is in the first place meant for artists. So if you don't consider yourself artist, can it be of any use to you? Well, enhancements to the site will primarily aim at making the online life of artists easier. Publishing and promoting their work, integrating it with mobile technology and with the imminent internet of things. But I believe that anybody will be able to benefit from these tools. And, as Joseph Beuys has stated: everyone is an artist.
In the coming months I will add tools that connect you to existing social media, and empower you for the mobile sphere and for the internet of things. I envision Edosia as a pragmatic way to be intensely connected to the networked space, without losing control on the web.
Kristof Michiels, July 2009