[Search-l] Information wants to be _found_

[jer]

The timing of all this is a bit eerie, it was exactly eight years ago  
today that I announced Jabber (on /.) and now here I am again even  
more excited than I was then.  A few weeks ago I finally began  
sending around to friends a few early drafts of Atlas (the project's  
code name), and the overlap in vision with what Jimbo has spoke of is  
astounding and motivating. I don't think it's coincidence, it's just  
the right time for this.

I don't believe there is another single magic search algorithm or new  
breakthrough technique that will define the next generation of  
search, instead it's all of them working together and each doing  
their own part best in an open and transparent way. I'm going to take  
a strong starting position in my contribution to the overall ideals,  
I want to personally help establish a simple and powerful foundation  
of protocols. A core syntax and set of languages that everyone can  
speak, and much like a wiki, designed to evolve adapt and grow openly.

The Internet itself is a very simple set of rules and basic protocols  
that allow independent networks to connect and appear as a single  
system. The ideas driving me to originally design Atlas are based on  
the same foundational guidelines applied to search:
	* Enabling independent search technologies to unify as a single  
system by speaking the same basic protocols
	* Every related project, yacy, nutch, lucene, and even established  
or niche search players, can begin to support some simple open  
protocols and connect with each other in a larger ecosystem.
	* Groups can organize around function, content, media types,  
indexing algorithms, ranking, human input and feedback, or even real  
world relationships (local user groups).
	* Everyone supports unified interfaces to collaboratively (or  
competitively) present a new kind of search engine.

I'm diligently working on my drafts for Atlas and intend to present  
them here soon, the core concepts being: organization into many  
independent Networks, common protocols connecting them, strong  
reputation systems for checks and balances, and operating openly in a  
free market. I've been working on many parts of this for years and I  
want to ensure I've boiled everything down to its absolute simplest  
form to start - after it's public it's easy to make things more  
complicated and almost impossible to further simplify them.

Thanks Jimbo for galvanizing the effort , looking forward to the  
future that this group is going to help influence,

Jer