D3P0: Not Rocket Science... It's Brain Surgery!

[technobabble]

I think there are some in the D3P0 community who need help to see the forest from the trees. There's a bunch of flaming on YouTube and Revision3 right now, but I think this forum seems to be a bit more level-headed, so I'm posting here.

It's obvious that the decision engine has been bogged down with insignificant tasks that have resulted in an insurmountable backlog full of inane gunk. I think it's reaching a point where everyone wants to just wash their hands of it, including Dan.

The fact is that the current decision engine is not very sophisticated and does a poor job of letting good ideas gain traction. In my opinion, a major failure of it is that it attracts and accumulates a lot of baggage.

The real human mind does not think like that.

We constantly shed and forget insignificant ideas and details from our mind. When we go to sleep, our brain goes into garbage collection mode to declutter our minds for the next morning. The decision engine currently does no such thing.

I have a task proposal which is currently being blocked from the decision engine because I'm over my limit (*sigh*):

Revamp the decision engine so that it becomes a daily competition for the top task. The key is that once a task is accepted at the end of the day, the voting on tasks submitted for that day is CLOSED and the remaining tasks are archived.

The next day will start with a clean slate and new (or old ideas that didn't win previously) can be RESUBMITTED. This is particularly important so that old ideas can be reevaluated on their merits for that point in time. If they're really worth pursuing, someone will go through the effort to repost it. Otherwise, they will fade nicely into oblivion where they belong.

For example: The nude video task... really? That one had a month to attract votes to become "popular", but I honestly don't think it would have survived in a daily competition because there are certainly better ways to spend your time. Sure, it seemed interesting at the time, but today it's a stale idea.

A daily purging will result in a more responsive decision engine that better reflects the current community (and probably Dan, himself).

For the D3P0 community:
I urge patience. This is the storming phase of a project where the grind of reality exposes the weaknesses and is to be expected. If the project survives, it will likely evolve from the missteps and improve.

This is an ambitious experiment. When you think about it, we're really trying to simulate the human brain... and then take it up a notch! Well, we've succeeded in simulating one part of the human condition: How many times have we promised something to ourselves, only to later let it slide as we adjust for the future?

The harsh reality of the internet, however, is that it never forgets. It will hold you to the letter of the law and remind you in black and white what you once promised to do. It can be quite a challenge to live under something so unforgiving.

I commend Dan for his willingness to put his reputation and fame on the line to pioneer something that has never been done before.

I look forward to see where this goes.

[Breepop]

I like you. Instead of coming here to complain about how much Dan 3.0 sucks balls through a straw or coming here to blindly praise Dan and tell everyone to stop criticizing him, you come here with a well thought out solution to the core of Dan 3.0's problem. Well done, sir.


The Decision Engine is getting a revamp soon (and I use that word very lightly, because I was told "VERY VERY soon" over a month ago), but I'm not sure of what the revamp entails entirely. I assume it's constantly being worked on, because every day that goes by without it is a waste (in my opinion).

I'm positive there's already a plan in mind, so I'd like to see that before we start thinking of ideas to change the Decision Engine so radically. I really, really wish we were all in the loop about these changes, that way we could help adjust the changes to please everyone. After all, we're the ones who are supposed to be in control of this project. But alas.

[technobabble]

Allow me to take a minute and put on my trade hat as a software developer.

This project has interested me from day one because it represents the bane of all software developers' existence: change.

There's nothing that a development team hates more then requirements that can't be nailed down.

However, this project poses a very unique challenge in that it's audience-driven and the expectations for quick changes are set very high.

Frequent turnaround of incremental improvements and close communication with the customer is essential for any software project to succeed. Even more so for this project, due to the demand. My expectation is that the development team is following a methodology that is specifically tailored to to meet these goals.

However, this brings up an interesting point. As you said, we're supposed to be in control. At the heart of this project, we're the customer. We are the ones watching the videos and we are the ones who will do business with the sponsors.

Dan is in a unique position because he is both the product and, I assume, the customer's agent. In a way, this is a conflict of interest. And it is showing.

Now you can't exactly sit hundreds of thousands of Dan's subscribers down in a conference room to hash out requirements. Heck, we don't even know what we need (most customer's don't). But you can't exactly leave us in the dark, either.

At minimum, I would expect the development team to have a regularly-updated technical blog detailing changes at work and some sort of frequently-updated public beta of features nearing release.

If they're really adventurous, they should have some sort of public task list related to this project which shows what they are working on and when the expected delivery of those features will be.

That being said, I'm not too confident in the job that Revision 3 is doing at this point. In my opinion, the lack of engagement with the D3P0 community is in direct conflict with the founding goals of this project.

A quick glance at their blog reveals that they are consumed with many other projects and one has to question whether they are fully vested in D3P0's success.

[Rob]

Nov 18, 2010 18:08:57 GMT -5 technobabble said:

At minimum, I would expect the development team to have a regularly-updated technical blog detailing changes at work and some sort of frequently-updated public beta of features nearing release.

If they're really adventurous, they should have some sort of public task list related to this project which shows what they are working on and when the expected delivery of those features will be.

Either of these suggestions would be totally awesome. Holy crap.

And I pretty much agree that it's kinda weird that we, the people who are supposed to be running things, don't know all the details. It has nothing to do with money or confidentiality and we're not interested in the code... we just want to know the important parts about our job: the machine! If you work in an assembly line, you know how the machine works. If you work in a lab, you know how the equipment works. In both situations you get notified as soon as any upgrade has been planned and you'll get the full specs. This is because the people upgrading know that you use the machine/equipment every day and you'll have a way better idea about what would help and what wouldn't.

So yeah... it's a little weird that Revision3 doesn't have those suggestions already in place.

Then again, this could only appear as them being lackadaisical when in fact they are not.

[Joey]

What happened to "Have you guys decide for me in real time"? I feel like we need to seriously redesign the engine, and what better way to do it than to have the COMMUNITY do it? Im sure there are some people with great ideas, this one being the best ive seen!

[Mr. O]

Nov 18, 2010 19:12:04 GMT -5 Joey said:

What happened to "Have you guys decide for me in real time"? I feel like we need to seriously redesign the engine, and what better way to do it than to have the COMMUNITY do it? Im sure there are some people with great ideas, this one being the best ive seen!

Except that Dan 3.0 is basically run by Rev3, who are ultimately in charge of this, not the community. At least, that's the appearance of it to me.

[technobabble]

Nov 18, 2010 19:12:04 GMT -5 Joey said:

What happened to "Have you guys decide for me in real time"? I feel like we need to seriously redesign the engine, and what better way to do it than to have the COMMUNITY do it?

I fully agree.

I think it's important to point out the distinction between what we have now and what we should have. In my view, what we have is not a decision engine per se, but a glorified suggestion box, ever growing. Even with a daily purge/competition, it would still amount to nothing more, though perhaps a bit more efficient.

In order to for it to technically be called a decision engine, there must be some subject or context for which we are providing decisions for.

Currently, the only mandate we have had to work with is, "What should I do with my life?" This is a very broad topic and is useful for drawing out some general ideas. However, without a specific context, most of these ideas have no immediate relevancy to Dan's life.

Ideas without relevancy have no point.

The "real time" directive presents a bit of an interesting challenge both technically and realistically for which I have some doubts. The ultimate form of this goes against Dan's mantra, "please, don't be a zombie!"

The fact will remain that Dan is an individual who will be subject to influences beyond our control, including his own basic needs and desires. I don't believe his wish ever was to simply plug himself into the hive mind and become Dan Three of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One!

So this brings us back to Brain Surgery: How can a person offload their decision making process to the internet so that it produces results that are individually-tailored and relevant? This is the epitome of every IT developer's dream... (and to which, I might add, the eventual conclusion is 42! ;D)

The first step would be for Dan to identify decision points that he wishes to offload. A good example of this is his current "habitation location". (As we are well aware, the current decision engine is ill equipped to assist him with this. So, he has been forced to rely on other means with the result that Revision3 users are feeling put out.)

Once a decision point is identified, he would submit a brief summary of the problem and what the realistic boundaries for the solution are (i.e., he's not gonna live outside the U.S.). He would submit these to the decision engine along with a priority and a time limit and await the responses.

The community would then have the opportunity reply with various ideas which would be voted up or down. This is similar to what's in place, except now the ideas are solving a specific problem... they have relevancy and meaning.

The degree that Dan would "give us control" would be determined by how many decision points he eventually entrusts to the decision engine, whether it be life-altering or mundane. Dan would get to set the time limit for certain decisions based on how long he wants them to brew and would ultimately award the winning answer.

In essence, this is a typical model for a question and answer forum. The key difference, however, is that this is flipped on it's end and only one user (Dan) is allowed to submit questions and moderate (for now).

On the flip side, PogoTribe members would be recognized for good participation and creativity. Most Q&A sites award badges and moderation privileges to those who demonstrate consistent, reputable participation and willingness to take ownership.

When I first learned of the concept for Dan 3.0, I immediately thought of stackoverflow.com, which has become a popular Q&A site for developers. I believe some of these kinds of features should be considered going forward.

To Revision3's credit, it does appear that they have incorporated some aspect of time-relation into their Popularity sorting algorithm. However, the ability to quickly add relevancy to the equation is going to be critical.

...

Update: I clarified some points that were a bit rambling... an English major, I am not! Thanks for bearing with these long posts.

[technobabble]

The decision engine is letting me submit tasks again, so here's my considerably shorter version of what I've been ranting about. Submitted for your approval:

revision3.com/dan30/task/decision-points