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Merge pull request #413 from mhartl/master

Make light copyedits for communities post

commitf1b4e11341c440e7ef4f9bcdc5aedd880321ab75 authormatildepark <matilde@tlon.io> dateThu 7 May 2020, 14:20 (6 years ago) parent537435f4780edb
4 files changed+16−16
compare with master
unifiedsplit
content/blog/urbit-is-for-communities.md+8−8 content/understanding-urbit/roadmap.md+1−1 content/understanding-urbit/urbit-id.md+3−3 content/understanding-urbit/urbit-os.md+4−4
content/blog/urbit-is-for-communities.md+8−8
@@ -26,18 +26,18 @@ There’s nothing even remotely like this in the digital world. The digital worl
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2727It’s not just the surveillance, lack of privacy, or interfaces optimized for addiction — those are all downstream from the root problem: our software can’t evolve with us. It’s designed and controlled by the people that make it. We don’t participate in shaping it directly at all.
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29−And since our software can’t evolve with us, our connection to it remains thin. The digital world of today is low trust by design. We live in a digital world controlled by other people. Nothing about it belongs to us.
29+And since our software can’t evolve with us, our connection to it remains thin. The digital world of today is low-trust by design. We live in a digital world controlled by other people. Nothing about it belongs to us.
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31−It’d be great if we felt a deep appreciation for and connection to our digital communities the same way we do in the physical world. Digital communities should feel alive and engaged with their surroundings. They should feel vibrant as a city on a summer night, cozy like a family dinner in an old ranch house.
31+It’d be great if we felt a deep appreciation for and connection to our digital communities the same way we do in the physical world. Digital communities should feel alive and engaged with their surroundings. They should feel as vibrant as a city on a summer night, cozy like a family dinner in an old ranch house.
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3333We don’t often talk about it explicitly, but this is what Urbit is for. Urbit is for giving communities the tools to evolve their own environments; for us all to feel a sense of life and self-directedness in the digital world.
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35−It’s not any single specific technical feature of Urbit that makes it well suited for communities to homestead and develop. It’s the combination of the technology under the hood and the interfaces we build on top. Let’s talk about both.
35+It’s not any single specific technical feature of Urbit that makes it well-suited for communities to homestead and develop. It’s the combination of the technology under the hood and the interfaces we build on top. Let’s talk about both.
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3838## Technically capable
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40−I love [this tweet](https://twitter.com/devonzuegel/status/1221804267083718656) about becoming a ‘digital prepper’. It feels like it has already happened to me too. I’ve seen enough centralized services shut down and disappear (often with my data) that I’m reluctant to try new ones. No matter how friendly and cozy their branding.
40+I love [this tweet](https://twitter.com/devonzuegel/status/1221804267083718656) about becoming a ‘digital prepper’. It feels like it has already happened to me, too. I’ve seen enough centralized services shut down and disappear (often with my data) that I’m reluctant to try new ones. No matter how friendly and cozy their branding.
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4242I find myself vetting every new app or service to figure out whether they have the potential to survive far into the future. The giant services I’ve become dependent on all seem somewhat worrisome. How long can these free services possibly stick around? Certainly not forever.
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@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ The simple fact is, I let companies run my software because it’s too much work
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5252This is more or less the entire technical value proposition of Urbit: to build a system that’s simple enough that it requires almost no maintenance. Our approach to building software makes all of the above problems easily solvable.
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54−Perhaps more importantly we have a direct incentive to solve these problems. Tlon funds Urbit’s development by selling addresses and providing hosting. And the only reason anyone pays us for these things is because we make Urbit as directly useful for you as possible.
54+Perhaps more importantly, we have a direct incentive to solve these problems. Tlon funds Urbit’s development by selling addresses and providing hosting. And the only reason anyone pays us for these things is because we make Urbit as directly useful for you as possible.
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5656That means we have to solve the problems inherent to the legacy internet. There can’t be any sense of suspicion or uncertainty in our new system. Your Urbit has to be something you can really trust and attach to. This is why your Urbit lets you run or write whatever code you like, and why we’re focused on making sure the data you put into your Urbit lasts forever: it won’t disappear when some company dies.
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@@ -64,9 +64,9 @@ In the physical world, you can arrange the furniture in your house, or go to Ike
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6565The digital world is, of course, nothing like this. Even software developers are stuck with the current system. None of our existing apps or services can connect to one another, so whether you’re a user or a developer, you’re faced with the daunting task of replacing everything all at once if you want a better system. But nobody can do that.
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67−Urbit provides an experience with less distance between ordinary use and total customization. To start, we’ve created Ikea-like, Lego-like and woodshop-like levels of usability. What we’ve built isn’t nearly as complex as the physical world of course, but it’s a start.
67+Urbit provides an experience with less distance between ordinary use and total customization. To start, we’ve created Ikea-like, Lego-like and woodshop-like levels of usability. What we’ve built isn’t nearly as complex as the physical world, of course, but it’s a start.
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69−For most people, customizing your Urbit should be a matter of picking from an available suite of modules. Not unlike going to Ikea. For some people, recombining interfaces and data sources within Ubit should feel like playing with Legos. And for others, who want to dive in and write code, it’s the same as going into a shop full of high quality tools.
69+For most people, customizing your Urbit should be a matter of picking from an available suite of modules. Not unlike going to Ikea. For some people, recombining interfaces and data sources within Ubit should feel like playing with Legos. And for others, who want to dive in and write code, it’s the same as going into a shop full of high-quality tools.
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7171We’re not quite to this level of sophistication, but we’re on the path. Let’s talk about where we are and where we’re going.
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@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ OS 1 is designed to make it easy to start a group. Everyone in the group runs th
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8282If you want to go deeper, anyone can build a new protocol for storing data and transferring it around Urbit without too much difficulty, but you do have to write some code. If you really want to dive all the way in, you can modify the system all the way through to the kernel.
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84−Currently our Ikea experience is pretty limited, there are only a few Legos to play with, and the shop is still quite rudimentary — but it’s a good start and, for the first time, it exists as one complete system.
84+Currently, our Ikea experience is pretty limited, there are only a few Legos to play with, and the shop is still quite rudimentary — but it’s a good start and, for the first time, it exists as one complete system.
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8686The system is ripe for experimentation, customization, and exploration. It’s ready for earnest homesteading. Come build.
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content/understanding-urbit/roadmap.md+1−1
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ OS 2 is where Urbit gets easier for a broader audience to try out.
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5454OS 2 is an approachable, expanded and easier to use OS 1. We think of OS 2 as the [iOS 1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS_1) of cloud computers — no matter how silly that sounds.
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56−Like OS 1, OS 2 let’s a group of people chat, publish blogs and short messages, and share links. The main difference is that OS 2 is a standalone app (rather than the browser tab of OS 1) and supports Urbit-to-Urbit payments in BTC and ETH. OS 2 is the calm, private computing environment we’ve been waiting for.
56+Like OS 1, OS 2 lets a group of people chat, publish blogs and short messages, and share links. The main difference is that OS 2 is a standalone app (rather than the browser tab of OS 1) and supports Urbit-to-Urbit payments in BTC and ETH. OS 2 is the calm, private computing environment we’ve been waiting for.
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5858OS 2 is for those eager to leave behind MEGACORP platforms and build new, intentionally architected communities. If OS 1 is car camping, OS 2 is a geodesic dome on the playa. Not exactly a permanent home, but a good start.
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content/understanding-urbit/urbit-id.md+3−3
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The Urbit ID registry is live and deployed to the Ethereum blockchain. Urbit ID
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2424First, let’s talk about Urbit ID’s implementation and design goals, then about where we envision it going in the future.
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26−If you’re curious to see exactly how this system works, the code is of course [open source](https://github.com/urbit/urbit). Including the source for our [phonemic naming system](https://github.com/urbit/urbit-ob/blob/master/src/internal/co.js) and the [visual representations](https://github.com/urbit/sigil-js). There’s even a [Figma plugin](https://github.com/urbit/sigil-figma-plugin) for using them. There’s also an interface for interacting with Urbit ID whose source is [open too](https://github.com/urbit/bridge).
26+If you’re curious to see exactly how this system works, the code is of course [open source](https://github.com/urbit/urbit). Including the source for our [phonemic naming system](https://github.com/urbit/urbit-ob/blob/master/src/internal/co.js) and the [visual representations](https://github.com/urbit/sigil-js). There’s even a [Figma plugin](https://github.com/urbit/sigil-figma-plugin) for using them. There’s also an interface for interacting with Urbit ID whose [source is open](https://github.com/urbit/bridge), too.
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2828Since the Urbit ID registry is live and deployed you can even [look at the chain](https://github.com/urbit/azimuth#live-contracts).
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@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ One point that’s useful to understand about sponsors is that while Urbit IDs a
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5050Third, governance: galaxies (the top of the sponsorship tree) form a senate that can upgrade the logic of the Urbit ID system by majority vote. We think Urbit ID will last for quite a long time, but if it ever needs to be updated, the galaxies can vote to approve, reject, or propose changes to the contracts. Code may be law, but ultimately we acknowledge that human judgment can’t be factored out.
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52−The Urbit ID sponsorship tree is not intended to be a social system in any way. Interactions between people and communities on the Urbit network are peer-to-peer, entirely organic and completely uncontrolled by the address hierarchy. Urbit ID is simply an authentication substrate upon which reputation and communication systems can be built. (We’ve even considered renaming stars and galaxies ‘infrastructure’ and ‘governance’ nodes, respectively).
52+The Urbit ID sponsorship tree is not intended to be a social system in any way. Interactions between people and communities on the Urbit network are peer-to-peer, entirely organic and completely uncontrolled by the address hierarchy. Urbit ID is simply an authentication substrate upon which reputation and communication systems can be built. (We’ve even considered renaming stars and galaxies ‘infrastructure’ and ‘governance’ nodes, respectively.)
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5454Your relationship with your sponsor should be sort of like your ISP or a utility provider: a passive, non-invasive relationship. If it isn’t to your liking, moving to a new sponsor is very easy.
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@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ Your relationship with your sponsor should be sort of like your ISP or a utility
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5858Urbit IDs are property, and we think of the entire registry of Urbit IDs as a vast territory of digital land.
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60−The scarcity of Urbit ID address space gives it value and that in turn helps bootstrap decentralization even while the project is young. Broad distribution is important – If Urbit is going to last a long time and succeed as neutral infrastructure, it has to be owned and controlled by a wide variety of people.
60+The scarcity of Urbit ID address space gives it value and that in turn helps bootstrap decentralization even while the project is young. Broad distribution is important – if Urbit is going to last a long time and succeed as neutral infrastructure, it has to be owned and controlled by a wide variety of people.
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6262When we launched the Urbit ID system, in January of 2019, there were a couple thousand different star and galaxy holders acting as stewards of this digital land. Since then, that number has been steadily on the rise.
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content/understanding-urbit/urbit-os.md+4−4
@@ -31,13 +31,13 @@ Urbit OS is a completely new, carefully architected software stack: a VM, progra
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3232The main thing to understand about our ‘overlay OS’, as we call it, is that the foundation is a single, simple function. This function is the Urbit OS virtual machine. We call it ‘Nock’. The entire Urbit OS system compiles down to Nock, and Nock is just 33 lines of code.
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34−Nock is similar in spirit to WASM or the JVM: it’s a uniform machine code for every Urbit ship. A frozen foundation makes for some nice features:
34+Nock is similar in spirit to WASM or the JVM: it’s a uniform machine code for every Urbit [ship](https://urbit.org/docs/glossary/ship/). A frozen foundation makes for some nice features:
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3636The state of your Urbit OS is a pure function of its event history. It’s auditable, inspectable, repeatable. You can actually trust it.
37−Writing decentralized apps becomes vasty simpler than in the old world, since every node computes exactly the same way.
37+Writing decentralized apps becomes vastly simpler than in the old world, since every node computes exactly the same way.
3838The entire Urbit OS stack, from programming language to applications, is upgradeable over the network. For ordinary users, this makes for almost no system administration.
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40−Since Nock is a protocol for computing itself, any two nodes on the urbit network can easily share data, communicate and connect their software. 20th century systems could never do this without a MEGACORP acting as the intermediary.
40+Since Nock is a protocol for computing itself, any two nodes on the Urbit network can easily share data, communicate and connect their software. 20th century systems could never do this without a MEGACORP acting as the intermediary.
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4242<img class="full ba w-100 mv4" src="https://media.urbit.org/site/understanding-urbit/network-os/urbit-os-diagram-apart.svg"/>
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@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ This sounds like a lot — but the whole stack is incredibly compact. The whole
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5050But why did we build all this technology?
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52−First and foremost, to deliver a better user experience. Urbit OS alone is just a new layer for personal computing in the cloud. But with this new layer we open up the possibility of building a completely unified interface for people to compute in the cloud. (If you’d like to skip to how we envision that interface [go for it](/understanding-urbit/interface).)
52+First and foremost, to deliver a better user experience. Urbit OS alone is just a new layer for personal computing in the cloud. But with this new layer we open up the possibility of building a completely unified interface for people to compute in the cloud. (If you’d like to skip to how we envision that interface, [go for it](/understanding-urbit/interface).)
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5454From a broader perspective, it’s clear that connected computing is important and that it’s here to stay. We just want it to be as calm, simple and reliable as possible, and we don’t think that can happen using existing technology.
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