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The idea of using the Steemit blockchain for building an encyclopedic (Wikipedia-like) site has been evoked for a couple of years now (in fact at least since the very launching of the Steemit blockchain – cf., for instance, the following @pharesim’s comment on this post: https://steemit.com/technology/@jzeal/could-we-use-the-steemit-model-to-improve-wikipedia.

Now that at least one fully dedicated cryptocurrency (Lunyr - LUN) is promoting itself as being the ideal backbone for such a distributed Wikipedia equivalent , I felt the time has come for us, the 300,000+ active Steemians, to “scale the debate” (share thoughts and proposals at a wider level about this project).

In this first article, let’s get into the main reasons I discern as underlaying the process of building what I suggest to name our “SteemCyclopedia”.

Enhancing the encyclopedias diversity on the Internet

I’m not sure it’s the case of the majority of Steemians, but I’ve experienced not to be alone in viewing Wikipedia as being one of today’s “Politically correct” electronic key pillars. The field evidence overwhelms us: ask any secundary or college student to investigate a particular topic; if you’re lucky enough and that student (for not being too mentally anaesthetized) includes in her or his search more than only one documental reference, the probability a Wikipedia page will appear among those sources flirts with 95%; and if she or he behaves like the majority of electronically formated human beings, looking for a sole spring of data and analysis, would you imagine which website they’ll copy their info from? Yep, you bet it!

That’s one of the reasons why, as a teacher, I explicitely forbid my students to use information met through a Wikipedia page, and I expect them to gather data coming from at least 3 different origins (better if minimum one of them is printed material, without any online version, and if a part of those documents is written in another idiom than the student’s mother tongue). Otherwise, I know I’d harvest, in a 25 students group, a ridiculously narrow and shallow interpretations diversity.

Here’s the first fundamental worth I envision our Steemit encyclopedia will bring: showing that it’s practically possible to create a new and different community-driven and enriched encyclopedia on the Internet, therefore breaking Wikipedia’s quasi- monopoly.

Bringing liberty and diversity inside our encyclopedia contents too

Another point in favor of firmly advocating a Steemit encyclopedia is the current censorship grade within the Wikipedia ecosystem. Quoting WikiSpooks article on censorship: “Wikipedia is actively censored, and users are blocked not only for reasons of spam and vandalism. Their carefully formulated policies, especially those on "reliability" and "notability" are tools to extend Operation Mockingbird's control of corporate media to give de facto control of what appears on Wikipedia”. (cf. https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Wikipedia/Censorship)

The Pierre Jovanovich ongoing case

A case that confirms such a radical statement, may raise a forest of red flags, and turn into a symbol of Wikipedia’s oligarchic mechanisms, is the deletion of Pierre Jovanovic entry. Pierre Jovanovic, a prominent French ensayist and publically applaused critical analyst of the whole bank and fiat currencies system, has written best-sellers like Blythe Masters (recycled as CEO of a blockchain startup company, Blythe Masters is that former JP Morgan & Co top executive who (re)invented the "credit default swap", main trigger for the 2008 financial collapse) or Adolf Hitler. Retaliating by printing money (how Hitler took the political power thanks to the bankers, who have continuously produced counterfeit currency, cf. http://www.jovanovic.com/ah.htm). In 2015 he also published a remarked study about John Law, the Scotish economist and Finance Minister under the French Regent, Philippe d’Orléans (1715 – 1723), and how that historical understudied figure literally invented the banknotes and the quantitative easings… in 1716, by converting the citizens gold and silver coins to a “practical” paper money. P. Jovanovic ban from Wikipedia is so drastic that through John Law’s Wikipedia page it’s imposible to find any bibliographical reference linking to that monographic essay (cf. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Law_de_Lauriston).

The suppression of his Wikipedia article took place on August 24th, 2014, on the basis of as decision adopted by… 3 Wikipedia contributors – cf. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion:Pierre_Jovanovic/Suppression (French written discussion).

Potentializing the previously developed Steemit Community

It’s probable we’ll hear comments disqualifying Steemit as a suitable platform to display an online encyclopedia, because it wasn’t “natively meant” to fill this purpose, contrarily to Lunyr, or even Everipedia. We can defend the exact opposite view: what may happen with Steemit adopting an encyclopedic process is to dynamize a “real community”, sharing almost 2 years of building its own identity, its working modalities, its passions, and its conflicts, to dynamize towards a new challenge this “République des Lettres”, which is already dealing on a daily basis with creation and writing/recording processes.

Besides, such a challenge very likely would raise the global quality requirements amongst Steemit contributors, for us to be publically seen as producing a trustworthy scientific job. No doubt it’ll draw more attention and praise to the SteemSTEM subcommunity project – many existing publications of which can legitimately been considered as encyclopedic entries.

Leading Steemit blockchain technology potentials to new highs

Another key advantage our network already handles to launch this SteemCyclopedia Project is… STEEM itself! While Lunyr, with its LUN currency, and Everipedia, with its new version IQ (now turned cryptocurrency), still have to prove themselves on a large scale, while we, the Steemians, are the living “proof of community” that our tokens are widely accepted, on a double level:

* in our own ecosystem (by users, on Exchanges and by investors), i.e. STEEM and SBD are used as suitable retributive currencies for intelectual and creative contributions;

* soon in society as a whole, through projects like @paywithsteem, or @jerrybanfield’s P2P Steem/USD Gateway (https://steemit.com/budget/@jerrybanfield/hiring-1-developer-to-build-a-p2p-steem-usd-gateway).

I’d dare to say: in this field we’re already some steps ahead of any other existing process and community.

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What we need now is sharing ideas and suggestions around the “how” side of things. I hope you’ll be indulgent with me in case any developers team would already have advanced in this perspective, without me being aware of their efforts.

Nice to Steem you, and Let’s build together!

Ijatz (Central American Ecological Social Network - http://www.lahojita.org)