Cool thread! I'm so busy I don't get to elaborate much. Here is where things are going (thanks to the help of everyone).
First off, this is not merely an open source project, but its fairly open in itself. Meaning you can invent your own way. I think thats pretty much assumed anyway.
This project as a whole attempts to combine human efforts to benefit everyone. It also keeps the load distributed. I'm attempting to keep that as a central theory/goal to see what becomes of it. I think it will end up being very popular and, the bottom line,
profitable for everyone, with a longer sustainability.
But enough of the speculation - here is where the network ideas have ended up thanks to everyone's efforts
mattdixon is making a much better community site (edit - better than symbiostock.com - forums will remain here). It will act as a knowledge base and along with that, provide a human edited directory of sites and owners (which really is just another form of
knowledge base). There's more, but he can explain that plus you are welcome to provide your own ideas. I guess the thing to learn here is that really is an open project, and it seems to self-organize very well.
This means the
www.Symbiostock.com will only have a few simple functions: A simple about page, with some getting started stuff and basic tutorials I make, as well hub for downloading extensions and plugins. Plus a few other random necessities. Only whats necessary to get started.
THE NETWORK HUB PLUGIN will be pretty cool.
What it will do (and its not a necessity, just a really good bonus) is spider networks and collect data, controlled by the hub owner. It will centralize some search results as well, collect featured images from sites, plus add other functions necessary to coordinating a network. It will be a sort of directory, but more automated. It will also export as many types of data as possible (.csv), from basic wordpress stuff to Symbiostock specific data like network statistics and relationships.
Scenerio:
Lets say a group of photographers or illustrators want to pool their efforts in the typical Symbiostock way. But they understand that customers might not want to island hop too much. Right away they set some standards:
1. Our network is sharing efforts for certain types of promotion.
2. We have these requirements...(pricing, portfolio size, quality, etc)...these will be editable values displayed on the hub site.
3. They decide whether or not this is a closed network or its allowed to intersect with other networks - ether at the hub level or the site level.
Mind you, this might not be the ultimate customer convenience even yet, but customers will enjoy this concept as well, understanding that they too are becoming a part of a cool project. The hub might actually show its members and skills they bring to the table for custom work.
The whole idea stems from this fact: Symbiostock cannot dictate what we might call "subjective" standards. These can be anything from quality of work, to content, to
anything. This primarily allows like-minded people to work together and take that responsibility from any central entity. Some networks might want to
excell in quality - others,
diversity or
exclusive content. Still others might want to be different in LOTS of content...and yet others might decide to
specialize in certain subjects (food, nature, technology trends) and ... and maybe others might be completely experimental on different levels.
So - today I work on search and a few minor issues...then I fix some image processing issues...then the Symbiostock NETWORK gets addressed evolves into something amazing.