You should be able to mention anyone on the web publicly, from anywhere, and have them be able to get it (if they want).

Google Alerts kinda almost does this, but usually only for “news” sources (many of which are questionable), and its a closed system.

I don’t know much about them, but talking with ChatGPT is leading me to believe that elements of such a concept exist already in Webmention and ActivityPub, but they would require participants in it to adopt compatible technological approaches.

My idea is much more broad than that, and as someone posting a blog or a tweet or a toot or a flutter or whatevertf people call them now, you would just say whatever you’re gonna say, to whomever you feel the need to address, publish it – and somehow, magically, it would be available to that person, or any person, since it is publicly available, just like a search result.

PublicPing

ChatGPT and I are calling this system PublicPing right now for lack of a better name. The idea goes something like this (my text):

  • PublicPing bridges siloed systems by providing a universal way to observe mentions, making it easier for users on different platforms to engage with the same public conversations.
  • So that would go like:
  • A blogger mentions a person’s name in a post.
  • Many diverse automated observers index and process natural language mentions of peoples’ names (or other identifiers) from public blogs and other open public sources.
  • Observers collate these mentions from sources they observe according to their own criteria into public PingFeeds that anyone can view or subscribe to updates from.
  • People can subscribe to PingFeeds for mentions of their own name/s or identity/s, and since PingFeeds are always public, anyone else can subscribe to them just the same.
  • The system is agnostic about the identity of people who post mentions and consumers of a PingFeed. It simply observes, collates, and retransmits mentions into a common format.
  • Such a system would allow us to have conversations as people across different technological systems, without having to be locked into any one of them.
  • We could publish how and where we like, and read public PingFeeds where and how we like too. No one would own this simple open framework or have a monopoly on how we communicate with one another online.
  • To participate in the system, you would just publish your thoughts – anywherere, publicly, and mention someone in them.
  • We would not need to agree to become anyone’s “users,” nor be subjected to the whims, restrictions, policies or bad UX of malicious owners or bumbling admins.
  • PublicPing should remain simple and accessible by avoiding unnecessary technological complexity like cryptocurrency or blockchain.
  • Observers would instead be incentivized to act by serving the common good of public civic discourse.
  • The framework is open, non-proprietary, and free for anyone to implement, ensuring no single entity controls the system.
  • Multiple independent observers ensure resilience, transparency, and diversity in how mentions are indexed and shared.
  • Observers faithfully re-transmit their findings based on public sources into corresponding public PingFeeds (unless doing so violates the law, etc. TK).
  • Consumers of PingFeeds would be able to filter them according to their own custom criteria. (Example: “Only mentions from verified websites,” “Exclude mentions with profanity.”)
  • Consumers decide on their own actions which they will take independently in their own way regarding items in PingFeeds (which could include ignoring them altogether).
  • If consumers choose to respond to a mention, potentially proving their identity as the person originally mentioned is up to them and outside the scope of the PublicPing system, which merely observes, collates, and re-transmits public mentions into public PingFeeds without intervening or mediating.
  • The system respects individual privacy, since it only deals in clearly publicly-available information. Does not harvest private or semi-private personal data (no private groups, no DMs, etc.).
  • Something something spam, malicious uses, ethical concerns – the usual grab bag of stuff nobody wants to have to deal with but perpetually exists with any system, like it or not. So may as well consider it a feature not a bug at this point.

Anyway, a lot to chew on here, and yes much of it half-baked. But this seems like it would fit in with the Intertext Protocol as well…

Related writing & research