Thanks @timcliff, for posting this! I think you're bringing something really important to light here... and I tend to agree with you that it seems like there are a lot of people "sitting around waiting for something to happen," when a large part of the truth is that WE are the ones that get to make most of it happen.
Of course, I'm not a developer. In fact, my years in IT was in usability and human factors... which often got me the distinction of "most hated" with the developers because I was the one who had to say "I'm sure this is truly STUNNING code, but it bears little relation to anything a REAL ground-level user would understand."
But that's beside the point there... a few months back, I started working on a sort of "wish list" that is slowly growing into a rather large document with the working title "Steemit 2020: Our Future" which is basically a sort of "idea map" of all the things Steemit/Steem (in tandem) could create and become, in order to (A) mainstream the core social content platform (B) add loads of integrated apps leading to (C) a strong economic infrastructure for the Steem token, hopefully leading to (D) catching the interest of investors who would see this-- as compared to other alt coins-- as really having "something going on," which in turn could organically grow the price of Steem... purely as a "value play."
My motivation? As a sometime business consultant, I am not seeing a "Long Term Plan" with benchmarking anywhere. Yes, there's the White Paper, and yes there's the "Road Map" but from where I am sitting, it all feels more like a very long series of "course corrections" than tangible goals: "By July 2018, this, this, and this needs to be implemented" or "By the end of 2020, the goal is to have 10 million users and and the following core feature set."
Yes, I know, "decentralized" and all that good stuff. But I feel we must also be mindful to not throw out ALL of the "centralized baby" with the bathwater.
I am sort of trying to "manage" this beast right now... considering publishing it in "parts" at some point... maybe with an "index" post that just has summaries, with links to more detailed posts for specific areas. But didn't really want to toss it out there while still a "minnow," because... well... who listens to minnows, anyway? And that's NOT a complaint!
Just sticking my toe in the water with you, here, since you run one of the leading witnesses and evidently have the ear of the development team. Worth working on and throwing out there... or am I "in above my head" here? No "right" or "wrong" answer here!
I'm very interested. Keep me posted with what you are up to. Feel free to message me on Steemit chat. I'm happy to discuss more.
Thanks! I'll keep plugging and "polishing" it a bit more... I'll let you know when something publishable comes together, but this is encouraging.
I Upvoted you for the easy form that you explained the A, B, C, D. Now I understand what Tim is looking for.
I have a question for Tim: those people who are using Apple, to make applications (and they usually think Apple is the only way to go), do you think they will be valuable members to bring their projects to this platform? In other words, if they are already doing the applications there, do you think they can handle their projects here?
I guess it would depend on what it is that they are doing. Most likely any third party software would require some adaptation to be able to interface with the blockchain.