Words 3.0

[This is a translation of the original Podcast in Spanish]

A Reflection while building the Smartists experience

A few days ago someone asked me what is Blockchain, and what will it enable as to do; and I agree in what should matter most is what is going to serve us.

Nevertheless, beyond serving us, blockchain tech opens the door to a new era for those of use who use the web, and this is nearly all human beings now. I say is out loud, because this is how we can better understand that this technology is changing the way we build our relationships. After all, the Internet has been our first communication tool for two decades now.

At this moment, it is good and necessary to zoom out and reflect on the way we use the web, this Internet many of us embraced in the middle of our lives and many others adopted as part of their lives as they were growing with it.

We have changed our habits, our way of meeting with friends or reaching family in the distance, the way we hangout, the way we work… and we have changes our way of speaking. We have embraced all those novelties introducing new words without realizing that their deep transformative power.

As an author this is something I have especially in mind when working in the user experience for the software we are developing for artists. Here is an example for you to see what I am talking about.This is a reflection while building our app Smartists, or better, our dApp -decentralized application-. Because apps 3.0, the apps developed on the Internet of Value, are different apps.

So, as we develop the dApp Smartists for artists who want to self-manage on the web3, we need to take decisions to better serve our users. Some of these decisions may look tiny, yet they are deeply significant. A few days ago, we took one of these decisions.

First, let me give you some context.

Since we are a very small team, it is easy to fall for our own assumptions, despite we try to convey the feedback of testers. Anyway, all of us have something in common, we all have this web 2.0 common ground user experience. It's been 10 years with apps, whose business models were based in data collection and consumer profile definition and manipulation, forgetting all about fundamental human rights.

Instead, Smartists wants to be a software as a service providing solutions that respect Privacy, Intellectual Property and Freedom of Speech. We are just getting started with our testing and polishing the User Experience and User Interface, and as a writer I feel the power of words.

So this was the dilemma.

At some point I wondered: should we use the "Profile" in Smartists?

According to the Cambridge dictionary “profile” means: "information about a person's life, work, interests, etc. on a social networking website" (Cambridge dictionary).

So, 'profile' is a word defining bundles of data which can be commercially useful, but which is far from defining our unique human personality. Moreover, it's good to remember that "the more you look like your profile the less you look like yourself".

And the time came to reflect.

What if Smartists would not use certain words which have been adopted and standardized in the past web 2.0 times?

Artists are specially aware of the importance of refining our unique personality. Artists don't just develop some professional skills, and build art-profiles on the web. Artists connect with themselves, observe, listen and make a life of researching about human nature, in order to express themselves and their own human experience with their individual voice. When an artist's message carries essential human experience it becomes a powerful art piece which can communicate with others through time and space.

Every artist is a human creative force that provides strength and power human progress when connected to a group.

And this was our decision.

Every artist leaves a personal print of human experiences in this world and needs to find a space, a community of 'team mates', colleagues, clients... This is the reason we decided that for Smartists we would use the word member instead of profile.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary “member” means "a person who joins a group to take part in a particular activity" (Cambridge dictionary).

What I just explained here is only an example. Other words are making their way in these new times, like “mission” as what makes strong communities. And for artists it is also important to understand that future “audiences” are becoming “communities” where every member is going to be able to participate, instead of remaining part of a group of followers without voice.

This is why I dare inviting you now to our small Smartists community on Discord.

Beyond clarifying the sense of new words like NFTs, Internet of value, Web3, DAOs… I hope that addressing the transformative power of language wat an interesting topic… I am sure we will come back to this.

Georgina Mauriño,

Founder of Smartists