[Wikipedia-l] DICT protocol

[lcrocker at nupedia.com]

> http://www.dict.org (DICT protocol)

I plan on implementing a stable API of some sort; if this
or some similar protocol catches on, it shouldn't be difficult
to write a gateway server between DICT and WikiAPI.  But I
don't see much need for that yet until we have a resource
worth fetching that way, and I think that's still a year or
more away.

> A other project that is very alive to think about is 
> http://freenetproject.org

Ah, yes, my previous free time sink (I was involved in that
project early on--I wrote the FAQs and such).

I don't think Freenet as it is will catch on--it's not really
that great a protocol, and some of its fundamental problems
aren't fixable.  But I /do/ think that a peer-to-peer distributed
database might be an interesting back end for Wikipedia someday.
But again, I think it needs to develop in a centralized way for
a while before risking that.  I may be labelled a heretic for
saying this, but part of what make Wikipedia great is its /lack/
or freedom and universal participation.  Everything2 showed us
what that devolves into.  We have a central goal here--a narrow
focus, and people to keep the masses pointed in the right direction.