Welcome to Startplane. I've had the idea for startplane for quite some time. It's gone through numerous iterations in the past, but they always fizzled out for one reason or another. I've always been intrigued by the inherent power of social networking sites and "web 2.0" sites. However like many out there I have always felt a bit let down, as if these sites were somehow not quite living up to their potential. New sites are built (and old ones are quitely deleted or sold-off) in an endless attempt to build critical mass and sell their user's "sweat equity" to the highest bidder. The user is trapped, unable to create the experience he or she desires, all the while giving up their information/data/ideas to the gatekeeper to do with as he sees fit. Their self-expression is ranked via his algorithms, deleted based on his criteria, and held hostage by his servers.

Startplane is my feeble attempt to change this. To open the gateways of communication to those who want to listen and respond. In the spirit of GNU and Linux I see it as a platform owned by all of us to do with as we wish. The owner of the data is its creator and the consumer will determine how it is presented.

The first iteration of the new startplane is a free form community forum where users can post their topics to different tag based channels. The idea is to connect, find commonalities and exchange ideas. As the system progresses we will work to connect other sites, communities and users on different servers/domains/ips.

This version of startplane is based on Drupal which can be found at www.drupal.org. Any custom modifications that need to be made will be released back to the community so that others may benefit and implement their own versions. If you have any questions, comments or ideas please create an account and post them to the "startplane" tag.

Thanks for listening!