TLDR: I'm building an experimental open source/open data thing to collect good lecture recordings

repo: github.com/koljapluemer/awesome-lectures

Hi everyone,

this submission is my attempt to contribute something to the question of how we will find, share and evaluate information in the future, in the face of the many problems that I think HN is well-aware of (slob, search engines returning SEO garbage or corporate stuff, spam, trust problems, big companies eating everything,...).

I was specifically inspired by recent threads here on HN like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47625952 , so I hope some of what I'm saying here resonates, even if it's very much not comprehensive (nor that coherent).

To get specific, I decided to build a little platform (if you want to call it that) to submit, rate and find long-form recordings of talks/lectures; both because this a personal itch of mine, but also because I consider it a good low-stakes environment to test some (possibly larger) ideas, such as:

- having a community-information-curation platform where both code and data are managed via an open git repo, but where non-technical people can also contribute, without interacting with GitHub or code

- allowing submissions and contribution without any gatekeeping (=no sign-up), keeping in mind that spam exists

- running such a platform on close-to-zero-budget

- allowing to (at least eventually) democratize the platform completely, so that it doesn't die with its maintainer's motivation

The current tech stack is as follows:

- data source of truth: JSON files in an open repo

- main interaction point: Classic HTML-based static site, works without js if you want to, generated with a custom SSG

- rating; submitting lectures; proposing changes: JS-based features on the static site, talking to a Flask backend via an API, writing change proposals temporarily to a DB

- Flask backend: Allows moderators (currently just me because no one else knows about this project yet) to accept or deny submissions (=spam prevention). Accepted data is written to the JSON-source-of-truth (using Bayesian updates for ratings and some semi-fancy merge algos)

Crucial idea here:

1) The data source+the viewing modality can be replicated, modified and viewed very easily, even if I get hit by a bus or get bored of the project

2) When the backend gets spammed (likely with no-auth submission affordances), hammered, hacked or neglected, (view) access to the data is not affected

So while I think that it in fact would be great if there was a great community-driven list of lectures, I also think this concept may as a (dis)prove or concept for far more important platforms, e.g. for discussing scientific findings, finding truth, storing community knowledge or stuff like that.

Just in case this wasn't clear yet, everything is still very experimental and work-in-progress (but feel free to give brutal feedback anyways)

Anyways, truly any kind of feedback or contribution is really welcome, be it in the form of lecture submissions, ratings, technical help, philosophy, or whatever else :)

Thanks and let's try to keep some kind of human internet alive.

post edit: formatting