In this informal discussion we discussed how a guide could emerge from a personal story—like Cian, a conservationist, encountering a newt on his walk and wanting to create a multimedia guide combining diary-like entries, photographs, audio notes, and personal reflections.
This evolves into a collaborative community space where others can contribute their own stories and knowledge. It differs from Wikipedia by including personal emotion, humour and calls to action.
https://david.pledge.fish/assets/audio-notes/Story%20of%20a%20Guide%20(5%20Jun%2015.19.21).m4a Story of a Guide
From there, we explored how this approach could scale into a network of guides, supported by a mutual aid model where contributions are made through time, money, or expertise.
Governance plays a key role, with each guide shaped around shared values and supported by communal tools, AI-enabled characters, and a time-credit system. We want a space that's playful and inclusive, but also structured enough to support serious collaboration and resist centralised authority. ---
## Spark of Inspiration: A Story Begins Let's imagine the story of a praticular guide: - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Newts (And Everything Else)
## A Wiki with Heart, and Humour So how is this "Guide" different from Wikipedia? The joy and power lie in its ability to mix objective facts with subjective human storytelling. One contributor might tell the tale of a childhood memory tied to a muddy pond, another could rant about bureaucracy, and yet another shares best practices for newt pond maintenance. It’s “Wikipedia meets podcast meets zine” — with narratives wrapped lovingly around cold hard science. The layout of the platform gives users space to express their passion, create communities, and invite others to contribute. Visualisation tools, cartoon animations, or even fictional elements (like little newt families facing challenges of urban sprawl) might appear. It's a living, growing patchwork of data and emotions.
## Scaling Up: Community, Publishing, and Action As interest grows, Kean begins to share a private link to his guide with trusted friends, scientists, or artists he remembers from earlier meetings. One might contribute a poem, another a conservation tip, someone else a scientific diagram. At some point, a critical mass is reached. There’s enough content for an official publication. The guide might evolve into: - A podcast miniseries (e.g. 6 episodes featuring newt stories) - A tool-kit for ecological activism - A classroom resource - A club for newt-lovers, complete with projects to restore ponds The app features collaborative tools, allowing users to syndicate articles or spawn spin-off “clubs” centred around themes (e.g., "Newts of South America" vs. "Australian Pondlife"). It becomes participatory: you don’t simply read the guide — you JOIN it.
## Membership, Time, and Value: The “42” Pledge Participation follows an ethos from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Want to really get involved? Make a pledge — of time and/or money. The minimum investment: 42 minutes, 42 hours, or €42. This unlocks: - A membership to the guide(s) - Recognition as a “hitchhiker” - Ability to contribute, moderate, or publish your own guides - Access to specialist help (e.g. storytellers, scientists, illustrators) The economy is more time bank than transaction: people donate time, skills, or funds to causes or guides they care about. Financial contributions may be filtered through mutual societies or cooperatives to maintain non-profit status and decentralised governance.
## Guide Ecosystem: From Newts to Democracy Newts are the flagship — but imagine similar guides for: - Digital democracy - Raspberry Pi home servers - Urban gardening - Mental health and care spaces - Liquid democracy and civic assembly design Each starts with personal stories and grows with community participation. Projects swap content, ideas, and even contributors as they develop. There’s a clear editorial threshold: some remain informal; others become official published guides, with higher standards and wider audiences. Eventually, entire interconnected knowledge gardens bloom.
## Governance & Moderation: Keeping It Safe, Fun, and Ethical Each guide lives in a “domain space” — its own environment with its own rules. But they’re all anchored to a wider ecosystem that maintains: - Safety protocols (against abuse or trolling) - Hosting and data protection - Editorial values and standards Governance guides are created to support that. Development of digital “beings” or AI assistants based on characters from The Hitchhiker’s Guide — like Marvin the Robot, the Babel Fish, or Ford Prefect — help users learn and guide newcomers. Participants who commit time gain credits they can use to request help — legal, creative, psychological, or community-based — from more expert members of the ecosystem. If members break codes of conduct, they may be warned, temporarily guided into correction spaces, or even banished to side projects (poke: troll.fish).
## Editorial and Thematic Planning Every year, the community sets editorial goals. Perhaps one year focuses on democracy and governance. Another could lean into whimsical guides (e.g., Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lost Socks). Guides must align with the core purpose: to publish guidance for the benefit of the Earth and future life — playful but grounded, diverse and inclusive, radical but humane.
## Transparency: No Gods, No Gatekeepers The system resists central “Musk-like” authoritarianism by building transparency into its tools. Discussions about governance, inclusion, or exclusion are public, accountable, and flexible—as long as they remain within the values of the guide network. Every guide must start by referencing core foundational guides — e.g.: - Guide to Mutual Ownership - Guide to Governance - Trolling & Moderation Protocols Each provides both practical and philosophical grounding. Communities form their own rules, but recognise the overarching frame they’re part of.
## Summary: Hitchhikers as Storytellers of Guidance In this exciting, open knowledge network, users can start with something as small as a puddle (and a newt) and end up contributing to global democratic reform. The energy comes from stories, animated by passion, activated by community, and collected into guides. The platform celebrates diverse skills — from poets to programmers, gardeners to scientists — bringing together both facts and feelings. And like the best parts of Douglas Adams, it finds the joy in weirdness and the hope in humour. > “Publishing guides and guidance for Earth, with joy and humility.” --- ### Further Reading and References - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Great crested newt - Liquid democracy - Mutual organisation - Open source governance - Digital commons - Wikipedia vs oral storytelling - Community-supported agriculture (as an inspiration) - Time banking models --- Interested in joining? Start with 42 minutes. Tell a story. Observe your world. Help someone. Begin a guide.