Let’s get a bit more into details. http://www.mypacis.com is an integrated and multilingual social network. Right now, the services provided are standard open source solutions. They have great functionalities, and they deliver you many benefits. But there are still some additional steps we need to take to make sure our platform is suitable to serve our goals. BTW, we will never consider our platform fully ready, because challenges and needs changes, and also new version of the services use are released, and the integration/adaptation process starts again.
MyPacis is an integrated social network. With integrated we mean that it supports many functions (contact list, personal profile, bookmarks, news submission and rating, free blogs, etc.) ideally all under one userID. So, you login once, and you get all these services, which make communication easier. There are many sites (Delicious, Digg, Blogger, etc.) which provide the same services. But, usually, the rule is: one site = one service. If you want social bookmarks, you go on Delicious. But to digg news you go, well, on Digg.
One of the reason for this is that “one site = one service” mantra gives full visibility to the only service provided. Another reason is that these services, even if in their core components have been around for ages, in are still new in their current format. So, pioneering developers focused on getting one service right. Now that open source solutions are available to deliver the same benefits, it is time to integrate them and make easier for you to use Web 2.0 services.
MyPacis.com is multilingual because, in addition to main stream languages (English, German, French, etc.), it can be easily localized in every language. We aim to provide services in all European, and then Asian, languages. Once we achieved these goals, we will furtherly localize the site. Anyway, if you consider the languages spoken in these continents, by serving them, we also serve most of the world. Even if there are local version of languages, for example the Spanish spoken in Madrid is not the same spoken in Argentina (which has been influenced by Italian), users will still be able to use our site and decipher the few worlds which sound unusual to them.
Once our platform, which shares many features with http://www.smilegrid.com (the “hub” for the users’ profile and social networking, owned by us and shared with other sites), reached a satisfactory level of scripting and languages quality, we want to offer it as open source software. Why should people download our platform, instead of just taking the original open source version? Well, two reasons are already stated above: scripts will be integrated into one suite, and made available in different languages. Other reasons include using a shared social network DB, where users of one site are reachable by the whole network. In this way, every new site created has already achieved critical mass for the success of its social network, because users profiles are pooled together.
Another service we want to provide is hosted social networks. That enables you to create your own social network, hosted on our site. Once more, there are similar solutions available online. But usually there are in English, and not as comprehensive as an integrated social network.
This is all for now. Your feedback is very very very important. After all, we are doing this for us (you and the MyPacis team) and not for the sake of developing sites/software. Please share your opinion, to make the service more suitable to your needs/wants. Take care,
Frank