Argh! Inevitably, when you've had a really good idea and you're saving it for the right time, someone comes along and implements it before you've even noticed they've had your idea too.
A couple of years ago I started development on a site, before pushing it aside and promising myself I'd work on it later when I was less busy. The site would be called the Future History Network and would be a sort of a fictional sci-fi encyclopedia of future history, written collaboratively by Internet users. Anything submitted that was appropriate and consistent with the setting would have been added to the site, and there was a whole roughly established universe for people to flesh out. The idea was to form an experimental community of collaborative fiction and world-building... I had some more ideas for it, but that was the basic gist. I thought it might work well, it more than likely wouldn't, but that it would be a small and intriguing experiment in group fiction and internet community.
This teaser page, though, is as much as I got around to actually making.
Tonight (via MetaFilter) I found Orion's Arm, a site very similar in concept. I haven't seen enough of it yet to tell if they've done a good job of it, but it's clear that they had the idea quite independently and that they've fleshed it out in a completely different direction than I would have done. Nevertheless, I really am kicking myself for not implementing mine sooner, because there's a chance now that, if I still go ahead and make my site, people might think I copied Orion's Arm.
Ah well... that's the price of waiting too long, I suppose. And I see from the update log of the site that it's been around since October 2000 at least, so it can't be much younger than my idea and it might actually be older. Still, it's a little disappointing to discover that an idea thought to be original is in fact nothing of the sort.
My vague intentions to make a site like this at some point in the distant future haven't been changed by this discovery, but I might have to be careful that I'm making something distinct that won't step on anybody's toes.
hi there!
I was pointed at your blog site, and was amazed to read that you had several years ago independently arrived at the same approach to worldbuilding that I had, and pretty much around the same time as well. (Orion's Arm was founded in June 2000). It really seems that internet-based shared worldbuilding is an idea who's time has come!
So i just want to say here it's cool with us if you set up your own future history project along the lines you specified in your blog. As you say you've got your own ideas, so it's not copying us. Besides, concepts like nanotech, ai, genetic engineering, etc (i'm not sure what you would include in your future history) are pretty much standard in current futurism and hard SF anyway.
So, best of luck with your project! We can also exchange links if you want. I thought your teaser page looked pretty neat as well.
Wow, thanks for the reply! I had no idea that you would see my comments. And apologies for taking a few days to reply, I only just noticed it was here.
Probably won't get around to doing my project for a year at least, but I'll let you know if I ever start. Thanks for being understanding and for the good wishes - the same to you.