Dear readers,

The wait is over. I've thought long and hard about my next pet project. Finally, I've settled on an idea that combines my interest in wildlife, photography and web application development. The result is project Jungle Dragon™. This project is unlike anything I have ever done before in terms of size, complexity, innovation, and potential impact. In fact, I believe the idea in total is unique in today's web application landscape, at least I hope so!

Enough with the speculation, let's get it on.

What is Jungle Dragon™?

Jungle Dragon™ is a (wildlife) photo sharing site with next-generation social networking, trading and sharing features. If that doesn't mean anything to you, allow me to explain by starting with the basics...

First, Jungle Dragon™ allows users to view, tag and upload images, similar to sites like Flickr. They can do this as an individual or as part of one or more groups that focus on a particular subject. Users can comment on these images. In fact, they can comment on everything: images, articles, groups and even users. 

Next comes the collaborative knowledge management. Jungle Dragon™ wants to become one of the largest sources of wildlide knowledge and imagery. To support this noble cause, there is an article system that works much like a Wiki. All users will be able to edit all articles, and versions will be kept. Uploaded images are linked to these articles in order to facilitate the creation of a wildlife directory.

We're not there yet. Let's talk about rating. Jungle Dragon™ uses the wisdom of the crowd to rate content, much like sites such as Digg.com. Everything can be rated: images, articles, comments, groups and even users. Naturally, better rated entities get more attention. Where most social rating systems are binary (digg, bury), the Jungle Dragon™ rating system is leveled. You rate content by the levels of the food chain, i.e. "bacteria" for poor content, "lion" for great content :)

Still not there yet. In fact, the most innovative part is still to come. Jungle Dragon™ has a unique system called the KarmaEngine™. See, by uploading images, posting comments, editing articles and rating content, users help realize the ultimate goal of the site: being an extensive resource concerning the beauty of Mother Nature. In return for their effort, they earn karma credits, a virtual kind of money. There are dozens of parameters that determine a user's karma credit score, including their experience, image uploads, quality of comments, articles, etc. As users collect more karma credits, they increase in level, similar to games like World of Warcraft. Higher levels provide recognition, a higher influence in votes, increased content quotas and unlock power features. 

But there is more. Users can spend their collected karma credits to buy items. Items are like digital collector cards. One card will represent one of nature's organisms. Each card represents a certain value and availability, so some will be abundant and cheap, whilst some will be rare and expensive. Users can use their karma credits to buy these items from the site's store, but they can also sell them back to the store, sell them to other users, bid on other user's items, or donate items to a group. Kind of like eBay. In a far, far future, users may even be able to use the items as playing cards (like "Magic: the Gathering), but for now their purpose evolves around collecting and trading them.

Those will be the core features. Trust me, there are hundreds of subtle features and innovations I've left out of this description. None of the parts of Jungle Dragon™ are unique. It is the sum that makes this project unique. If nothing else, Jungle Dragon™ should be an interesting social networking experiment, as it facilitates many human characteristics:

• Expressiveness: User can sharing their own content, whether it is an image or article edit. Also, expressing their opinion about other content via comments and ratings.
• Competitiveness: Users are  able to compete for the best image, comment or article edit, as an individual or a group. Karma credits, levels and items indicate their success, which is easily compared to others.
• Group formation: Users are able to create or join a group evolving around a particular topic. Together, the group is more powerful in collecting credits and items. As with any group, it will have leaders, members and the unwanted that are subject to the rules of the leaders.
• Acquisiting and trade: By participation, users are rewarded with karma credits which they can spend to acquire and trade items, either as an individual or as a group.
• Communication: Users are able to communicate on every piece of content via comments.
• Elitism: Users are able to build up an elite status in the community by having the highest level, most credits, items, comments and more. Users can even start a group that only allows elite users to become members, by asking for a karma credit donation of their choice, or by only allowing users of a minimum level.
• Cheating. Some users may have a tendency to game the system to increase their influence or status. This is why the internal working of the KarmaEngine™ is secret.

What is Jungle Dragon™ not?

The site is not meant as a personal storage service for all kinds of photographs. Images must be owned by the uploaders (or public) and focus on wildlife. The point of the site is to come to a rich, extensive library that is managed by the community.

What's the point of it all?

There are a few points. From an idealistic perspective, the point is to provide a rich repository of wildlife content for the world to enjoy, along with a fun, engaging process for the end-users to participate in. Idealistically, this repository is educational, fun and raises the awareness of the public concerning the beauty of nature.

From the perspective of innovation, the point is to push the state of social networking web applications to the next level. Various smaller innovations in the area of user experience and web application development will be included as well.

And there are the selfish reasons. The personal learning experience, potential recognition from the community, and my reputation.

Will Jungle Dragon™ be open source?

Not really. Jungle Dragon™ should be seen as a service, not an application that you can download. However, I will try to design the application as reusable as possible. When successful, I might sell or open up the software, which will be called PhotoDragon™.

Furthermore, there are good reasons to not open up the software, as it invites end-users to game the system.On another note, I will probably provide things like a RSS/Twitter/REST API in case anyone wants to create widgets and such.

What technology will you use to build it?

I will use PHP 5 and MySQL 5 for the back-end, and various front-end technologies. Code Igniter will be used as a framework for the PHP part. I decided upon these technologies due to their open nature, low costs and excellent hosting availability. And...because I like them.

When do you plan to deliver?

I have no idea. What I can tell from my early designs is that the system is HUGE, especially considering this is a pet project. I seriously believe this will take between one and two years to deliver. I've set myself a psychological launch date of January 1st, 2010.

Will you be able to pull this of?

I don't know. I've defined a wide range of success for myself: At the very least it will be a great learning experience and that is a success in itself. I'm (not so) silently dreaming of a bigger success though. It's ok the have dreams, you know.

Currently, I see the following main risks:

• The size and complexity of the project will result in a very large development effort that I somehow have to combine into my personal life. Here lies the risk of long term commitment, and being unable to predict the circumstances of my personal life.
• Assuming the site will be launched and successful, there is a financial risk involved. I plan to use ads and voluntary donations to keep the site running, but am not too sure whether it will cover the hosting costs.

Anything else?

Yes. I would like to dedicate this project to my girlfriend Henriette, for bringing me in touch with the gorgeous nature of Costa Rica. This project idea has been brewing in my mind for many months now, but it was our encounter with Mother Nature that inspired me the most.

Never before was I so anxious to hear your feedback. Bring it on!

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