1. We’re building the Internet BY PEOPLE (not by companies, organizations, governments, agencies or other groups with interests). It’s the web as it is supposed to be - interaction and collaboration between regular people. This is the next generation Internet written by individuals like you. You’re the maker of the world wide web. Everybody has something to contribute or knowledge in certain areas that they’re passionate about. And when you get information from someone whose interests are aligned with yours (another individual, not a commercial company) - this information is much more valuable.
2. This is Internet FOR PEOPLE - written with the interest of regular individuals like you and me in mind. Whatever comes here must be USEFUL and PRACTICAL. A dog is not a domesticated carnivore from the Canidae family, but rather the most popular pet in the US. Usefulness and practicality are the main criteria of what comes into our articles. If you think you have some knowledge others might use for their benefit - put it here and others will provide you feedback on how useful it is. We try to help others make decisions that benefit them. TheBooq is a set of short instructions on how to accomplish the task that we think someone meant by typing particular search words. We don’t shy away from “the truth" or "the best view" but we use a scientific approach to our recommendations based on evidence, facts, credibility and verifiable accuracy. Usefulness is our key principle. Our main goal is to create something more useful than what’s already available on the web. Here are some ideas on how to do it. We’re a community of people passionate about sharing knowledge.
3. We speak the SAME LANGUAGE most of the people speak. We use words that are most helpful for others. If the majority of people consider cucumber a vegetable - we will put it into the vegetable section because it would be easier to find it there (unless there’s a practical benefit of educating others on the fact that cucumber is a fruit). People use search queries when they want to find information on the Web, so our articles are one-page responses to these queries. A one-page summary is the most practical and useful way of responding to a query.
4. We respect civil discourse and human dignity. We’re aiming at creating Collective Intelligence or a Human Knowledge Database by allowing everyone to collaborate, and we believe collaboration is not possible without respect and civility. We collaborate to create a Different Web and change it from a vehicle for delivering paid content where regular people are hunted for their information, time and money, to the Internet which is the ultimate collaborative tool for all of us. We want to move humanity from information hunting and gathering to a society where knowledge is produced and distributed in a much more efficient manner. This would make us more powerful and much more effective. TheBooq is content that any individual can use, edit, and distribute. It’s an editable Web.
5. It’s an experiment and nothing is set in stone. We will evolve and change our rules as needed to help us achieve our goals. But more importantly, it’s an experiment on whether you, we, and the rest of us living in the first part of the 21 century would have enough courage and will to learn how to transform the Internet and move it to the next level. Or whether the Web will remain stagnant and we will be remembered by future generations as information hunters and gatherers who never figured it out. It’s a choice that we’re making here.