The Project Omelas Mission

Personal computers were once sold as 'bicycles for the mind'. However, time has shown that technology tends to concentrate into a few large clusters. Furthermore, time has shown that with software in particular, once a particular player has achieved superiority, the service which they provide begins to deteriorate.

The software development cycle is much quicker than other manufacturing cycles. As a result, in the few decades that commercial software has existed, companies and individuals (often good natured) have found thousands of niches, found domination within this niche, and then allowed their service to deteriorate. Eventually, the users of this service must decide whether they will continue to suffer with something they are familiar with, or sink time into migrating to another sub-optimal platform. While this is not the fate of all projects, such a timeline is very common.

As computers become further integrated into mundane activites and software cycles continue to result in deterioration of service, we'd argue that we have become conditioned to tolerate bugs and mediocrity in our everyday life. The idea of the 'bicycle of the mind' is in the midst of suffering a death by a thousand cuts. It is as if we are using these bicycles only to commutes to distopian cities that seek to exploit our humanity for profit.

The goal of The Omelas Project is to bring back the idea of computers being the 'bicycle for the mind'. It shows technical minded individuals how to create their own low-maintenance tools.

Software developers create digital tools and services. A satisfying tool or service must be (in order of utility):

1. Quick-deployable: We do not want to have to spend significant time learning the intricacies of a tool. This is time taken away from things that matter. Furthemore, a tool must be able to be deployed in isolation, without harming other workflows.
2. Dependable: it must be available when it is needed. This often translates to it being always available.
3. Low-maintenance: Once deployed, the required upkeep of a tool must be significantly less than its utility.
4. Desirable: a tool should fulfil its intended purpose well. This usually involves some combination of performance, personalization, and (since these are digital tools) privacy
5. Ditchable: should the tool outlive its purpose, or should a better tool be found, the user should be able to quickly ditch and migrate their data to another tool. This means that these tools must be able to read and write data through standard formats