Why the World Needs Rayt

The reason I developed the idea for Rayt is because Web 2.0 does not exist. We don't have Web 2.0, we have web sites 2.0. Some sites - like del.icio.us, Digg, and Wikipedia - allow users to interact and create contents, but most websites merely broadcast They create content and they don't really care what you think about it.

I want users to be able to contribute content to every page on the internet. I want them to be able to rayt (rate) the entire internet, for the Web to be truly 2.0.

How Rayt Works

Rayt is a Firefox add-on which allows users to comment on any webpage. Rayt projects a banner at the top of your brower with user comments on it, like this:

How do the comments get there? Well, first you have to install the add-on to your Firefox browser. Then you'll see a Rayt icon on your toolbar (like this):













When you visit a webpage that you want to comment on, you click the icon and a dialogue box appears (like del.icio.us). You write your comment in the box and press the "submit" button and you're done.

Congratulations, you just rayted a webpage! The Rayt software links your comment to the address (URL) of the webpage. When another Rayt user visits that page, they will see your comment in their banner.

Not only can you leave comments, Rayt also ensures that the comments you see will be interesting. That's the second level of Rayt. Because Rayt doesn't just let you rayt webpages, it also allows you to rayt the comments of other people.

Each of the brightly-colored comments you see on on your banner is a link. When you click the link, a dialogue box opens that allows you to read the entire comment and also to rayt it, like this. This is a comment that would be on the White House website:














As you can see, you have the option to rayt the comment from 5 (awesome) to 1 (crapola). Comments with higher raytings are pushed to the front of the banner while low-rated comments are pushed to the back of the banner or fall off it entirely (like Digg).

There is also a spam option. Because a tool like Rayt would leave itself open to exploitation by spammers, the spam rule is pretty tough. If even one person rayts a comment as 0 (spam) then it gets pushed to the very back of the banner.

Eventually, I hope that Rayt will develop a community as Wikipedia does and people will devote time to keeping the comments clean and meaningful by and rayting carefully and marking spam. I'd also like to have Administraytors (like Wikipedia's Admins) whereby certain users are given special authority to permanently delete spam and resolve user disputes.

Implications

The implications of Rayt are profound. It would make the entire web a free speech zone, where governments and corporations would have no more power over their public image than ordinary citizens. Everyone could "speak truth to power" and to do it in the most public and global forum possible: the internet. What you would see on the White House site or the Halliburton site or the McDonald's site would not be determined by the bottom line or a special interests but by the concerns of millions or ordinary people commenting and rayting. Instant democracy - at least online.

Now What?

Rayt does not exist yet. It's just an idea. If you'd like to help make Rayt a reality, you can e-mail Mary (MaryCJoyce AT gmail DOT com) and learn how to get involved.