Co-founder of Anytype is here [1]. Excited to share the multi-player release is live!
Last time I shared how Anytype can be used to build encrypted, local-first spaces around your interests [2]. Today, these spaces can be shared and co-created together: with your family members, small communities, teams, neighbors and people with similar interests. Examples: https://gallery.any.coop/Collaboration.
When we were testing collaboration internally for the first time, it felt like magic - we as a team were editing the same page, even after switching off the Internet - changes happened in an instant and all of them were synced via wi-fi.
Unlike cloud applications, in Anytype the encryption keys are stored locally, so only creators have access to them, so they own the space with its data and social graph. Every change is cryptographically signed, spaces can be created offline and can sync in peer to peer ways in local networks. This is enabled by open source protocol AnySync that supports high-performant collaboration over encrypted data and creators’ controlled keys. All our code is open on Github - https://github.com/anyproto/any-sync.
This first version of collaboration is very basic - it’s an alpha. It’s far from polished. We will focus on making it complete by adding notifications, public spaces, comments, and many other essential features in the coming months.
Why we’ve built it? Why anytype is the way it is?
WIth every architectural choice we aim to make fundamental digital freedoms unconditional. Here you can read more about why - cloud vs. local first Internet [2].
I agree that public spaces need rules, resolution of conflicts, etc - because as we can see networks are flooded with spam - i think this is the toughest question - how to govern them. Still, one centralised governance for all public spaces looks like not the best solution. I think ideas about more local governance - when for example categories / themes are governed by those who create it
I think a local first alternative and a direct connection of nodes in the network would lead to a healthier network if we think of it as a nervous system that connects us
While note-taking is cool and is one of the main use cases that anytype is used for today, we don’t place ourselves into the note-taking category. What we are building is a local first superapp (don’t like this word, but can’t find a better analog) - anytype aims to give powers of a flexible interface (a graph data-base with modular UI) and collaboration and communication capabilities based on local-first ideals. The aim is for users to build their own software from building blocks while this software is local first (not cloud). Also, we expect our community to contribute new data types, new plugins and new views. What is released needs to show what is possible.
Account creation happens on your device without an internet connection. Just the encryption key is generated. Anytype does not have a central registry of users. So i think you are misinterpreting it. We have no central registry where you create an account
Anytype aims to be an open ecosystem. We open the source code. Now will announce the contributor program. We will start with translations and gallery of templates, then imports/data adaptors, then design themes and extensions.
You can think of anytype as a web-site builder. You can create pages (objects), databases, interlink them, create a sidebar. Currently you have only one private space, so it’s more about personal knowledge and productivity. With sharing you can publish a blog, create a community or a private team space. So a site builder with a ux of a note taking (so easy, no skills required)
You can use anytype for free if you use your own resources (storage, backup). There is an option to selfhost, or just use locally with local sync. You can also become a member of our association and it’s membership based, it will give you backup (if you don’t want to handle it yourself) and some things on top for those who want their spaces to be discoverable in our network. If you use privately for your team/org you may not be interested in paying. That’s ok with us :) joining the association and paying is voluntary. We have a principal of universal accessibility
This is how the email system works. We invited everyone from our waitlist ahead of the beta. But we can’t control email deliverability. We know that several % of our letters never reach recipients, but have no influence how to change that. Very annoying. And sorry you didn’t get your invitation
Those who don’t think it matters already have a choice of great products. We try to build a better alternative to those who think it does. We also think it’s our job to make the ux great, to make sn analogy we think a healthy and tasty food is a better value proposition which for a network is very important.
(co-founder anytype here)
tables are simple now, no formulas. Plan to add formulas to data-bases (what I think you mean by notion having it) - it's one of the top requested features on our forum
not yet, we have very limited import options at the moment (notion, markdown, csv and protobuf). This surely limits our activation > not easy to start. We are working on more import options and also plan to publish an API and hope our community helps to build more options together with us
(co-founder of anytype)
the whole purpose of anytype is user autonomy from software provider. The data standard is open. The code is open. You can self-host your network of backup nodes (tech skills required as this is self-hosting alpha released this week). The app is local first with p2p sync (you remove the back up node, you still have your data and still have sync in local networks). Most importantly you control the keys - encryption keys, access to your account - this is not touched by anytype - noone can block you out of your account, no central registry of users, all these. There are two principles for our business model: self-sustinability - support a community of contributors to improve the product and build this positive fly wheel and universal accessibility - anyone can use anytype for free if they use their resources. I hope all of this decisions deserve attention and reveal our intention (they are not accidental things)
hey everyone, Zhanna - co-founder of anytype here (with my co-founder Anton also here). If you have questions or feedback, we are here to answer and listen :)
we agree, we have an internal mantra "people use products, not protocols". This does not diminish the importance of philosophies. The way we design our product and protocols is based on principles, because of the role software started to play in our lives - the second order consequences of the architectural choices lead to the results we get in our social life. We are believers of fundamental digital freedoms (privacy, ability to connect with those we trust) and importance of user and creator autonomy from the software provider (these freedoms to be governed by us not by software companies). We used these principles to guide our architectural decisions.
At the same time, we fully understand that if we want to build something meaningful we need to do the hardest part. Turn our ideals into the UX that would be attractive on its own. We are focusing on that. Hope to show that the p2p protocols can turned into a product that is fun to use. We are just making our baby steps towards this (not there yet)
(co-founder of anytype) our main promises are privacy, end-to-end encryption, user controlled keys, self-hosting, p2p sync - all of which should add up to what we can user autonomy from the software provider which we believe to be important.
To prove these claims the best way is open the source code. As promises of encryption and ownership stay promises unless you can be sure of it. That was one main motivation and why we think it's worth highlighting.
(co-founder of anytype)
thank you for this feedback! Totally agree, that import sucks - very few options. We plan to improve the import and also publish an API to engage our community of contributors to help us build and improve more of them.
on titles of daily notes - again, well spotted - again, we have plans to improve :)
happy you liked p2p sync - this was the main objective and the next big thing here is multi-player based on p2p
Last time I shared how Anytype can be used to build encrypted, local-first spaces around your interests [2]. Today, these spaces can be shared and co-created together: with your family members, small communities, teams, neighbors and people with similar interests. Examples: https://gallery.any.coop/Collaboration.
When we were testing collaboration internally for the first time, it felt like magic - we as a team were editing the same page, even after switching off the Internet - changes happened in an instant and all of them were synced via wi-fi.
Unlike cloud applications, in Anytype the encryption keys are stored locally, so only creators have access to them, so they own the space with its data and social graph. Every change is cryptographically signed, spaces can be created offline and can sync in peer to peer ways in local networks. This is enabled by open source protocol AnySync that supports high-performant collaboration over encrypted data and creators’ controlled keys. All our code is open on Github - https://github.com/anyproto/any-sync.
This first version of collaboration is very basic - it’s an alpha. It’s far from polished. We will focus on making it complete by adding notifications, public spaces, comments, and many other essential features in the coming months.
Why we’ve built it? Why anytype is the way it is? WIth every architectural choice we aim to make fundamental digital freedoms unconditional. Here you can read more about why - cloud vs. local first Internet [2].
[1] https://anytype.io/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38794733 [3] https://blog.anytype.io/the-nervous-system-of-humanity-needs...