WeMenu
Inspired by its big brother, the MeMenu. Designed with the community in mind.
Original design and specification: RandallRoss
This specification is incomplete. Want to help?
Your feedback is welcome at WeMenu/Comments.
Disclaimer
None of this specification is currently implemented. No code has been written. This is purely a proposal for discussion and refinement. UDS-N may be our opportunity to begin work on this.
Rationale
The modern computer desktop lacks a focus on community. As a result users are swept away into an endless sea of of data, trivia, and distractive content from the instant their computer is connected to the net. One might argue that the net has become a solvent for true community, flooding us instead with loose affiliations and data smog.
I've seen this first hand. Perhaps you have too. Walk into any major public library and observe what most users of public computers are doing. Facebook, YouTube, Farmville, some free web mail, and maybe a few other "amusements". Is this the net sum of all the work that we've done to build the internet and associated infrastructure?
Ubuntu is a human-centric project and system. Its desktop should provide a richer experience than that offered by the competition. It should endeavor to strengthen the ties between a user, her family, her close friends, and her true community. Ubuntu's desktop should not only be an expression of self ("Me"), but also an expression of our connectedness and our humanity ("We"). It should allow us to find and connect easily with others nearby in meaningful and sustainable ways. Ubuntu should help ensure that local community flourishes.
Menu Title
The title of the menu should be an easily recognizable icon representing the community (the Ubuntu fish bowl is ideally suited for this) followed by your location. By default your location will be the one you've specified when setting up your computer, usually your city/town.
Menu Items
The menu items are ordered (top to bottom) from "strongest ties" to "weakest ties". This promotes local focus and directs our attention to those nearest to us. Each menu item expands outward when highlighted and can (optionally) be torn off in an expanded view when clicked and dragged.
(Yes, the graphic quality sucks. I'll make a better one soon.)
Ubuntu Local Community
This item represents the people in your city/town/village that are part of the Ubuntu community. This is considered the strongest tie within the context of the Ubuntu desktop as everything that powers the desktop (design, processes, code, translations, art) originates from Ubuntu community. It is a place to meet other Ubuntu users, developers, or simply to get community assistance locally.
(Yes, the graphic quality sucks. I'll make a better one soon.)
Family
Your relatives. They are nearest to your heart.
Friends
Those people that you enjoy associating with.
Neighborhood
People that live near you, usually within a short walk or bike ride. (i.e. A few city blocks.)
City (or Town)
People that live a little farther away, but still within your city/town limits.
Other
People that aren't necessarily near you, but that you still associate with.
How Do Items Expand?
The idea is to expand highlighted menu items to a window that shows avatars or icons that represent the components of the item. These components sort geographically from nearest to farthest.
(Yes, the graphic quality sucks. I'll make a better one soon.)
Possibly Useful Technologies
These are projects that have useful ideas or code to potentially use as building blocks.
LoCo Directory
A feed from this database could help power the "Ubuntu Local Community" item. Possibly an RSS feed that gets parsed.
Folks
libfolks is a library that aggregates people from multiple sources (eg, Telepathy connection managers and eventually evolution data server, Facebook, etc.) to create metacontacts. http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Folks/Roadmap
Sugar "Mesh View"
The user interface present in (OLPC's) Sugar has a notion of "zooming" to relate four discrete views of nearby people. They are: Home, Groups, Neighborhood, and Activity. The interface permits zooming in and out on the mesh community. (Source: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Laptop_Experience/Zoom_Metaphor) 
Gwibber
Pull updates from people you follow into the respective items.
"FreedomBox" (and similar concepts)
Projects like the FreedomBox and Diaspora are working towards liberating one's social data from Facebook and similar proprietary services. We should support this idea and ensure that we build interfaces to free social networking projects.
Ubuntu One and/or UEC
With the liberation of personal data there is a natural requirement to host one's personal data somewhere. Ubuntu One is a natural fit. UEC may be a useful way to not only host the data but also the server instance. (Diaspora calls it a "seed")
Avahi
Useful for pre-populating the Neighbourhood item.
Geolocation
Useful for sorting (expanded) items from nearest to farthest.