{"id":293,"date":"2009-04-10T15:59:29","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T20:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/10\/pre-announcing-prometheus\/"},"modified":"2009-04-10T15:59:31","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T20:59:31","slug":"pre-announcing-prometheus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/10\/pre-announcing-prometheus\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-announcing Prometheus"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past month I have been working on my first iPhone application, code-named Prometheus. It’s a dedicated editor for Simple English Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simple Wikipedia<\/h3>\n

The Simple English Wikipedia<\/a> is a wikipedia written in simplified English<\/a>, using only a few common words, simple grammar, and shorter sentences. The goal is for it to be as accessible as possible<\/strong>. That’s something that really resonates with me<\/a>. There are many reasons why I think it’s an important project, but I’ll only briefly mention one sappy example.<\/p>\n

Children<\/strong> can’t understand all of the Grown Up Wikipedia<\/a>. Simple Wikipedia helps put more knowledge within their reach. I started writing weekly reports in the 5th grade. I’m sure many schools make students start sooner, and certainly I had to write infrequent reports much earlier. An encyclopedia at a 4th grade reading level would have been a fantastic tool to learn more about the world.<\/p>\n

Prometheus<\/h3>\n

In Greek mythology Prometheus<\/a> was, “the Titan god of forethought and the creator of mankind. He cheated the gods on several occasions on behalf of man, including the theft of fire.”<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Prometheus iPhone app brings knowledge from the American-English Wiki Gods<\/a> the to the majority of the world that does not speak English natively<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Given the platform<\/a>, I believe enabling small quick edits is the best way to go. I want to make it easy for a native English speaker to spend 30 seconds correcting grammar while waiting in line.<\/p>\n

With more constrained language, writing-aids become even more helpful. Surprisingly, I find myself using a thesaurus more<\/em> when writing Simple English, to be sure I’m using the clearest synonym I can. There’s a lot more an application like Prometheus can do to help, because it’s not targeting a complex language.<\/p>\n

Roadmap<\/h3>\n

I’ll be brutally honest, the first release is not going to have any fancy analytical features I originally envisioned. My goal is to get a 1.0 release out quickly, then iterate on the feedback and what I learn. I also have a selfish motivation here, because I’m looking for a job<\/a>, and not having something in the App Store yet has been a big barrier.<\/p>\n

What I can promise for 1.0 is<\/p>\n