DBooks is Now on Utopian.io as an Open Source Project

Repository

https://github.com/feekayo/dbooks.org
https://github.com/feekayo/dbooks-api

Introducing the DBooks.org project to the Utopian community

We are proud to announce that the DBook.org project has now gone open source, first launched in test Alpha the 28th of April 2018. The Dbooks.org project was conceived as an audacious project aimed at creating a sustainable and rewarding platform for writers of fiction and non-fiction books and their fans on the steem blockchain. Two months, 72 books and 1039 reads (as of the time of making this post) later and we are now truly poised to take DBooks.org to the next level of development

We have always believed in the power of open source projects as the future of shaping open blockchain community projects, and existing infrastructure created by us has now been made open source after we positively tested the prove of concept and viability of the platform.

Now we look forward to anyone interested in contributing to the project by helping us redevelop the frontend application and implement more features on both ends while also testing and reviewing the application through utopian.io

What is DBooks.org?

DBooks.org is Steemit’s premier book publishing platform and community. It is aimed at creating a community funded and open source publishing platform that allows writers of books in form of fiction and non-fiction to publish their work on the Steem Blockchain whilst not being punished by steemit’s publish or die rewards system; enabling them earn royalties from completed works.

There exists an early Beta we are looking to completely overhaul (currently live on https://www.dbooks.org) which serves as a proof of concept for the platform as we currently have a user base of 201 users and 72 published/semi published works.

What is different about DBooks.org?

There are certain pervasive problems that makes steemit a death trap for creative writers interested in writing serious works of fiction and non-fiction.

First of all is the fact that steemit is first and foremost a blogging application; and just as with all blogging applications; the relevance of a post is directly proportional to how recently it was posted and how many recent views and upvotes it gets

The second is the fact that after seven days have passed; and the payout has been paid, the writer of an article has gotten the maximum rewards. There are no possibility of further rewards down the line.
Both of these pervasive problems have made Steemit.com a death trap for self-publishing novelists and writers as their works get easily lost in the blockchain and their rewards are limited to just seven days after publication.

Dbooks has an interesting take on resolving this problem by first and foremost; allowing publication of posts in a serial manner in the form of books. To solve the second; we’ve sampled creating a reward pool for writers; through writer subscriptions, book purchases and community contributions through upvotes. This reward pool would be shared amongst writers on the platform on a monthly basis based on the amount of traction (reads, reviews, ratings etc.) their project gets during the course of said month

How to Contribute?

Help in our development

We would be providing extensive documentation on how to help in developing the application over the coming days.

After which we would be providing task-requests aimed at moving the product through its’ development lifecycle. Pull requests would be accepted by our team for the following repositories.

https://github.com/feekayo/dbooks.org
https://github.com/feekayo/dbooks-api

Contributions are expected to be submitted through Utopian.io tags

Technology Stack

To properly contribute to this application; you are expected to be proficient in one or more of the following

1. AngularJS 2
2. NodeJS
3. HTML5
4. CSS
5. Mongoose
6. SteemConnect v2
7. UI-Bootstrap

FAQ… Is it Free?

No… Really No.
In an ideal world where Smart Media Tokens (SMTs) are ready to be used in Steem community projects; then the answer to this question would be Yes. But the immediate need to extend the reward shelf life of books for novelists and other book writers have made us have to make some pretty interesting choices.
Those choices include the introduction of certain fees meant to serve as Royalties and a general reward pool for the writer community.
These fees include

1. Book Purchase Fees:- Set by the writer for each book he wants to monetize. 75% of this fee goes to the writer, while the remainder goes to the community.
2. Writer Subscription Fees:- Also set by the Writer, allows users access to all his books for 1 month; 75% of each payment goes to the Writer. 25% to the community
3. Liquid Rewards:- 75-25 ratio once again. For the same purposes

These fees are set by the writers; and are expected to be a token value (could even be set as free). The 25% community fees would be used for community developments projects (Bounties & Contests) and Monthly Royalties payments. The DBooks team is not hoping to make any money from all this; but rather aims to provide writers with multiple and sustainable income streams. And we're hoping to make everything as transparent as possible

For now (At least till SMTs are ready for mass adoption, and based on community demand); DBooks.org would serve as a marketplace where steem tokens are exchanged for Books. A Community bookstore if you wish.

We are however open to ideas on how to better implement a rewards and royalties system that indefinitely extends content reward shelf life

Roadmap

Over the next two-three months, we hope to provide extensive documentations and task requests aimed at extending the current backend functionality whilst totally redeveloping the fronted architecture. The core goals of our development include.

1. A more attractive and reactive design
2. A more community oriented UX
3. An improved and seamless integration with the Steem Blockchain
4. Implementation of various community requested features
5. Elimination of bugs

Meet The Team

The DBooks team currently consists of four members

1. @feekayo: Founder and CTO
2. @timoshey: Founder and Business Manager
3. @the23Chronicles: Community Manager
4. @kurodevs: Developer

Contact Information

We have a dedicated discord server

https://discord.gg/A3tAHMS

Join us for complaints, contributions and general merriment

Github Account

https://github.com/feekayo