TL;DR
Smartup Zero is the first live experiment of the Timeline0 research programme. A community of contributors is using the SmartupOS apparatus to build ONLIFE—an emergency communication network that works without internet or cell service—while every governance decision, task, and transaction is logged and measured against Engelbart’s eight indicators of Collective IQ.
The experiment is public. The data is live. The hypothesis is falsifiable.
🟠 Research Status: Pre‑Validation — The laboratory is operational. Baselines are being established. The first experimental cycles are generating data.
What Is Being Tested¶
Smartup Zero exists to test a single hypothesis:
Communities that operate under democratic ownership, shared institutional memory, and constitutional autonomy will measurably improve their Collective IQ.
The experiment is not about whether ONLIFE works as a technology. It is about whether the community building it becomes more collectively intelligent while doing so.
Three structural interventions are being tested simultaneously:
- Social: Every contributor is an equal owner. Authority is earned through service (Social Karma), not purchased.
- Technical: Every decision and lesson is permanently recorded in an append‑only ledger. Every task requires collaboration between an Attacker and a Defender.
- External: The mission is constitutionally locked. Funding comes from the community, not venture capital. All infrastructure is sovereign.
The evidence for or against the hypothesis is generated automatically by the apparatus. No surveys. No self‑reporting. Just machine‑readable telemetry.
What Is Being Built — ONLIFE¶
The experimental task assigned to the Smartup Zero community is to build ONLIFE: a decentralised emergency communication network that turns ordinary smartphones into a self‑organising mesh, capable of operating without internet or cell service.
ONLIFE is not the product. It is the experimental output—the real‑world challenge that forces the community to govern, collaborate, learn, and coordinate. The evidence generated while building it is the real product of the experiment.
What does ONLIFE do?
ONLIFE enables citizens and first responders to maintain communication during large‑scale emergencies like blackouts, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. Smartphones form ad‑hoc mesh networks using Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth. Verified alerts, location sharing, and messaging work without any central infrastructure.
The technology is open source, peer‑reviewed, and built entirely within the Smartup Zero governance framework.
Live Data from the Experiment¶
The following pages are automatically generated from the live ledger. They contain no marketing copy, no curated summaries—just the raw experimental data as it happens.
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1_general_forum
Public governance decisions, proposals, and votes.
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2_workplace
Operational coordination, task flows, and currency movements.
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3_teams
Current team membership, captain assignments, and activity.
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4_roles
Active roles, seniority levels, and open positions.
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5_objectives
Active and completed objectives with progress indicators.
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6_tasks
Task registry: statuses, budgets, assigned attackers and defenders.
The Official Smartup Business Plan — The Living Protocol¶
While the live data pages show the current state of the experiment, the OSBP is the evolving narrative that ties it all together. Each team is responsible for maintaining its chapter, updating it as the experiment progresses. The OSBP is the single reference point for understanding what Smartup Zero is, why it exists, and how it intends to achieve its mission.
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Executive Summary
The research question, the hypothesis, and the current phase of the experiment. Maintained by the Leadership Team.
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Design Blueprint
How ONLIFE works from the user's perspective. UX design, interface principles, and experience goals. Maintained by the Design Team.
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Development Blueprint
The technical architecture, stack choices, and implementation progress. Maintained by the Developer Team.
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Business Blueprint
Funding model, treasury management, licence structure, and economic sustainability. Maintained by the Business Team.
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Media Blueprint
Public communication strategy, narrative, and outreach. Maintained by the Media Team.
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Science Blueprint
Research questions, methodology, measurement framework, and evidence collection. Maintained by the Science Team.
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Operational Blueprint
Workflows, governance procedures, tooling, and constitutional enforcement. Maintained by the Operational Team.
The OSBP is a living document. Changes follow a democratic review process and are published automatically to the public site. It is the protocol the experiment runs on—and it evolves as the evidence comes in.
What We Measure¶
The experiment tracks improvement or decline across Engelbart’s eight indicators of Collective IQ. Every metric is pre‑registered and calculated directly from the ledger.
| Indicator | Metric | Current Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Learning | Search‑to‑Creation Ratio | Baseline being established |
| 2. Memory | Onboarding Velocity | Baseline being established |
| 3. Integration | Contribution Velocity | Baseline being established |
| 4. Self‑Understanding | Authority Concentration Index | Baseline being established |
| 5. Perception | Anomaly‑to‑Response Latency | Baseline being established |
| 6. Threat Recognition | Crisis Recovery Time | Baseline being established |
| 7. Planning | Plan Effectiveness | Baseline being established |
| 8. Coordination | Task Assessment Distribution | Baseline being established |
All metrics will be published as they become statistically meaningful. The measurement methodology is publicly documented in RFC‑004.
Our Groundings¶
The experiment is grounded in three forms of evidence that the problem it addresses is real and the approach is plausible.
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SDG Grounding
ONLIFE directly addresses UN Sustainable Development Goals for resilient infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable communities (SDG 11), and inclusive institutions (SDG 16). The mission is constitutionally locked to these goals.
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Scientific Grounding
The mesh protocol has been stress‑tested to 75+ nodes. The UX has been validated through academic partnerships. The governance model is based on Engelbart, Ostrom, and STS theory. Ten years of R&D underpin the current experiment.
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Democratic Grounding
The experiment is funded by the community, not by venture capital. Every contributor is an equal owner. The live data pages show exactly who is involved, what they are doing, and how decisions are made.
Current Phase¶
🟠 Pre‑Validation — The laboratory is being prepared for the first full experimental run.
Smartup Zero is currently: - ✅ Operating the full SmartupOS stack (Element, Engelbot, Forgejo, timeline0.org) - ✅ Enforcing the ADM collaboration pattern on every task - ✅ Running the dual‑currency system (SC for wealth, SK for authority) - ✅ Publishing complete ledger data to the public - ⏳ Establishing baselines for all eight CIQ indicators - ⏳ Preparing for the Validation Phase gate vote
Participate¶
Smartup Zero is an open experiment. You can:
- Observe — All data is public. Watch the experiment unfold in real time.
- Join — Become an owner‑contributor. Purchase a licence, earn a role, and generate data through participation.
- Replicate — SmartupOS is open source. Run the same experiment in your own community.
- Fund — Support the research through Open Collective.
Contact¶
The experiment is run by a real community of contributors. If you have questions, proposals, or want to collaborate, reach out.