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The most exciting implication of @RoamResearch block references is the design of a protocol for the open web built on the blockification of original sources, allowing clean/easy block attribution, connection, and translation into different formats. We could call it Quoteblock. 
You can think of Quoteblock as âsuper advanced retweeting, but not for tweets.â No permission is needed to build this. The spec could be as simple as http://somedomain.org/blog/some-post ââp3-p5 (the ââ is actually consecutive apostrophes, allowed in URLs but rare to find in the wild).
Since Quoteblock is based on document permalinks and the semantic block structure of those documents, http://somedomain.org/blog/some-post ââp3-p5 is already a unique identifier __with its ownership/provenance built in__. So how would it render? This is where Quoteblock gets fun...
Using tweet embeds as reference, Quoteblock renders a blockquote of the specified block or blocks, also pulling basic styles and an attribution logo from the origin, maybe some page context. Quoteblock is about to get crazy powerful with the Quoteblock Graph and Formats.
The Quoteblock Graph is where the #roamcult comes in, because honestly they are the ones most qualified to design how the Graph should work. You could design it without them, but that would be an unforgivable mistake.
Quoteblock Formats is where we introduce something that doesnât exist currently: The ability to translate blocks, not just to other languages but also to other MEDIA. The simplest example, what is an imageâs alt-text other than a âtranslationâ of that image into writing? More
What is a transcript of a video but an alternative format of that video? Why shouldnât I be able to explore available formats/translations at the block level? And if they donât exist, why shouldnât I be able to PROVIDE THEM? The value of Quoteblock Formats grows exponentially.
I first introduced the Quoteblock concept to @thepericulum on a call when he reached out to talk about using Roam for screenwriting. @Conaw and team are THE model toolmaker when it comes to engagement with their users. The reason for the #roamcult is far more than Roam itself.
The other reason the #roamcult in particular will want Quoteblock to exist is that, when the Great Roam Unification occurs someday in the not-too-distant future, our references wonât need to be based on a million copy-pasted duplicates.
By the way, thereâs no reason that Quoteblock needs to be limited only to the web, itâs just the easiest place to start. You can just as easily imagine referencing scenes from a movie or sections of a podcast by timecode, or a paragraph from a book by chapter and paragraph.
On the open web with Quoteblock, source material is truly source material, originating at its own permalink/owner, creating a referenceable âshadow graphâ for every block/primary source on the web. I canât build this. I hope someone in the #roamcult can and will. I can help.
I was inspired to put this out there by @Malcolm_Oceanâs thinking. I can help design if #roamcult takes it and runs with it but Iâm not the one to actually do it, nor is my company at the moment. I do have the @QuoteblockSpec Twitter and http://quoteblock.io domain to donate.
Actually, probably the best team to help define this would be @readwiseio, since they are the tool so many of us are using to pull blocks from sources into Roam/other places⊠While Iâm sure thereâs a commercial application, I do think the protocol/spec must be open to be useful.
