The network layer

This is where true geeks would have started their explanations from. We rather chose to present it here, when at least the subject of such extended logorrhoea is finally clear. If you are not interested in the co-operative mechanism included in the OWm2 storage engine you may happily skip this page.

We said that the object object is included in everything we store, like an engine that performs lots of useful tasks while many drivers simply ignore most of its details. Well, inside an object object there is yet another hidden engine, the network_object object. This really is the basement layer, there is nowhere deeper than here.

A network_object knows everything that is needed to move objects along different nodes in the extended network. It carries identifiers that have a universal validity, it identifies where and by whom an object was created and it is responsible for keeping an history of the larger object built on top of it, any time this larger entity gets altered in any of its parts.

Since it is the ambassador of any item towards the network at large, a network_object has much more awareness of the total entity in which it's included than any other part of it. It must have it, because the network daemon needs to know which is which, to correctly organize the sequence of its operations.

It is in fact relevant to introduce new elements in such an order that will ensure that any new object will find in place all the elements it needs to work. For example, when a new language object is created and used to classify content, it is vital to import this object before we import the content that it will classify.

The network_object is also the place in which a user stores his/her commands to the network daemon. A user may want to keep some content private, or he/she may be unhappy with what other editors or administrators out there are doing with a given object.

The network_object is the engine that can perform an unlink operation, thus ensuring that a particular object is disconnected by the global network and that no matter what other people do with it, the user will never see it changed again (but obviously the user can still edit it locally). Since literally everything contains a network_object users can unlink from the network whatever they please.

Unlinked objects are always returned at the top of local searches. This is no ideological position, but a simple practical consideration: people usually protect those things they most care for. It would be very annoying if those very things were buried at the bottom of their search results.