[doublerebel]

There absolutely should be distributed short-form knowledge. Only metadata needs to be exposed in order to find small facts. I don't think there is any need for payment per-datum for such knowledge. This kind of static content is simple to trust as well.

Long-form knowledge, in contrast, still has massive value and many channels exist for distribution and consumption already.

If we base the web of trust on facts combined with people then we can walk the short web and exit at the long-form.

However nobody wants to create a web of trust based on a system that encourages selfies and ephemeral knowledge -- we've tried that. And this is where things get interesting.