April 30, 2003
Mixed Results
Late, but as promised, here's the news from the climbing trip. The trip was somewhat mixed. The weather, by the time we finally arrived was fantastic. Not too hot, no rain for the sleeping. (0000I0)
Ding and I fulfilled our goal and made it to the top of Return of Chris Snyder. Unfortunately we did whine and flail and take our way to the top. I had two excuses: (0000I1)
- Tree pollen was at some astronomical level. My allergies had me hyperventialating for air as I struggled up the route. (0000I2)
- I was stopped for speeding on the way to the red. Now I have to go to court. It was that fast. (0000I3)
So, now I'm accepting advice on two fronts: Allergy cures, and Kentucky traffic law. (0000I4)
Pictures coming soon, as soon as I get my notebook back. (0000I5)
April 26, 2003
Unbound
Finally someone let me out of my cage. (0000HU)
I guess it was me. (0000HV)
Ding and I are finally making a long awaited trip down to the red do a little climbing. I've been yearning to do this all Spring and somehow convinced myself that other things were more important. So now, off we go, and it is good. Things like the forecasted rain will not deter. It's the red, there be overhangs there. (0000HW)
On the agenda is an overhanging sport route classic known as The Return of Chris Snyder (it's impossible to tell where up really is in the picture, draw a line from the lower right to the upper left and that approximates one aspect of vertical). (0000HX)
Last summer, on our first ever trip, I screamingly muscled myself up to just past the big overhang and then just plain failed, all out of juice. It's been a year, we figure we can get it this time around. We might whine and flail, but we'll go to the top. (0000HY)
News on Sunday. (0000HZ)
April 25, 2003
Concrete Collaboration
Anne and others, in various places, have reminded me that although I may like it there, living in the land of abstraction doesn't often change things in any immediate sense. So, since she's been suggesting that her husband and I need to provide some concrete advice on how buzzword-compliant collaboration can improve "respect in the workplace" and "help people do their jobs better right now" here's something that worked for me. I'm drawing directly on my own experience managing what was, for a while, an extremely high performance team. There's nothing new or revolutionary about this, but people don't often do it and I wish they did, so maybe writing it down has some value. No guarantees, context is everything; results will vary with degree of application. This method has a bias towards a certain work style. Explaining this briefly does not do it justice but time, at the moment, does not allow more. Thus you might find this rather, well, unexciting. And excuse any missteps, I've probably left out something important, but this is a blog after all. (0000H8)
This recipe applies to small teams working synchronously and in-person. It assumes that the participants are performing some kind of "knowledge work" in which maintaining a good flow of information, understanding and context is important. It may apply equally well in other situations. I suspect it would. (0000H9)
First: (0000HA)
- Make a group email list. (0000HB)
- Archive it. (0000HC)
- Use it for all internal communication. (0000HD)
- If your group makes regular contact with other groups have that contact go through the email list (send and receive) but designate one role that responds to those contacts. The responder role should rotate amongst the group members. (0000HE)
- When communication occurs somewhere other than the email list, backload it to the list for the archive and to keep everyone informed (e.g. meeting minutes) (0000HF)
That makes for a lot of email but it has several benefits: (0000HG)
- It enforces learning. (0000HH)
- It exposes shortfalls in people's understandings which can then be remedied. (0000HI)
- It automatically creates an archive of much of the tacit knowledge in the organization that can later be refactored as training materials, project documentation, reports, etc. (0000HJ)
- It identifies individuals in the group that have special skills which can be put to greater use. (Or to put it another way, the secretary, the source of all the how-to knowledge, can be glorified; merit goes where merit is deserved.) (0000HK)
- It maintains or at least informs the narrative or script that drives activity. (0000HL)
That alone addresses some of the needs that Anne mentioned but there's more. A system like this, when managed well, encourages a sense of openness and discussion that can often lead to innovation. It also frees up the mind from remembering context and how to do the job by creating a system of external cognitive aids that by there mere presence (i.e. even if you don't use them but just know they are there) install some confidence, understanding, and a sense of place and belonging. (0000HM)
Identifying those external structures as cognitive aids is what leads to the abstract meanderings and tool building that is usually happening on this weblog. What are the mechanisms, metaphors, analogies and patterns that support those cognitive aids? (0000HN)
PurpleNumbers, for example, are a tool to enhance the accessibility of document based cognitive aids. They provide a way to create handles to artifacts out there in the world. (0000HO)
All of this emailing of course comes with significant cost in overhead. It's a lot to read and there has to be someone in the group, usually the manager, who process managerial directives and other big picture bits of context into the flow of information (this is a crucial part of the activity, requiring a manager that is fully converted and committed to the religion). Those are time consuming activities. (0000HP)
My opinion is that calling it overhead does the activity a disservice. If the job of a "knowledge worker" is to smartly process knowledge, then managing communication is a crucial part of the job. My experience has been that the performance enhancement that results from increasing the access to context and knowledge makes up for the supposedly lost time. (0000HQ)
Many people react to this prescription by saying they don't have time do the email or they simply don't like having email play such a large role in their activity (for example, they are too busy out with clients trying to sell things). I'm not sure how to respond to that. Again, my experience has been that the increased knowledge and access to knowledge that results from all the sharing results in increased performance and synchronicity between participants (using the sales example again, salespeople are more able to sell products and services that actually exist, at the right prices and with the correct specifications). (0000HR)
Certainly there is a limit to the number of people that can work with this kind of scheme. I suspect it is somewhere around 10 people. (0000HS)
My concerns with systematizing collaboration fit in with this picture. The above is not something you can foist on a group of workers by managerial decree and all of sudden there will be higher performance and greater respect in the workplace. You have to have to have commitment from all the participants. Getting that commitment is a chicken and egg problem which might make another topic some other time. (0000HT)
April 24, 2003
PurpleWiki MovableType update
In a recent comment on an early entry about integrating PurpleWiki and MovableType, Danny Ayers asks about what sort of progress has been made. Here are some rough notes on what's up. (0000GM)
The original goal was to create handles (PurpleNumbers) for granular addressing to paragraphs in blog entries. That's done and works just fine. The little purple hash marks that follow each structural section of this entry are href's pointing to named anchors within the text. You can copy and paste the URL under the # and make direct reference. (0000GN)
Because the system is using the PurpleWiki parser to create the PurpleNumbers there are a few bonus features: (0000GO)
- Wiki formatting such as lists (0000GP)
- Wiki words such as FrontPage are parsed and point to a configured wiki (0000GQ)
Thus far I have been unable to make this stuff work as a pure Text Formatting plugin for MovableType. This is because the plugins run each time an entry is formatted for output. The PurpleNumbers I'm using are domain unique ids that are created at the time the referenced text is created and stay with the text after that. The computation to create the numbers must be done before the text is saved into the data store. Ben Trott has provided a suggestion for how to override MT::Entry::save() outside the distributed code but I've not had time to mess with that, so these features require a patch down inside lib/MT. So, saving the text as PurpleWiki is not a plugin, but the presentation (the wiki to html translation) is. (0000GR)
Further complicating the picture is the fact that my current development version of PurpleWiki is far off the current 0.1 release and not well packaged. My changes include: (0000GS)
- Sequence based purple number generation (0000GT)
- This allows for PurpleNumbers that are unique across a given domain and provides the basis for lots of future fun. (0000GU)
- Explicit naming of the URL that forms the base for the named anchor (0000GV)
- This was necessary for MovableType to ensure the PurpleNumbers point to the permalink. (0000GW)
- Support SpaceCGI (0000GX)
- Very rudimentary support for human and machine readable fake/manual TransClusion. Follow SpaceCGI for more info and a demonstration. (0000GY)
That's the stuff that's being used on this blog. (0000GZ)
Also in the works is a graph-based data storage mechanism for Wiki pages and other systems that use the PurpleWiki parser. The goal of that work is to implement true transclusions in wiki pages. It's fairly close at this point but I need some serious HeadSpace to get it to all come together and that hasn't been available lately. In the meantime I've considered hacking the mechanism that SpaceCGI uses into the PurpleWiki viewer code. (0000H0)
In related news: TomMunnecke noticed on the collab list that MovableType comments don't get PurpleNumbers. I'd like to do this. I'll need to create a save() in MT::Comment and do in it what I've done in MT::Entry. The only issue with that is that it is an all or nothing sort of thing: people leaving comments will be leaving them in PurpleWiki style. That could result in some interesting formatting. (0000H1)
In somewhat less related news: I also have in the works a text formatting plugin that automatically generates haiku from the text in an entry and sticks it on the end. Queer Barney wants to use it, so I tried it in an earlier posting. It's working but needs to have the better syllable detection method turned on (there are two) and it needs to be packaged. Packaging is always the hardest part for me. (0000H2)
April 18, 2003
Do Not Go Gently
From Toby's Political Diary (0000GJ)
I'm going out to the woods this weekend to get away from all this. (0000GL)
Banging on an open door...mumble
In a comment on my Blue Oxen Vision entry Tom Munnecke says some thought provoking stuff, including: (0000GD)
Great stuff, and I like the passion you express, but I wonder if you aren't banging against an open door. There already is tremendous self-expression and adaptation of the democratic process via the web... look at Moveon.org has done, for example. (0000GE)
(Read the whole thing for the whole context.) (0000GF)
I think "banging against an open door" is apt. Part of my personal conflict over BOA is that an effort to formalize and aggregate collaboration, collaborative tools and collaborative thinkers somehow takes the edge off. It is the (undefined) edge which gets people going. (0000GG)
When people say, "Hey, collaboration is good, let's collaborate on, um, uh...something!" it feels like they are separated from the core energy that drives the process. Places like moveon are a success because they are attached to a real and concrete need that is regularly updated and placed in the real world. (0000GH)
The passionate language I use is an effort to try and inject some motivation (for me, something to grab onto) into a space that has none on its own. In the end, though, it feels ineffectual; that is, I don't feel more connected. (0000GI)
April 17, 2003
Bring on the Teeth
In an interview in Switch Doug Engelbart says: (0000G0)
Don't lightly tromp along paradigms because you'll get bitten. (0000G1)
This after suggesting the only way to really address the need for change is to tromp heavily on our own personal paradigms, breaking free of the constraints of our usual experience to see new possibilities. Not just evolutionary change, but revolutionary change. (0000G2)
It's remarkable and refreshing how many times he uses the words "intuition" or "intuitive" in the interview. (0000G3)
I had the pleasure of having lunch with Doug last week and he used it then too. (0000G4)
I believe that intuition is the source of genius. That is, genius exists outside of (known) rational processes. Rational processes build the tools that create and maintain paradigms (and thus a degree of security and safety). (0000G5)
Another quote from the article: (0000G6)
Slayton: I use Herbert Simon's text in my class teaching art students about complexity and how to think about software and coding as an art medium. Making software as art. In his text he says this about in the context of talking about learning: "If achievements exceed aspirations satisfaction is recorded as positive, and if aspirations exceed achievements there is dissatisfaction." (0000G7)
Engelbart: I must be a very dissatisfied guy then. (0000G8)
Think on This
Things I read today that seemed to have a connection, to me and to each other. Things I'd like to think about some more. (0000FA)
CITIZENS, NOT CONSUMERS: A MANIFESTO FOR A NEW NON-COMMERCIAL ECONOMY (0000FB)
Dave Pollard provides advice on a slow revolution against the "commercialization of everything". (0000FC)
We have declined in social, political and economic importance from citizens participating in the development of our world, to disenfranchised consumers who do and buy what we are told. Our value in society is now based on how much we own and how much we earn, rather than how much we contribute. Our status is measured in terms of wealth, rather than well-being. (0000FD)
The tools of this revolution are frugality, education, and the creation of non-commercial economy. (0000FE)
What's the best MetroCard option for you? (0000FF)
From kottke.org: A simple demonstration of what's wrong with the economy. (0000FG)
McGee Roughs (0000FH)
Eric presents his notes from a presentation on collaboration at the Seabury Institute that included Jim McGee?. (0000FI)
McGee? posits the question of 'permission to think' in organizations. Does one have to ask [p]ermission to think, is one deprecated for thinking, or thinking out[ ]loud? (0000FJ)
Eric has some musings I found valuable. He questions whether knowledge management is an imposition of answers or the empowerment of knowledge workers. I think this is the question that must be answered soon, or else knowledge as an empowering tool for individuals will be co-opted into the consumerist universe Pollard describes. Large segments of the KM business see knowledge tools as ways to harvest the latent creativity of the workers to reach economic goals. If the workers happen to be shinier happier people in the meantime, that's great and all, but don't forget the bottom line. (0000FK)
More development, less progress (0000FL)
Loosely Coupled presents an article in response to an interview with Marc Andreesen. (0000FM)
But at all costs, it's essential to resist the temptation to over-engineer the core platform. (0000FN)
You see, if you try too hard, you'll end up with something that's too sophisticated to catch on, and too constraining to have broad applicability. (0000FO)
I made this argument about faceted classification once upon a time. Philip Murray found a brief note of mine that claims faceted classification fails in the face of the criteria in innovation diffusion theory. I've complained in a similar fashion about RDF. (0000FP)
I think, however, that there are economic and political factors that drive creators to make things complicated: they create barriers that require work to get across and separate the powerful from the not. (0000FQ)
Will Technology Transform the Modern Corporation? (0000FR)
Rob Paterson compares two British naval ships, HMS Inflexible and HMS Dreadnought, as examples of a cultural shift in attitudes about knowledge. (0000FS)
So what is the lesson for us? Lesson #1 is that on its own technology does not do it. We won't sell KM or blogging etc as a stand alone artifact. What is needed as a driver is a new doctrine. For Fisher it was the issue of asymmetry. A cheap torpedo boat could sink a battle ship. Getting in close was no longer a "good" idea. So he had to find a way of fighting at a distance. Hence a revolution in doctrine. The all big gun ship driven fast by a turbine engine. The technology to achieve this demanded a shift in social culture at work as well. (0000FT)
True enough: technology on its own does not "do it". But why the unfortunate reference to sales? (0000FU)
Open Here (0000FV)
From stpeter: (0000FW)
This approach points to the critical importance of the "third leg" of the stool: an open community. An open protocol or format that is dominated by big companies (with only one marginal open-source implementation or a few token offerings from smaller developers) is not a healthy ecosystem. To really thrive, a protocol needs a wealth of implementations -- some closed, some open, some from big companies, some from smaller development houses, some from open-source projects -- and a community in which the real people who do the work and use the software can share information and learn from each other. (0000FX)
It's remarkable the number of times people says things like "Oh, hey, I know, if we get some people talking, things will be better." Isn't that obvious? Shouldn't that be obvious? Fie on my malgnostic thinking. Isn't it great that so many people are talking about it these days? (0000FY)
That's better. (0000FZ)
April 16, 2003
Smell 'em, they're everywhere, get out
A CELEBRATION OF SMELLS: ODOUR, MEMORY AND EMOTION (0000F5)
Introverts generally have a more acute sense of smell than extroverts, perhaps their awareness of subliminal danger signals carried in some scents makes them socially cautious (0000F6)
And here I thought I was psychic. (0000F7)
More excellent writing and info from How to Save the World. (0000F8)
April 15, 2003
A Classification of Associative and Formal Concepts
A Classification of Associative and Formal Concepts (0000EN)
A paper from Uta Priss, briefly my advisor at SLIS, that "describes a ten-fold classification of concepts that correspond to different stages of cognitive development". The "paper argues that associative and formal conceptual structures are combined in human cognition". (0000EO)
Dense, pithy stuff. I don't feel quite right about the way in which formal concepts and full language are so tightly coupled. It conflicts with the process of analogy that I see (because I want to?) going on in persuasive communication. (0000EP)
I guess that's part of the point she's making though: there's a travelling up and down on the various dimensions she describes that happens as we think. (0000EQ)
More from the paper: (0000ER)
The divide between associative and formal structures occurs in many disciplines. While there may not be a precise definition of “associative” and “formal” that fits all these distinctions in different disciplines, a list of representative features can be compiled: Associative structures are usually fuzzy, complex, and emergent whereas formal structures are precise, defined or designed. Associative structures can be represented with words but also as maps, networks or other diagrams. The forms of the representations matter. For example, the associative content of poetry cannot easily be translated into other languages because of connotations. Formal structures can be represented using symbolic logic, rule-based knowledge systems, and conceptual graphs (Sowa, 1984). It is possible to translate between different formal representations because only the structure of representations matters (such as whether they are equivalent to first order logic) but not the form. In general, associative structures are grounded and depend on experiences, perception and observation. Formal structures on the other hand are often designed in a top-down manner and are theoretical. The main reasoning mechanisms of associative structures are analogy and recognition based on observation of similarity and co-occurrence; whereas the main reasoning mechanisms of formal structures are deduction, logical inferences and the establishment of causal explanations within a theory. (0000ET)
I'm an associative structures groupie. (0000EU)
April 14, 2003
Anarchic Emergent Collaboration
Here's some more of a continuing exploration of the politics of collaboration. (0000DY)
I find it helpful to distinguish between two dimensions of collaboration: Emergent versus Imposed and Loose versus Tight. There are presumably many more. (0000DZ)
Emergent collaboration comes about in response to a discovered need that is shared amongst a group of people. This is often seen in the group-forming associated with weblog networks. (0000E0)
Imposed collaboration is arbitrary group work where frequently the shared need is given (by some outside force) to a group that has been created for the task. People get this in their work as employees or students. (0000E1)
Loose collaboration occurs when there is no formal relationship between the participants. They are associated by their shared understandings and shared beliefs, often across distance and time. I'm in Seb Paquet's creative network and I think of him as being in mine. I've never met him, and emailed only twice. (0000E2)
Tight collaboration occurs where there are relationships and roles which are more formal: co-workers, teammates on sports teams. (0000E3)
Any collaborative event can presumably be mapped onto a coordinate plane representing these dimensions. Blog-style collaboration is highly emergent and loose, for example. (0000E4)
My contention is that emergent and loose collaboration is the most natural style. By this I mean that it is the most in tune with human nature. From this I'm willing to state that emergent collaboration and consensus building is not simply emergent democracy in action as some people like to think, but is in fact communal anarchism in action. (0000E5)
Anarchism can be about the emergence of communal process and communal authority. That is, process and authority is not imposed but rather is emergent because the forces that create enabling processes and structuring authority are allowed to act and evolve; through consensus, through willful appreciation of diverse voices (see ThinkOutLoud), through attention to simple needs. (0000E6)
A community which is the result of communal anarchism has participants that believe themselves to be in a CovenantingGroup and act accordingly: in accordance with one another. (0000E7)
Take ExtremeProgramming? from a political perspective. It eschews the external authority of leads and specifications for adherence to an evolving set of shared understandings and shared goals. The developers perform well because they are performing "naturally". They are doing what they do best in an environment that is supportive of them. That's Anarchy (with the capital A) in a nutshell. (0000E8)
Unfortunately Anarchy is probably a lost cause at the macro scale, but in smallish groups it has a huge amount of potential and is directly aligned with buzzword compliant terms of the day like emergence, complexity theory, systems theory and can probably even be rolled back to intersect with ideas such as AutoPoesis?. (0000E9)
So I wonder if there are threads of connection that we can draw between extremist political theory (and history), systems theory and discussions of collaboration. Even if the threads prove ephemeral the exploration will probably be productive. (0000EA)
Collaboration -> Discipline -> Profession -> Stink
This past week, Blue Oxen released its first research report, An Introduction to Open Source Communities. The paper was released on the same day as the launch party. For reasons I don't yet understand Richard Stallman happened to be at the party. When I got a moment I introduced myself to him and he expressed his (understandable) displeasure at our use of the term "Open Source" in a way that subsumed the Free Software movement. He suggested we consider the term FLOSS (Free/Libre?/Open? Source Software). (0000DL)
His gripe was that Open Source was something worse than a bastardization of Free Software, pursuing a set of goals that have little to do with ensuring freedom for people and everything to do with economic benefits (giant, low-cost pools of talent for finding and fixing bugs). (0000DM)
When I was able to get a word in, I expressed my agreement. (0000DN)
It's interesting that we had this encounter because I've been having similar thoughts about the nature of collaboration as a discipline. I've gathered some of them here to see what they look like lined up. Much of this is pulled from different emails so excuse the lack of continuity. (0000DO)
Set aside for a moment that at least in the contexts I've been using it collaboration is not well defined and consider ways in which and why collaboration might be used: (0000DP)
In the rosy picture, collaboration is a way to generate ideas and consensus; to use freedom of thinking and access to knowledge to create more freedom. (0000DQ)
In the stinky picture, collaboration is a set of tools and processes that could be co-opted by existing power holders into a suite of methods for increasing access to workers and worker productivity (see Open Source above). (0000DR)
In both of these scenarios collaboration is a tool and thus its use is an exercise of power. Wherever power is used, we have politics. Professionals (those trained in a profession) tend to pretend to a face of political neutrality: Journalists have their objectivity; Scientists their method; Doctors their oaths. I'm in the process of reading Howard Zinn's Declarations of Independence. He suggests that professional training installs an essential conservatism that insures the continuation of the power granted a professional and belies the pretense of neutrality. He quotes Jarold Auerbach's Unequal Justice: (0000DS)
It is the essence of the professionalization process to divorce law from politics, to elevate technique and craft over power, to search for 'neutral principles,' and to deny ideological purpose. (0000DT)
An early goal of Blue Oxen has been to take steps towards the establishment of a discipline of collaboration. Discussions have been occurring internally and in the Collaboration Collaboratory. Care must be taken because one step beyond discipline is profession. What will we have when collaboration is a profession in which people engage rather than a tool people use? Will we have the stinky picture described above where worker productivity takes precedence over freedom? (0000DU)
This is plenty long already. More to come soon. Your comments are much appreciated. (0000DV)
Meta Note to Self
In the comments to one of my Notes to Self the quotable Mike recalls a description he made of me that I used to head a project that got me where I am today. It's called Hypertext and Knowledge Enhancement. (0000DH)
Mike said: (0000DI)
I also know that you, Chris, are a linguistic transcendentalist suffering under the failure of hypertext to immanentize the eschaton... (0000DJ)
Mike's comment made reference to yet another paper worth review that fits into the big picture. And while I'm at it, Seb's weblog points out a wiki article I'd like to give some thought. (0000DK)
April 13, 2003
Blue Oxen Vision
I was recently in California for the Blue Oxen launch party. As one of the cofounders of the organization, I was expected to participate in a presentation given to the party guests. In the presentation we hoped to give an overview of where we were coming from and where we hoped to go. To prepare, and clear my head for things more practical, I wrote the below on the airplane on the way out to California. Due to sickness, a busy schedule, other flavors of chaos and what basically amounts to an unfortunate lack of guts on my part much of the message below did not make it into the presentation. This remains a fairly accurate statement of what motivates me and what I hope Blue Oxen can achieve. (0000D8)
We live in a time when the decisions of our governments are made outside any appreciation for reasoned and reasonable consensus. Information is delivered to us, packaged, shiny, and full of persuasive power but often lacking in the awareness of past, present and future required to make wise, lasting and honorable decisions. (0000D9)
I am tired of this. I'm tired of feeling powerless and listening to my self, my friends and my colleagues, filled with good ideas, swing in and out of a lonely and ineffectual desperation. (0000DA)
While it took me some time realize it, helping to start Blue Oxen is my small way of saying I've had enough, it's time to do something. I'm here to suggest that we can make the better world we believe is possible: one where people truly communicate and communicate truly, one where ideas are shared, one where the goodness that is our nature is allowed to emerge, in concert with one another, our neighbors down the street and our neighbors around the world. (0000DB)
I want Blue Oxen to catch and enhance the building wave of people who have acknowledged that sharing ideas, openly and frankly, is a creative force for improving the world and for motivating action. I seek not a free marketplace of ideas, but a free community of people collaborating to create and refine new thought. (0000DC)
Collaboration is a fully buzzword compliant term these days yet it is still an undefined discipline. Eugene and I connected over a casually tossed phrase that I made in response to the question of what is augmentation for. I said, "To make me less dumb." It's now several months later and while I still believe this is an important aspect of what collaboration is for, my close association with Eugene and the members of our first collaboratory and the looser collaboration with disparate voices discovered by the simple act of making some noise has revealed a larger focus: Less dumbness emerges from open communication. (0000DD)
When the internet reached the public, it was hailed as a compelling democratizing force. The power of personal publishing was going to alter the face of society. It didn't quite happen like that. I remember being disillusioned as the significance of my own web server faded in the face of the shine, the gloss and the money of centralized media. (0000DE)
We are, today, thanks to motivated and idealistic people, in a new phase of enthusiasm. Systems such as weblogs and wikis and the developing genre of social software are birthing dynamic social networks that produce new understandings. In and of themselves these tools are nothing, it is the people who use them and what they do with them that matters. People are exploring, communicating, generating and accepting feedback; using their freedom to generate more freedom. (0000DF)
I want Blue Oxen to be an experimental gardener in this realm. Our task is to participate in the discovery, engenderment, development, evolution and facilitation of the patterns of behavior and process—and the tools the patterns use—that bring the ecology of collaborative evolution we need as a society. Our challenge is to see that the communication facilitated by collaborative systems continues, stays open, and creates artifacts that are accessible and reusable by others. Openness leads to shared and knowledgeable understanding, shared understanding leads to shared goals. Goals lead to motivation and motivation leads to action. Let's do what we can. (0000DG)
SF Trip Photos
Photos from my trip to California for the Blue Oxen launch party. Many images on one page, will take an age to load on a slow connection.
April 03, 2003
Note to self
High style vs. vernacular in habitats, software and philosophy (0000D4)
Just a note to myself: I'd like to think about these sorts of things some more. I think engages my thoughts on craft, design, metaphor, analogy, phenomenology, anarchy, emergence, etc etc. (0000D5)
There's a manifesto brewing here somewhere. (0000D6)
This fits in too: about blogging and the memex. (0000D7)
April 01, 2003
compelling
The writing going on at How to Save the World is downright compelling, along the lines of: thanks for writing so I don't have to. See these most recent postings for example: (0000CJ)
- Losing The Game (0000D2)
- A description of a game of SurvivalBowl, Man on one side, Earth on the other. Earth has had the trophy since the beginning of time. The rules state that a tie means both sides win but Man just can't get a handle on this and is botching it. (0000CL)
- He's Really a Good Man at Heart, Officer (0000D3)
- America described as a family, repeatedly brutalized by a drunk, that is always making excuses for the drunk. (0000CN)
Lot's of people get annoyed with this metaphoric way of thinking. I was recently told to get out of fantasyland for using it. I think, though, that it is a powerful tool for getting ideas into our heads that are otherwise just too big to handle. Metaphors are handles on large concepts, much like the names of Patterns in PatternLanguages?. (0000CO)
