Monday, October 10, 2005

"What happened to the civility of doing the 'right' thing as part of a larger community?" Who's in control? Nobody, that's who. Get over it. Each time I hear somebody say or see someone has written that, "The consumer is in control," I sense an aneurysm developing. This is particularly troubling to me since I too spent the better part of a year repeating that same mantra to anyone who would listen. Besides, it fits so nicely with the Web's democratic mythos, regardless of release version (i.e., Web 1.0 or 2.0). What makes my temples throb is, however, this patently ridiculous non sequitur being used... [recursiveProgress] To thine own self be . . . partial The following is an HTML version of an essay I just finished. It runs about 2,700 words. I would gladly accept feedback and comment. What happened to the "moral core?" What happened to the civility of doing the "right" thing as part of a larger community? Why is it that so many people strain to castigate others for not being "part of the team," speaking in the royal plural, while incapable of acting except for their own good? Where, above... [recursiveProgress] Where are our communities of communities? The closest we may get to "control" 7:01:30 AM    comment []

Windley on Identity Echoes some of this Country of One idea perhaps points at its foundation and the source of its positive side On the Word 'Identity' On the way back from a meeting in Salt Lake this afternoon, I was pondering the word 'identity' and the way it is used in the physical world and the way we use it in the world of IT. Something I heard on NPR set off this navel gazing--I can't remember what. Coincidentally, when I got to my office, I found this post from Tim Greyson on the living language of identity. And so, a post... If I ask my wife, kids, or neighbors "what is identity?" they answer in various ways that I think reduce, at their most basic level, to this: "identity the sum total of who I am...my uniqueness." ... This is quite different of course than the dry technical definition of identity that I used in my book: a collection of attributes, preferences, and traits stored in a computer record. This technical definition serves the technology, but is only the slightest shadow of the natural definition.... Now, there's nothing wrong with a word having multiple meanings. That happens all the time. But, when the different meanings are not clear from the context and are easily misunderstood by the participants in a conversation, that's a problem. This is precisely the problem Tim is talking about, I think.... In 1974, the family therapist Salvador Minuchin declared that "The human experience of identity has two elements: a sense of belonging and a sense of being separate." That's another element of natural identity that isn't served well by the technical notion of identity. In the digital world, identity information is stored in silos, but in the physical world, it's almost impossible to keeps subsets of one's identity separated. The relationships matter as much as the properties.... [Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog] I recommend you explore his posts on this, they go back a spell. "But, when the different meanings are not clear from the context and are easily misunderstood by the participants in a conversation, that's a problem." 6:44:19 AM    comment []

Countries of One - musings The down-side of Countries-of-One come to mind quickly: As we self-select our "news" and "entertainment," we become unfamiliar with the "news" and "entertainment" of our neighbor. As we self-select our friends, neighborhood and "community," we become unfamiliar with the neighborhoods and "communities" of others in our "town". As we self-select our digital "news," "entertainment," "friends," and "communities," we become unfamiliar with those of others. We come to have a different world-view and language. Then conversation ceases. I think it is going to be a long conversation to keep shaping the up-side. A permanent conversation. more on "Somewhere along the way we forgot that underpinning each transaction was a relationship...." (below) Yup, and sometimes those relationships are dynamic, chasm spanning complexity. edited to quickly make a point, I recommend you go read it Getting deprogrammed The machines get too smart - pushing their inventors, the humans, into lives of subservience and lots of gray clothing.... A common complaint these days is that as the technology gets smarter and more pervasive, its hold on our lives increases as well.... The best innovations are those that enrich our lives without unnecessarily complicating them....   - EE [The Latest from Brightcove] Sustainability: It's About Time Joel Makower: A new book brings the many linkages between time and sustainability into sharper focus, exploring the issue of time and its relationship to the environment, the economy, and society. [WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] 6:18:31 AM    comment []

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