Day: 12 January 2007

Setting the record straight

My musings on a post by James McGovern attracted a number of comments, and I want to set the record straight:

The only real point I wanted to make was that opensource communities are not defined by the size of their core. That there will always be a number of people more active than others. And that this is not wrong.c Openness is about equality of access and opportunity, and not measured by the actual number of participants.

I promise to return to some of the other comments later. But while I’m seeking to set the record straight, there was one other thing buzzing around my head while I was in hospital:

As a result of this interview,  a number of you commented that I seemed to separate creative people and thinkers from doers and whatever. I made no attempt to separate human beings.

The only point I wanted to make was that blogs suited thinking, wikis suited workflow and reference, and IM suited wisdom-of-crowds problem-solving. An individual is able to use all three modes of conversation.

Enough said.

Plus ca change….

Finally managed to give the blog its much-needed makeover. As with anything else in this blog, it’s “provisional”, a work-in-progress. I hope to get everything done by the end of February, as Confused celebrates being a year old.

The glossary that some of you requested is nearly ready and will be available from next week.

LibraryThing will also be reinstated next week.

Yes I did bring back Snap Preview, which some of you liked and others didn’t. Why did I do that? Because they now have end-user opt-out, which is an eminently sensible thing for them to have done.

My thanks to Chris Locke for all his help, he made all this possible while I continue to recuperate. Incidentally, I hear he now has some time on his hands, so if you have things you need to get done that need his unique skills then you know where to go. He’s always been there for me when I’ve needed him, and he gets on with things like only he can. Especially when RageBoy lets him.
Comments welcome as ever. Particularly things you don’t like.