a blog about information
Following a recent post I’d written on Agile, David Tebbutt (who’s on my blogroll and an occasional commenter) raised the following point: One thing bothers me and that is that huge numbers of people, evangelists if you like, have enthusiasms for things like ’social computing.’ Their enthusiasm isn’t for particular products, more for improving the … Continue reading “Musing about the value of social software”
Imagine there was a significant risk of a life-threatenic epidemic of some medical condition or the other. Imagine there was a vaccine or perhaps an antidote for this condition. Imagine there was only one patent-holder. Imagine that the short-term demand for the medicines far exceeded the supply capacity of the patent holder. Thankfully people far … Continue reading “Musing on IPR and DRM”
Have you ever heard of Richard Butler? A man, who, according to Jim White in the Daily Telegraph, “hit the council where it hurts; he has kicked it in the red tape.” A delightful story that you can read here, without a paywall in sight. The story’s simple. Council wants to build road through man’s … Continue reading “On collaboration and Prisoner’s Dilemmas and the Power of Many”
A few days ago I wrote about David Freedman’s piece in Inc magazine, where he, in Carr-like fashion, suggested that collaboration doesn’t work, that crowds don’t have wisdom, that workgroups fail most often when they’re faced with making a decision. I took some issue with the statements. I then suggested a number of false or … Continue reading “More on social software and consensus”
I’ve now finished reading the whole essay and all the comments. Fascinating. Lanier says some very interesting things, as do his critics. I could regurgitate all the things said and summarise them for you, but that’s not my style. I could write a long impassioned response to the essay, pretending to be learned enough to … Continue reading “On Lanier’s Digital Maoism”