[Gllug] DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism - Jaron Lanier

[John G Walker]

Tuesday, May 30, 2006, 9:42:15 PM, M.Blackmore wrote:

> I think this is an important essay for the open source movement

But you don't say why. Wouldn't that be a better use of your email
than quoting verbatim what should have been a link?

> Quote: "Here I must take a moment to comment on Linux and similar
> efforts. The various formulations of "open" or "free" software are
> different from the Wikipedia and the race to be most Meta in important
> ways. Linux programmers are not anonymous and in fact personal glory is
> part of the motivational engine that keeps such enterprises in motion.
> But there are similarities, and the lack of a coherent voice or design
> sensibility in an esthetic sense is one negative quality of both open
> source software and the Wikipedia.

> These movements are at their most efficient while building hidden
> information plumbing layers, such as Web servers. They are hopeless when
> it comes to producing fine user interfaces or user experiences. If the
> code that ran the Wikipedia user interface were as open as the contents
> of the entries, it would churn itself into impenetrable muck almost
> immediately. The collective is good at solving problems which demand
> results that can be evaluated by uncontroversial performance parameters,
> but bad when taste and judgment matter."

Does this actually mean anything? It makes absolutely no sense to me
whatsoever.

My opinion of the article is that it was written by someone who has
typed a lot of words in order to disguise the fact he has nothing to
say. But I'm willing to be convinced that I'm wrong if anyone can give
me a one-sentence summary of his argument,

--
All the best,
 John


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