Community Software.
Jul. 25th, 2004 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupSometimes I mention here that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_sps_ and I have a plan to transform the Web into something that works. We've given it a working name of NWO (New Web Order) because you have to call it something. Occasionally I try to explain to a friend what we are trying to do, and how we want it to work. This is an experience that I find very frustrating, because the design is BIG, the project is HUGE, and I can never remember the justifications for all of the design decisions that went into it, without consulting my notes. (It continually astonishes me how much of the design _sps_ has internalized).
Today,taxlady drew my attention to this article on the needs of collaborative software, and what needs to be done to make it successful. I've seen a bunch of these articles and they always perk up my spirits because darn it, our design DOES THAT. We've thought of all of the issues in the article, and a bunch more. We have solutions to most of the problems and some good ideas for dealing with others. Partly this is because we've been looking at related problems and trying to decide how to handle them for 20 years now, and partly because we're quite willing to look in the scientific, historic and cultural literature for ideas that have and haven't worked in the past. Its sad how many things on the web today are invented out of whole cloth by people who've never heard of the 20 failed attempts at similar things in the past, so they go right ahead and make the same mistakes everyone else made.
Anyway, read the article. I agree with most of what's in it, and I'm pleased to say I still think NWO will have the desired effect on the world.
_sps_ and I have a plan to transform the Web into something that works. We've given it a working name of NWO (New Web Order) because you have to call it something. Occasionally I try to explain to a friend what we are trying to do, and how we want it to work. This is an experience that I find very frustrating, because the design is BIG, the project is HUGE, and I can never remember the justifications for all of the design decisions that went into it, without consulting my notes. (It continually astonishes me how much of the design _sps_ has internalized).Today,
taxlady drew my attention to this article on the needs of collaborative software, and what needs to be done to make it successful. I've seen a bunch of these articles and they always perk up my spirits because darn it, our design DOES THAT. We've thought of all of the issues in the article, and a bunch more. We have solutions to most of the problems and some good ideas for dealing with others. Partly this is because we've been looking at related problems and trying to decide how to handle them for 20 years now, and partly because we're quite willing to look in the scientific, historic and cultural literature for ideas that have and haven't worked in the past. Its sad how many things on the web today are invented out of whole cloth by people who've never heard of the 20 failed attempts at similar things in the past, so they go right ahead and make the same mistakes everyone else made.Anyway, read the article. I agree with most of what's in it, and I'm pleased to say I still think NWO will have the desired effect on the world.
