[p2p-research] Workshop on Media Ecologies: Q&A: Sam Rose

[Paul D. Fernhout]

Samuel Rose wrote:
> There's actually 2 parts to the conference:
> 
> 1 part is people talking about stuff like what Alex is suggesting,
> plus some of the standard ways of implementing that via technology
> 
> 2nd part is people using info tech to collaborate specifically around
> open source tech and fab lab/open source design. 2nd part is where a
> demo like what Nathan is talking about would fit in

Just a note for other people -- it is a one day workshop, not a multi-day 
conference (at least, that is how I see the difference of those terms, 
number of days, though some might think I was splitting hairs). But a 
multi-day conference eventually on these themes is probably a good idea.

I'd be curious how many people would be more likely to want to go to a 
multi-day conference (three or five days) compared to a one-day workshop?

If I traveled somewhere far in general, I'd tend to prefer a multi-day thing 
myself over a one-day thing.

> For my part, I wanted to do a demonstration using some of the software
> releases that people at the conference have developed, and the
> software that Paul and myself are developing, to show practical uses
> for letting monolithic web applications talk to each other in useful
> ways. This is why I was originally asking what software people out
> there have developed, because I want to develop some
> wrapper/extensions for your different software/platforms and use those
> in a demonstration. And, Paul Hartzog would present a more
> theory-based overview of the approach we are taking (if this meeting
> will contain presentations at all, which was the other question I had)

Just another note for other people -- there are at least two Pauls on this 
list working on vaguely related issues. I myself recently made the mistake 
of thinking when Michel was referring to a Paul in relation to this 
conference, he was referring to me. :-)

A general book on these sorts of problems like naming things and referencing 
them and dealing with merges and splits: :-)
   "Data and Reality" by William Kent
   http://www.bkent.net/Doc/darxrp.htm
"Consider the key topics: existence, identity, attributes, relationships, 
behavior, and modeling. ... For some time now my work has concerned the 
representation of information in computers. The work has involved such 
things as file organizations, indexes, hierarchical structures, network 
structures, relational models, and so on. After a while it dawned on me that 
these are all just maps, being poor artificial approximations of some real 
underlying terrain. ..."

This is the stuff that I (Paul F.) am working on, and the first part relates 
somewhat to William Kent's work:

   http://sourceforge.net/projects/pointrel/
"The Pointrel Social Semantic Desktop is an RDF-like triple store 
implemented on the Java/JVM platform, as well as related social semantic 
desktop applications inspired in part by NEPOMUK and Halo Semantic MediaWiki."

The second relates to open manufacturing (originally formulated as a NASA 
grant proposal from a decade ago, not funded):
   http://www.oscomak.net/
"OSCOMAK supports playful learning communities of individuals and groups
chaordically building free and open source knowledge, tools, and simulations
which lay the groundwork for humanity's sustainable development on Spaceship 
Earth and eventual joyful, compassionate, and diverse expansion into space
(including Mars, the Moon, the Asteroids, or elsewhere in the Universe). "

The first project (the Pointrel System) has code that one might call a 
shared RDF database (and it has roots that go back almost thirty years, even 
before WordNet which in an indirect way was a spinoff. :-)

The second project (OSCOMAK) has no significant code.

Neither has much of a community -- although I've kind of adopted the Open 
Manufacturing community Nathan started as a manufacturing-oriented spin-off 
of this list as a sort of stand-in for an OSCOMAK community. :-)

My self-defined challenge is really to bridge the two together. Which I 
might have a hope of doing if I could stop writing emails. :-) It's always 
"just one more". :-)

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/