[p2p-research] text as code

[M. Fioretti]

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 21:28:43 PM +0700, Michel Bauwens (michelsub2004 at gmail.com) wrote:

> Quite apart from my personal failings in wanting to learn more wiki
> code, this is a separate information architectural issue.

yes, I made clear (or so I hope, at least) both that I see the two
things to BE well different and independent, and that the really
serious one is the second. In this specific case I'd recommend not to
use what you call "text as code, seeded by different pages" even if
you and Alex were both for it.

> Could you not agree Marco, that even if James has to install the
> wiki, the capacity to publish a wiki/blog, a tagging network, does
> at least represent some willingness to learn?

of course. My nitpicking side still refuses to call code what isn't
code but just markup :-) ... but of course I agree. You'll have noted,
I hope, that first I never put my remarks as an ultimatum with a
deadline, just as advice, and secondly that your attitude doesn't even
bother me personally. I simply wonder (IN GENERAL, not here or about
you: in a sense, this is the same general issue I discussed in my "are
people ready for open government" talk), what are in this age the long
term consequences. And of course it's about power, besides being
self-evident this is one of the very few things that both you and Alex
wrote.

It's just interesting, though, and food for thought and new articles
when this will be over, the level at which this storm happened. You
wrote:

> [text as code] is a power grab by technocratically inclined people,
> and the whole of the behaviour I have witnessed is for me witness
> and proof that it was about power. A power that brokes no dissent,
> that privileges the techno-savvy, and that doesn't consider the
> possibilty of alternatives.

The slogan I use in my talks to warn people about the same general
issue is "technology is legislation these days. That's why it's
becoming more and more dangerous every year to not know at least its
general principles"

Marco