Guerilla Informatics

Footpaths and schemas

Footpaths and schemas: "

I'm sure there are dozens of versions of this story, but I heard it from Larry Wall, the father of Perl, and it goes like this. Instead of laying down sidewalks, the builders of a new university campus waited for footpaths to emerge on the lawns. Then they paved the footpaths. Perl's design was informed by this idea of structure emerging from use, but that was an unusual case. We typically lay down the sidewalks first, and when footpaths emerge we profess surprise or try to ignore them.
...
Of course it's easy to criticize information systems that fail to embrace sloppiness. It's much harder to explain how they should. Sloppiness is only a means to an end. In order to make things work and get things done, we need to codify patterns of use. It's a Catch-22, though. The right patterns don't emerge from systems that people won't use. How we reconcile specification with emergence isn't an engineering discipline, but it probably should be. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]

..."

(Via Jon's Radio.)

broadband matters

I'm a full-time telecommuter and have recently signed up for Verizon's fiber optic line to my home which gives me about 5x faster speed downloads than cable and about 10x faster uploads (for the same price, but even faster speeds are higher rates are available).

The guests on NPR's On Point a few weeks ago talked about the impact broadband has on telecommuting (or other remote work), and I believe this is the key area that we are enabling with this infrastructure.

The providers of broadband service, however, are focused largely on providing big pipes to sell TV programs and movies -- their focus is on entertainment, not work.

My new fiber optic service will probably result it me canceling NetFlix (DVDs by mail) and instead getting direct movie downloads (and more of them). Multiply this across the board and its a big win for Telcos and Hollywood. But is this a significant benefit to society?

What's really interesting to me is the 10x increase in UPLOAD speed. What am I going to do with that? I really don't know, yet, but there are a variety of peer-to-peer services (e.g. BitTorrent) showing up where I can participate in the distribution of content (legally). I can also easily run several phone VOIP lines for my business, and use video chat, but I'm not even touching the potential here. The important point is that it allows me to work better and _participate_ more actively in the global network.

My hope is that widespread adoption of broadband will have a far greater impact on the way we work than the way we are entertained. If people can work better at home at jobs with more independence and flexibility, then this can really improve peoples lives. It may allow some familes to break out of the two income trap, and work 1.5 jobs total for two people instead of 2.5 with no time left for kids and enjoyment of life.

Ubiquity of these types of connections are also very important, and I think the government has an important role to play here. The internet is a human communication medium, and the human-ness increases with greater bandwidth and full participation. Video chatting and more immersive technologies have the potential to allow us to feel closer to others and thats good for all human endeavors. Reaching anybody and having everyone part of the conversation is essential.