Comments on: Paving the cowpaths that lead to Government 2.0

By: Recent Links Tagged With "phil" - JabberTags

Recent Links Tagged With "phil" - JabberTags — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:19:20 +0000

[...] public links >> phil Jon Udell: Paving the cowpaths that lead to Government 2.0 Saved by familychannelfamjam on Thu 25-9-2008 Joomla 1.5.x Password Hash Generator Saved by [...]

By: Future shock, cowpaths, and Government 2.0 « Jon Udell

Future shock, cowpaths, and Government 2.0 « Jon Udell — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:30:19 +0000

[...] bulletin board, with a brutally simple mental model shared by everyone. Exactly the sort of cowpath that we might, or might not, need to pave as we advance toward Government [...]

By: Adina Levin

Adina Levin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:37:06 +0000

I loved your comment in that interview calling for journalists to publish their data. Unfortunately, I think there are some fundamental reasons why that vision is far from today's journalism. Reflections here Fortunately, there are plenty of opportunities to start.

By: Ehud Lamm

Ehud Lamm — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:30:55 +0000

The last sentence of my original message should have read “It’s NOT an either/or situation between tool support and innovative use.”

Sorry…

By: Ehud Lamm

Ehud Lamm — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:19:07 +0000

Hugh, I understand that. Perhaps I wasn’t too clear: What I meant to say is that the RSS provide the right functionality for the librivox SYSTEM, regardless of the fact that the BB system is not what produces them (and in fact couldn’t be, in the sense that the BB is workflow and the feeds are mainly for the end product).

Jon, I general I agree, but in the case I was thinking of I think two forces are in play: most users don’t use RSS, so there is no real pressure (aside from me) to get the feeds to work correctly, and on the other hand the lack of RSS may be one reason why people who might be more enthusiastic to use the forum are not that involved. That’s part of the dialectic of technology adoption…

By: Jon Udell

Jon Udell — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:11:49 +0000

> while the BB functions ok, the benefit of
> the system is severely limited for me due
> to this fact.

And it would be for me too. But many people, maybe most, succeed quite well without making any explicit use of feeds, either as producers or consumers. This is hard for me to learn and accept. Like you I regard the pub/sub pattern as essential. Except clearly it isn’t, at least not yet.

By: hugh

hugh — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:33:40 +0000

@jon, yes, our backend database came a year or more into the project, and importantly was built around existing usesage patterns that had developed as we figured out ways to use phpBB to manage the project. for the average librivox volunteer, the db is almost completely invisible, except as that little magic window you see telling them what chapters are asssigned to whom in a particular project.

but yes, the main tool we use is the phpBB forum.

@ehud the feeds for our podcasts are generated by wordpress, not the forum … the forum is for project management, pre-release of completed books. RSS doesn’t come into play (well there is a disabled RSS feed for every post on the forum)… you log on to the forum and check the updates in your projects.

There is an “static” RSS feed for each book in our system tho, thanks to Jon, which has made downloading books so much easier for people – since each book can go into a podcatcher as a “podcast” all in one shot.

By: Ehud Lamm

Ehud Lamm — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:09 +0000

It is almost too trivial to mention, but a certain level of tool support is essential. The real trick is identifying what is this minimal core which is essential for making the social interaction work.

Librivox, for example, publishes RSS feeds (probably from the earliest days). Without this, a BB system might not be ideal as a podcasting platform. Moreover, the RSS feed is for completed books etc. not for work in progress. This is “The Right Thing” to do in this case, since most people would prefer not to start listening to a book that will never be completed. But this is a micro-choice that had to be made.

In contrast, on another BB system I follow the RSS feed is broken, almost from day one, and while the BB functions ok, the benefit of the system is severely limited for me due to this fact.

It’s an either/or situation between tool support and innovative use. Almost to trivial to mention, as I said…