Wiki Govt: Participation

Image via WikipediaSorry to post all of these at once they were created much earlier in Google docs and I thought they would automatically post to my blog the way the rules update posts did. turns out no.

Anyway, the book seems to take axiomatically that increased participation is a worthy goal. By and large it is correct, to enough eyes all bugs are transparent. But there is the problem of self selecting social networks the book mentioned in that often the people who gain the social capital are neither the wisest nor the most skilled bu the loudest, and volume is no substitute for being right. Now this is not to say that this is not the case currently but often with a smaller volume of information teasing out what is propaganda vs what is useful credential is at least possible. An incrfease in volume of data does make organizing the entire endeavor much more difficult. Some things cannot afford to be measured by reddit-like thumbs up and down as sometimes esoteric ideas are quite unpopular. That having been said any suggestions made by such a body would presumably go through less time in lobbying and other craziness because everyone already agrees with whatever the decision is. Efficiency is a worthy thing and not to be disparaged.

Wiki Governance :East Coast Code

Image via WikipediaWhy shouldn't policymakers design the computer code and device parameters to more closely hew to the desired legal outcome? Because the desired legal outcome is created by committee and the law is not obliged to work only to make people feel like they've done something. Bad laws are passed constantly and by and large if the law is too ludicrous or unrealistic people merely won't enforce it or will enforce it selectively and pretty much forget over time. Bad design is eternal, the physical world does not simply ignore foolish or impossible design decisions consequence happens and usually in a devastating manner. An engine or device that clings to what is legal will often not do what is practical, especially as what is legal can be fluid throughout the design process. We currently have cars that will not start until a breathalyzer is used on the steering column and that is all well and good. What if a similar device was made slightly earlier, say when in some counties women were not allowed to drive without a man present, or devices that keep a car from exceeding the speed limit under any circumstance. These may be silly but are unjust and unsafe. One of the founding ideals of the law is the idea that sometimes the law is wrong and human judgment should be used. Technology cannot apply such judgment. nor in many cases should it try. In the Time of Gilbert and Sullivan some unscrupulous people transmitted their works by telephone and telegraph across the Atlantic to America so that actors could perform bootleg operettas. If the policy makers of the time decided that such illegalities were important and had a hand in designing the phones, would we even have he clear signals we take for granted today? Think of what a printing press that values the local ordinance for obscenity or property over clarity of copy. Would we even have modern faith as we understand it if the Church policy makers chained the press to their requirements instead of those of the people? Technological growth is unfortunately amoral, sometimes our reach exceeds our grasp and the capacities science gives us are ones we are not mature enough to use well, but far more often this increase in capacity is the spark that topples existing injustice simply by making control of the new capacities too expensive to police. I don't want my equipment designed by people who care about what's legal I want it designed by people who care about making good equipment. I have my own moral faculties.

User Interface

If you have Ice Cream I will give it to you,
If you have no Ice Cream I will take it from you,
This is an Ice cream Koan.

What is the difference between a Walke Talkie and a Radio? Some say the Radio is crippled since the same hardware could be used to send as receive, just as any speaker can be used as a microphone and every microphone a speaker, but no one does that. The Radio is no more a crippled Walkie Talkie than a Walkie Talkie is an insufficiently broad band radio. Each of them are used differently and each of them uses things differently. The Walkie Talkie uses the airwaves, sends things upon the waves and out into the world. Shakes the aether and makes invisible marks in the sky. The Walkie Talkie Uses the airwaves, and in turn the airwaves shake the speaker and command the listening part of the Walkie Talkie. It uses and is used in return. The Radio does NOT use the airwaves, it is used BY the airwaves. The Radio does not, even in a small way shake the sky, the sky shakes the radio and the electronics turn the waves into sound. Similarly I rarely use twitter. I often read twitter and twitter informs my interactions and tells me what my friends are doing. The aether is folded into brilliant packet origami and sent to me, shakes the computer and moves my eyes, my mind my hands. in this twitter is using me. Sometimes, rarely, I will use twitter. I want to tell the world what I am doing or where a meeting will occur or promote something and my mind fires my hands type and the aether flows from me into the world. Aggregate sites, Filters, Readers, etc. you use the agregator, and twitter also uses the aggregator but you are not using the Twitter, you are listening actively and atttentively to be sure, filtering your perceptions. Like the FM radio you filter out which waves you wish to shake your speakers but you are not using the airwaves. I have a plug in called Zemanta it helps me use blogger. Me using Blogger not blogger using me. It seeks out pictures, links and content so that when I wish to speak to the world it will be a little bit shiner, a little brighter and a little better connected. I have another plug in, it is called DDN. DDN uses my blog. It uses my blog, I have no way of programming it, of telling it anything or anything other than relaying its choice of news. It uses my blog and I am glad to give it the space to use my blog as it is cute and doesn't take up much space. Remember the words of Joss Whedon "I wear the cheese, the cheese does not wear me."

Sugar We're Going Down

Downtime is a tricky issue in larps and tabletops. Some points of view favor more downtime, some favor less. I personally like having as much of it as I can reasonably get away with. Some of the best games I've seen basically could have been just talking heads exploring character and nuance of a game world. Now this doesn't mean I'm some kind of pantywaist, artiste, role-playing-not-roll-playing wussbag. I love D&D I like MechWarrior. Battles are awesome and frequent and ignominious character death makes for a tense and exciting larp. It boils down to an amount of simulation and verisimilitude in games. Most people most days don't do much, they don't fight or change careers or fall in love. and from time to time exploring what a character does on a typical day in their life really helps flesh out the world. Exercise for the day for new players or staffers: write down or try to take note of any time in your day when you do something hard, something where you have a real chance of failure and where that failure has consequence. At the end of the week see how many times that has happened. Think about what your character does when the game is not in session or what they did before the game was in session. What did they do easily, what are they like at home?

Something useful on Twitter

Something useful on Twitter
http://www.fmylife.com/
ah schadenfreude

Steven Fry

This is a man that clearly understands the awesome power of today's new media.
He's also a lovely human being.