What is the original promise of the World Wide Web ?

Posted by ungraspiness Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:10:00 GMT

(watch the complete interview)

’ Restoring the Promise of the World Wide Web “Commercial aspects of the web have diverted its potential. Firmage wants to untangle the web and inspire young minds,” concludes Doug Fabrizio about his interview with Joe for KUED’s Utah Now. ‘

A very optimistic(and a seemingly very much needed) attempt to bring the internet back in line with it’s original purpose and to lessen the outright commercialization of this important and quite recent breakthrough for us all. However I’m not quite certain how that implementation might pan out for such a project.

What if the web were more like PBS in some ways ? (please come up with something more than suggesting that wikipedia fills this role already).



check out ManyOne Networks / Digital Universe

and more about the guy behind this, Joe Firmage

Readers may recall that there was some controversy around his personal beliefs that he made public back in 1998 shortly after getting very rich from a successful Silicon Valley startup called USWeb. This led to media types calling him the ‘Fox Mulder’ of Silicon Valley.

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Commercial Software Development & Scarcity

Posted by ungraspiness Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:21:00 GMT


Zyzyxx Rd., Mojave Desert, California

“

... the commercial software community has developed one particular response to resource limitation: a fevered, workaholic approach to software development—error prone, hectic, family-destroying, health-degrading, night-haunting. If you are undermanned by a factor of 2, add a second 8-hour workday per physical day. If you are operating under a schedule 50% too short, add in another 32 hours per week by working weekends. Then pray for luck or push back on features and quality.

Scarcity breeds a commodity or exchange economy. Until almost 1980, there were essentially no markets for software. Before 1980, most computers were owned by companies and used for “large tasks.” When computers were commoditized, the resource limitations inherent in software development became an opportunity for exploitation, and any relief to those limitations meant less wealth to go around. Draw your own conclusions.

“

- Richard P. Gabriel & Ron Goldman, ‘Mob Software: The Erotic Life of Code’

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