So, now Henry has done a masterful job of detailing a "day in the
life" of a participant in some imagined DKR. His very thoughtful post
opens the doors to discussions which, I think, Yak is all about. How
best to build a collaboratorium... (01)
My suggestion, and the suggestions of others, that Henry consider
Fleabyte as a blog, make sense. But, my interpretation of my read of
what Henry appears to *really* be looking for is probably not a blog
at all, but, rather, a collaboratorium. This gets awfully close to the
heart of TopicSpaces (twisting hat slightly around, but not fully). (02)
TopicSpaces has in mind the notion that there needs to be a way to
*federate*, not aggregate (read: aggravate) blogs. I say that with a
rather strong sense of what I mean, but i'm not sure I convey it well,
so here's a sketch. I strongly feel that Fleabyte, as it historically
appears, is a great blog. I suspect Henry wants Fleabyte to morph into
a collaborative (kindof) blog, with, perhaps, a central editorial
sense, and contributions by several authors. I would thus morph that
desire into a collaboration of individual blogs, with a kindof central
summarizer/topic map. When we aggregate blogs, we collect their
syndications. That's pretty much it. Sometimes, those syndications get
categorized, like, by author, time, maybe even subject (whatever that
is). (03)
I would argue that there is merit in some arguments that the RDF
folks, the RSS syndicators et al., have somehow managed to ignore the
notion of *subject identity*. I'll be quick to point out that they
seem to, these days, be coming to that realization; some papers within
the RDF camps are talking about PSIs (published subject indicators --
usually URIs of one sort or another, which, if used properly, rely in
everybody anchoring their "subjects" with those URIs -- a kind of
ontological commitment that many people are not ready to make). My
argument is that there is little sense in aggregating without paying
attention to subject identity. Once you pay attention to subject
identity, you just entered the domain of topic maps, so why not topic
map the blogosphere instead of aggregating it? It's a kind of
aggravation (maybe a word that includes "google" in it) when you go to
some site to find out something about a particular subject and what
you get is a bazillion hits, all somewhat unfiltered -- sortof like
classic google. It's to the credit of the search universe that search
engines are beginning to cluster results and paint topic map-like
results. (04)
Bernard Vatant, one of the contributors to the book _XML Topic Maps_
(his chapter dealt with PSIs), has started a multi-author blog on
precisely the subject of "subject identity". You can read it at
http://universimmedia.blogspot.com/ . Murray and I are among the
contributors. Subject identity is an enormous inquiry. (05)
Back to Fleabyte. (06)
Given Henry's comments below, and from earlier comments in this and
other venues, I'm beginning to think that a solution to Henry's quest
lies more in a collaboratorium, which I would describe as a
*federation* of blogs. Henry argues for a central authority (probably
the wrong word to use here), one that is fundable -- perhaps a
foundation -- which can thus sustain the editorial policies he and
collaborators would advocate, and which can thus satisfy Henry's quest
to keep the Fleabyte inquiry alive after Henry retires. (07)
Just a bit of a recap on TopicSpaces. That's the catchy name I
invented after Sam Hunting badgered me into collaborating with him on
a project for Tom Munnecke's GivingSpace efforts, as funded through
the Omidyars. We coupled my tuplespace (TupleSpace4J) with Sam's
(python) topic map engine and crafted a GIS topic map of villages in
Africa. Click on certain villages and you were taken to a topic in a
topic map that served as a collection of all that was then knowable
about that village (the context being blog entries about that
village). That project opened the door to the notion that we could use
a *coordination language* (the simple programming language used for
tuplespaces) as a means to coordinate a collection of local and remote
agents which harvest information and send that information in to be
federated into a central topic map. That's TopicSpaces. How does that
apply to Henry's quest? I believe it is possible to have local and
remote weblogs busy serving the needs of some community (e.g.
Fleabyte), which ship information back to a host collaboratorium where
a topic map engine is busy federating that content into a larger
presentation. By application of a variety of important technologies,
like augmented social networks, it should be possible to create an
extensible, evolvable, scalable worldwide community of individuals of
the kind Henry seeks. (08)
Or not.
Jack (09)
On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 16:57:38 -0500, Henry K van Eyken
<vaneyken@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Well, Jack, you provided me with a nice opportunity to dig a little
> deeper into what I believe Fleabyte ought be capable of doing. Warning:
> not for hasty reading; needs contemplation leading to solutions.
>
> In steps, kind of:
>
> 1. I encounter an article that I believe is not merely interesting but
> of great importance for the voting public at large. (Ruddiman, "How did
> humans first alter global climate?" Sc. Am., March, 2005). I then refer
> to the paper in a short story to relate it to the essence of what I
> believe people and their representatives ought be aware of. In this case
> there are two such "themes" I want to single out neither one relating
> to the title of the article):
>
> 1a. (Quote): In these kinds of hotly contested topics [global warming]
> that touch on public policy, scientific results are often used for
> opposing ends. Global warming skeptics could cite my work as evidence
> that human generated greenhouse gases played a beneficial role [without
> them we would already have entered an ice age] by keeping the earth's
> climate more hospitable than it would otherwise have been. Others might
> counter that if so few humans with relatively primitive technologies
> were able to alter the course of climate so significantly, then we have
> reason to be concerned about the current irse of greenhouse gases to
> unparalleled concentrations at unprecedented rates.
>
> 1b. A diagram showing what Ruddiman believes is the greenhouse effect of
> human activities thus far and that the present is already past the
> center of a hockey sticks curve. It then extrapolates into a further
> steep rise followed by a rapid drop after fossil fuels are depleted.
>
> With item 1b I run into a legal problem. I can't duplicate the artwork
> because it is copyrighted. Either I obtain permission or I arrange for
> different artwork for same graph. (Information is not copyrighted.) This
> involves work and delay.
>
> Advantage of Ruddiman having that book in press ("Plows, Plagues, and
> Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate"), one might expect it to
> permit a useful review-essay, but then again, the SciAm article may be
> sufficient. That article, though, is not available in digital form,
> which keeps it out of a DKR (dynamic knowledge repository) and hence
> presents a weak link in a network leading to purposefully integrations
> of "lower level" knowledge. But we do have in digital format pdf,
> actually) a paper that apparently is the forerunner of the SciAm
> article. Oops! Now I have a technical problem. I am looking for the
> title of that paper which I have on my harddrive, but my Linux file
> browser doesn't show me the first page! So, back to googling the
> Internet; ah, here it is: "The Anthropogenic Greenhouse Era Began
> Thousands of Years Ago." OK, recovered from that problem.
>
> 2. Now the fun begins. Two problems here:
> 2a. Ruddiman himself states that his hypothesis is provocative and
> controversial. This needs to be looked into because that is likely to
> affect what public policy best be.
> 2b. The opposing schools of thought need be analysed. What interests are
> behind them? Should any of these interests be taken to task for, say,
> putting individuals ahead of the community.
>
> 4. Jack's reference to www.realclimate.org/ leads to one major barrier
> to understanding issues more deeply: a grasp of mathematics. Voters here
> become sitting ducks. A way need be found around this. In many cases
> this might be the use of, let's say, highly sophisticated electronic
> calculators of which the algorithms are "understood" in principle (I
> should really say "in principle of sorts"). In this case the problem is
> the very mathematical principle involved that calls for some grasp. The
> reference deals with that, but it ain't good enough from a journalistic
> point of view.
>
> 5. Things need to be put in layman's terms, written in a manner that
> attracts interest for that is the only way we can get people to come to
> understand an "issue" and thereby influence political thinking. In other
> words we need quality journalism, a writing that is plain and does not
> distort. Tall order.
>
> 6. Next I have that Dutch newspaper article. It is in electronic format
> so I can shove it straight into the DKR. But here we need some extra
> capability for the OHS: automated translation without distortion. The
> article concerns a choice that needs a high degree of
> scientific/technical understanding PLUS a sense of personal
> responsibility for the future of one's own kids (so as not to use the
> word "mankind"): going nuclear (less greenhouse gas) or letting the
> atmosphere heat up, with all its consequences. Will we trust the experts
> to decide things for us? The politicians?
>
> 7. I mentioned consequences. These include mortal conflicts and, hence,
> Fleabyte should be concerned with the nature of human morality - a
> subject involving, again, mathematics, believe it or not.
>
> Let me stop here. Fleabyte, to be effective at all, cannot be a simple
> blog of one person putting his thoughts on the Internet.
>
> Enough said for now about matters editorial. Now we have some
> technological problems to look at:
> a. The relatively simple one of making magazine production efficient and
> present a clean face to the world. You have already seen the hassles on
> this forum.
> b. The organization of the archives. Clearly, this cannot be a simple
> listing of articles.
>
> I believe that going the route described in the article "A Medium for
> Global Civics" is the way to go; that in a democratic, be it national or
> worldwid,e society we have no alternative route. (Or do we?) I also see
> it as exceedingly difficult to make a go of it.
>
> How is this for a 30-sec. elevator speech?
>
> Henry
>
>
> On Sat, 2005-02-19 at 13:28, Jack Park wrote:
> > Actually, Henry, the post was to highlight the power of a good blog,
> > not so much to enter the climate debate. I have my own opinions on
> > that, and this isn't the forum for those. But, several people are
> > using blogs for real work.
> >
> > Incidentally, one of my favorite typos: I said the blog was TypePad.
> > It is *not*. It is *WordPress*, an open source product.
> >
> > Jack
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 13:16:53 -0500, Henry K van Eyken
> > <vaneyken@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> > > Jack.
> > >
> > > Scientific American of February has an article by Ruddiman (who has a
> > > book in the press called "Plows, Plague and Petroleum" - rings a bell
> > > somewhere? He hypothisizes that global warming began about 8000 years
> > > ago due to beginnings of agriculture (CH4 emissions from wetland like
> > > rice paddies) with also effect beginning about 5000 years ago (CO2 from
> > > deforestation). Latter effect enhanced in last century, hence the hockey
> > > stick graph. His data are based on analyses of ice cores. Without those
> > > effects we would have followed the temperature pattern consequential to
> > > solar radiation variations due to changing Earth-Sun geometry. That
> > > would have already put is in the now still upcoming ice age.
> > >
> > > I thought it would be interesting to combine Ruddiman's hypothesis with
> > > a Dutch newspaper report about politicians reviving notion of stepping
> > > up nuclear. Given the choice, nuclear or global warming, talk is of
> > > nuclear being less of these evils. However, nuclear would engender
> > > resistance in The Neherlands whereas not so in France (different
> > > populations, hence different attitudes).
> > >
> > > Googling for "global warming" brings up as top candidates a sight by the
> > > Environmental Protection Agency and a strongly contrasting "consumers
> > > rights" site.
> > >
> > > Mix all this in with what we find on the site you refer to (RealClimate)
> > > and we have the beginnings of a heap of material that really takes a
> > > cooperative effort to turn into a comprehensible digest upon which to
> > > take a position.
> > >
> > > I thought I might do some item on Ruddiman and public attitudes, but it
> > > is clear I would only add to the noise surrounding a complex issue.
> > >
> > > Which makes me wonder about the sanity of going ahead with Fleabyte as a
> > > blog, to say nothing of my own sanity.
> > >
> > > Well, here is still pondering,
> > >
> > > Henry
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, 2005-02-19 at 11:48, Jack Park wrote:
> > > > Here [1] is a really interesting blog, using TypePad. It's a bunch of
> > > > climate scientists (or appears to be so) doing a useful job of
> > > > discussing climate issues in light of the scary headlines starting to
> > > > show up everywhere.
> > > >
> > > > Jack
> > > > [1] http://www.realclimate.org/
> > >
> > > --
> > > This message is archived at:
> > >
> > >
>http://collab.blueoxen.net/forums/cgi-bin/mesg.cgi?a=yak&i=1108837012.3014.20.camel@localhost.localdomain
> > >
> > >
>
> --
> This message is archived at:
>
>
>http://collab.blueoxen.net/forums/cgi-bin/mesg.cgi?a=yak&i=1108850258.2800.85.camel@localhost.localdomain
>
> (010)
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