On 12 March 2013 16:35, hellekin (GNU/consensus) <helle...@gnu.org> wrote:
> As an intermezzo while the User Data Manifesto is still cooking, > I'd like to ask a simple question so that we can feed the wiki a bit and > bring in more people. > > IMO, there are interesting side-effects going on in the online world, > regarding the complex relations of technology development, attention > scarcity, attractiveness of novelty, and NIH syndrome. > > For example, as Melvin keeps pointing out, there are existing semantic > web technologies that are working, and decentralized, but lack of > visibility: FOAF, RDF, WebID, etc. > > There's also plentiful of "niche" social networking that actually gather > millions of users, but are not perceived as social networking at all > because they lack the general purpose of the giant players, such as > MMORPG, the good old FICS and MUDs and MOOs... Without mentioning our > beloved IRC, or such prestigious sidekicks such as blogs, mailing-lists, > and wikis. > > Each new generation of developers--i.e. every few months these days, > seem to look at the previous stuff and think "yeah, well, not good > enough." They quickly come up with shiny new concepts and > implementations, and then what? Each new language gathers a herd of > enthusiasts and soon, an old bum such as Javascript finds rejuvenation: > NodeJS is born, and the world is rewriting Lisp, Perl, Python, and Ruby > libraries in ECMAscript! > > So I understand that is a fast development, and that you can run the > same code on the server or on the client, blurring the architectural > foundation, and certainly there are actual innovations, in the sense of > iterations not previously contemplated, but... What is driving all of > this? Is there a technical, and engineering foundation to embracing such > drastic changes every couple of years? Or is there something else, more > irrational going on? > > With that in mind, which does not really call for a debate, but rather > for personal reflection on the evolution of techniques, and the > refinement of technologies vs. starting from scratch, I'm wondering > who's on your radar appearing as truly innovative in our problem space. > Favourite project at the moment: https://my-profile.eu/ Main reasons: is that it has excellent use of URLs, is decentralized, respects privacy, and scales to billions. > > == > hk > >
