Neil, The variety balance is between number of tags, length of tiddler text, links and the mind of the reader. I find hypertexts with too many links and tags confusing.
Many folk seem intent on linking and tagging to make things more easy to understand, but they generate complexity beyond the requirement for complexity by the reader. The text looses out as the reader meanders away from the point I think Mark Bernstein makes the point elegantly in the hypertext garden [1]. Looking at his tools, it is easy to conceptualize hypertext links as loops. The reader revisits, and should enjoy revisiting parts of the text, like walking though a good garden. Ross Ashby was a psychologist. Requisite Variety has transfered into biology, but started as a concept to analyse the mind. His archieves have been recently digitised by the British Computer Society [2]. I am sure that linking Structural Coupling, hypertext links and Requisite Variety is not my idea. Its become part of my model of the world. I've not really questioned it before, but I have been thinking about the many web 2.0 technologies as channels, and wondering how one would measure their variety. Alex [1] http://www.eastgate.com/garden/ [2] http://www.rossashby.info/ On 30 January 2010 08:04, Neil Olonoff <[email protected]> wrote: > Alex, > > You must be very tall, because that's quite a stretch! Linking "requisite > variety" and "structural coupling" to ideas of tagging and the hyperlinked > structure of a wiki (and by extension, conversations about how TW works) is > a breathtaking leap. > > But the funny thing is, it's got some validity. For example: Requisite > variety of course is an idea that derives from evolutionary biology; the > idea that a population has to have enough variety in its genotype to > withstand extremes of hardship in various forms. And that certainly is true > of TiddlyWiki, in its extensibility and malleability. > > Enough for now! If we're going to engage in posts of this type here, I > recommend we keep them short! > > Regards, > > Neil > > Neil Olonoff [email protected] > Lead, Federal Knowledge Management Initiative, > Federal KM Working Group hosted at http://KM.gov > Office: 703.614.5058 (US Army HQDA, G-4/Contracted by Innolog) > Mobile: 703.283.4157 (Disabled during working hours) > Personal profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/olonoff > Blogging at http://FedKM.org > > > On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 5:57 PM, Alex Hough <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Iain and Neil, >> >> Please keep using this tread for deconstrucion and pomo epistemological >> discussions. I think it is important that "Variety" in the sense that Ross >> Ashby uses the term is not over 'attenuated' so that 'requite variety' is >> disturbed. >> >> Stafford Beer, in Decision and Contol talks about a 'walk in the ramified >> system'. In it he makes the case for allowing extra capacity in >> communication and allocating resource for pursuing random variation. >> >> As TiddlyWiki's espoused purpose is as a 'personal non-linear notebook' >> which I think that the organisation of the stuff - information and that goes >> into and comes out of - the TW highly important. At a higher level of >> 'recusrion, in the sense that Beer uses the term, Jerermy has named the >> company responsible for TW 'Osmosoft' himting at osmosis and software. Its >> not all about plugins and macros, CSS and jQuery; for me its about mind and >> techogy in a 'structual coupling' is the Maturana sense. >> >> Apologies in advance for pretentious non-sense. >> >> I vote for the back channel to be a front channel >> >> Alex >> >> On 29 January 2010 07:57, Neil Olonoff <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Iain, >>> >>> In retrospect I felt my post was too abstruse as it was. To go into >>> Foucault, Derrida, and the whole "postmodernist turn" felt way too off-topic >>> for this forum. But if you want to correspond in the back channel I'd be >>> happy to chat. >>> >>> Since my dissertation is about the "relational dimension" as concerns >>> "knowledge management," I unfortunately must tackle the whole question of >>> "what is knowledge?" This hasn't been settled in thousands of years and I >>> doubt that I will come to a clear conclusion. >>> >>> Part of the problem is that deconstructionists come at the world as a >>> "text" to be "deconstructed". The average business executive comes at the >>> world with a largely objectivist, naive view of knowledge. Since knowledge >>> management is supposed to be a practical discipline, we have to mediate >>> between those extreme views, and I've chosen the word "relational" to >>> provide a teeter-totter between them. >>> >>> I'm afraid that's as much as I can say without a cup of coffee! >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> >>> Neil >>> >>> Neil Olonoff [email protected] >>> Lead, Federal Knowledge Management Initiative, >>> Federal KM Working Group hosted at http://KM.gov >>> Office: 703.614.5058 (US Army HQDA, G-4/Contracted by Innolog) >>> Mobile: 703.283.4157 (Disabled during working hours) >>> Personal profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/olonoff >>> Blogging at http://FedKM.org >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 4:54 PM, iain <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Niel, >>>> >>>> I am surprised you didn't mention Foucault in your discussion as Kuhn >>>> only scratched the surface, Foucault tried to upturn the whole field >>>> of knowledge especially in the areas of medicine and psychology. >>>> >>>> Anyway in reply to Alex's comment I think the basic TW should be made >>>> to work "seamlessly" with Firefox or some other browser - at least one >>>> of them. It would seem an essential part of any software. >>>> >>>> Regards >>>> >>>> Iain >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> [email protected]<tiddlywiki%[email protected]> >>>> . >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en. >>>> >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "TiddlyWiki" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]<tiddlywiki%[email protected]> >>> . >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en. >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> http://www.multiurl.com/g/64 >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TiddlyWiki" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<tiddlywiki%[email protected]> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TiddlyWiki" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<tiddlywiki%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en. > -- http://www.multiurl.com/g/64 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. 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