[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Leading the web...elsewhere?

• To: danny666@v...
• Subject: Re: Leading the web...elsewhere?
• From: Michael Champion <mc@x...>
• Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 14:07:37 -0400
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <40CB391E.2020908@v...>
• References: <40CB391E.2020908@v...>

On Jun 12, 2004, at 1:10 PM, Danny Ayers wrote:

> The W3C's motto is "Leading the Web to its Full Potential".  Ok, so  
> assume the detractors are right - drop the Semantic Web vision (it's a  
> pipe dream) and technologies (we have RDBMSs and pointy-brackets  
> already). It goes without saying that you can drop the "Leading" (way  
> too self-important) and "Full Potential" (outrageously optimistic).
>
> But then where does the web go from here?

I heard something last weekend  
http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/transcripts/ 
transcripts_060404_google.html that I keep thinking about in this  
context.  (It's an interview with James Surowiecki, the author of "The  
Wisdom of Crowds.)

"BOB GARFIELD: When the people in-- on Wall Street discuss this  
phenomenon, they say that the "tape knows." The aggregate of all the  
information by all the people buying and selling is greater than that  
of the greatest experts on the market.  And I guess that's true, but  
there's a difference between a crowd and a mob.

  JAMES SUROWIECKI: Yes.

BOB GARFIELD: The bubbles and the crashes in the Stock Market are the  
work of a mob. Out of control lynchings are the work of a mob. ...

  JAMES SUROWIECKI: ...  what distinguishes a crowd or a group from a  
mob is that mobs are sort of single-minded, and that instead of people  
thinking for themselves, they're all moving in the same direction."

I think the Web should be led by the "crowd" of people with problems  
looking for solutions and solutions looking for problems, and not by a  
"mob" of people led by Gates, Berners-Lee, or anyone else.   Right now  
the Web doesn't need to be led anywhere.  That's not to say that it's  
just fine as it is, but to suggest that the people in Redmond,  
Cambridge, and elsewhere should be listening for what the real problems  
are, and proposing experimental and tentative solutions, rather than  
universal platforms or standards that they want to lead people towards.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Leading the web...elsewhere?
    • From: Robin Berjon <robin.berjon@e...>

• References:
  • Leading the web...elsewhere?
    • From: Danny Ayers <danny666@v...>

• Prev by Date: RE: Interesting nodes are anonymous,was: Re: Meta-somethingorother (was the semantic webmega-permathread thing)
• Next by Date: Re: Leading the web...elsewhere?
• Previous by thread: Leading the web...elsewhere?
• Next by thread: Re: Leading the web...elsewhere?
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread