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RE: Open Source XML Editor

• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• To: Marcus Carr <mrc@a...>
• Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 09:31:23 -0600

Let me redo this:

"There is a difference between specialization of 
human skills and decentralization of organizational 
management, or specialization of roles individuals 
play and decentralization of the parts they can play.  
That difference IS competence.  We can call it an 
elite, but actually, it is pure skill and reliable, 
consistent knowledge."

The issue of competence is the SAME, not the difference. 
The difference is a centralized system controls the 
allocation of resources.  A decentralized system 
controls the means of choosing how resources are 
allocated.  In the first, many local variants have 
to be controlled so the feedback loops become 
long and complex:  the system is likely to become 
entropic (unsustainable).  

In the second, some local variants 
are reported and checked against a global set of 
variants to ensure they stay within some range. 
Otherwise, the local implementation is a black 
box.  (let it run unless unendurable).

No mystery here.  Messages, but prearranged 
types of messages.   The result is a simpler 
set of feedback loops where a few of these have 
the power to suspend local processes for review 
and remediation, and only occasionally, to override.

In simplified form, a model we are all familiar with:

     control |
        _____|_____
        |         |
input ->| process | -> output
  ^     |         |     |
  |     -----------     |
  +------ feedback -----+

Basic negotiation of the process definition 
to select and adjust the tools and the 
process of selection itself.

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h

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