I was having a talk today with Danielle about this proposal on “Open Source Engagement” on Milla Digitalia. Mostly I was being critical of the manner in which the authors sling around “open source”.

But back to Danielle, and the analogy. The fallacy of that proposal is that the authors are confusing design and process. The argument, as I can tell, is that Wikipedia and Open Source Software Development (like Linux) work a certain, so they will design their Project to work that way too (when I say “work”, I am intentionally being vague as to whether I mean design or process).

So here is the analogy:

Wikipedia/OSS are like buildings (Danielle is in an Urban Planning Program). They are designed to have as many doors as possible. All over the place. And it just so happens that people really like using the front door and the door into the kitchen, and mostly ignore the other doors.

Now, in this proposal, they make this argument: We’ve learned from Wikipedia/OSS that front doors and kitchen doors really work great, so we’re going to design our project to have a front door and a kitchen door just like they do.

My soapbox: Wikipedia/OSS work because they are designed to allow flexibility in how people interact with them. This has allowed the processes of interaction to evolve into what works best in that situation. Designing a project and limiting how people interact with it to inflexibly use a process that has evolved elsewhere will most likely not give the best results.

Of course, now that I’ve reread the proposal a couple times, I feel like I’m maybe being too harsh, but I don’t think the proposal is very clear with their Legitimacy Exchange.

…there are some guys who can return good for evil

Every brave man will think so. He will not want to live by passing on the wrath. A hit B? B hit C?—we have not enough alphabet to cover the condition. A brave man will try to make the evil stop with him. He shall keep the blow. No man shall get it from him, and that is a sublime ambition. So, a fellow throws himself in the sea of blows saying he do not believe it is infinite. In this way many courageous people have died. But an even larger number who had more of impatience than bravery. Who have said, ‘Enough of the burden of wrath. I cannot bear my neck should be unfree. I cannot eat more of this mess of fear-pottage.’

From page 214 (Penguin Classic Paperback) of Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. That line seems to be often quoted, despite the preceding paragraph stating the hubris of it.

Preceding that is the statement of the human condition of continuity (not violence in and of itself):

Brother raises hand against brother and son against father (how terrible!) and the father also against son. And moreover it is a continuity-matter, for if the father did not strike the son, they would not be alike. It is done to perpetuate similarity.

I saw the movie King Corn last night at Harvard. It was ok. The best part I thought was when they interviewed Earl Butz, a Secretary of Agriculture in the 1970s that instigated a major food production policy shift.

Earl said that his change in policy led to a decrease in the amount of money people spent on food (from ~40% to 15-20%) which led to the economic prosperity of today. (eg more disposable income, more consumption, expanded economy).

Clever. Though after reading his wikipedia entry, apparently he wasn’t so clever in other respects. Definitely didn’t mention that in the movie.

One of my favorite haunts in Boston is Delux in the South End—mostly because a successive series of my friends have worked there.

One of their best dishes is the Quesadillas, which are made so in part by the fruit salsa. I’ve been working to deconstruct it, so this is what I think is in it:

(this isn’t proportional)

• Apple (seems like something red, maybe a macintosh)
• Red Pepper
• Yellow Pepper
• Red onion
• Yellow Onion (maybe)
• Jalapeno
• Pineapple juice (like a tiny splash, maybe)

It’s all chopped up into maybe 1/4 chunks and amazing

After writing my last post about salsa, it made me think that grating green apple and green papaya together, along with a hint of lemon juice, would be good. Maybe sunflower seeds too, or almonds (pine nuts?)

viz. - namely, as follows, that is to say; introduces and element or list… an abbreviation for “videlicet”

vis-a-vis - (1) face to face with another (2) In relation to or compared with: Canada’s role vis-a-vis the United States in Afghanistan (3) as opposed to

At this point, 30% of the American population is obese, up from just 13% of the population 20 years ago. That number will be 41% by 2015. On the other hand, only about .6% of the American population is anorexic, a number that’s stayed fairly constant over the years. Yet the mortality rate of people with anorexia is only slightly higher (.56%) than that of people that qualify as obese (.43%).

From The Anorexia Scare: How Too-Thin Models May Save Your Child’s Life on EyelessWriter.com. Interesting stats that result in a somewhat ridiculous premise: “We need thin and healthy role models, and - failing that - simply thin role models” and use of fear “We need to make people more afraid of carrying around too much weight, not less.”

The author hits it on the head with diet and lifestyle, but doesn’t seem to fit that into the solution. Also like this quote: “obesity is the unhealthy side effect of successful anti-anorexia campaigns, and anorexia is the unhealthy success of anti-obesity campaigns”.

Maybe it’s just me, but any health campaign should be built on being healthy (physically, emotionally and mentally), not the polar opposite of the “bad” state—though I guess abstinence and drug education shows that people don’t think like me.

Deregulation in the utilities industry results in higher costs whenever those costs are not expected to greatly affect consumption (also in the oil industry), contrary to the consequentialist arguments of deregulation proponents. The same thing is happening in the communications sector.

From a BoingBoing comment on a broadband penetration related post. I have no clue if that’s a standard economic opinion.

Last April, the Corporation reported in its Volunteering in America study that while America’s overall volunteer rate remains at historically high levels, nearly 21 million of the over 61.2 million Americans who volunteered for nonprofit organizations in 2005 didn’t volunteer the following year. This represents an estimated annual loss to nonprofits of approximately $30 billion dollars worth of volunteer labor. From a Press Release by Sandy Scott at the Corporation for National and Community Service entitled “National Service Agency Awards Funds for Innovation In Volunteer Management” .

The message and photo above was taken by my friend Rebecca and features Mabel.