Comments on: Connections http://blog.melchua.com/2009/07/05/connections/ Braindumps on things Mel Chua has found shiny lately. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:06:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Chris http://blog.melchua.com/2009/07/05/connections/comment-page-1/#comment-2178 Chris Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:39:59 +0000 http://blog.melchua.com/2009/07/05/connections/#comment-2178 <blockquote>I didn’t have my OSS evangelism hat on since I didn’t know if it made sense here, but apparently it does</blockquote> I think it works for Wikipedia itself, which I've used as a way to introduce free software and its freedoms before: "okay, so you're this group of people who don't necessarily know each other, but you're all making little contributions to something that you think is useful but could be a bit more useful if it were changed a little, and everyone shares their modifications with each other, and then one day when you're not looking you realize that together you've created something awesome that individuals could never have hoped to make on their own", and so on. (I think Christopher Kelty uses the term "recursive public" to refer to this phenomenon in both free software and Web 2.0 stuff.) - Chris.

I didn’t have my OSS evangelism hat on since I didn’t know if it made sense here, but apparently it does

I think it works for Wikipedia itself, which I’ve used as a way to introduce free software and its freedoms before: “okay, so you’re this group of people who don’t necessarily know each other, but you’re all making little contributions to something that you think is useful but could be a bit more useful if it were changed a little, and everyone shares their modifications with each other, and then one day when you’re not looking you realize that together you’ve created something awesome that individuals could never have hoped to make on their own”, and so on.

(I think Christopher Kelty uses the term “recursive public” to refer to this phenomenon in both free software and Web 2.0 stuff.)

- Chris.

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