About

The goal of the Linux-Society (LS, dating back to the mid-90s as a professional club and tech-mentoring group) has been a purely-democratic Information Society; many of the articles are sociological in nature. The LS was merged with Perl/Unix of NY to form multi-layered group that included advocacy, project-oriented learning by talented high school students: textbook constructivism. Linux has severe limitations such that it is useless for any computer that will, say, print or scan. It is primarily used for webservers and embedded devices such as the Android. (Google is high-invested in it).

Technology is problematic. During the heyday of technology (1990s), it seemed it had the democratic direction Lewis Mumford said it should have in his seminal
Technics and Civilization.

Today, we are effectively stuck with Windows as Linux is poor on the desktop and has cultured a maladaptive following. Apple is prohibitive, and all other operating systems lack drivers, including Google's Android, an offshoot of linux.

In the late 90s there was hope for new kernels such as LibOS and ExoOS that would bare their hardware to programs, some of which would be virtual machines such as Java uses. Another important player was the L4 system that is a minor relation to the code underlying the Apple's systems. It was highly scientific but fell into the wrong hangs, apparently, and has suffered from having no progress on the desktop. There is a version, "SE" that is apparently running in many cell phones as specialized telecom chips, but is proprietary. SE's closed nature was only recently revealed, which is important because it is apparently built from publicly-owned code as it is not a "clean room" design it may violate public domain protections, and most certainly violates the widely-accepted social contract.

Recent attempts to enjoin into L4 development as an advocate for "the people" have been as frustrating (and demeaning) as previous attempts with the usual attacks to self-esteem by maladaptive "hacks" being reinforced by "leadership" (now mostly university professors).

In short, this leaves us with Windows, which is quite a reversal if you have read earlier posts here. But, upon Windows, we have free and open software development systems in the forms of GTK+ (the windows usually used on Linux) and the Minimal GNU Windows (MinGW and MSYS) systems. It is very likely this direction that development should go (that is, on Windows) such that s/w can then be ported to a currently-valid microkernel system that includes a driver system that can be adapted by hardware developers to reuse of their windows and apple drivers.

From a brief survey of L4, it appears that the last clean copy was the DROPS system of the early 2010s, was a German effort that used the Unix-like "OS kit" from an American University.

If we are going to be stuck on Windows, then it seems that a high level approach to free and open systems integration, such as creating fully transparent mouse communication between apps so that they can seamlessly work together as a single desktop (rather than deliberately conflicting). This would be very helpful for GIMP and Inkscape, both leading graphics programs that are strong in the special ways, but suffer from an inability to easily interrelate.

Another important issue is the nature, if you can call it that, of the "geek" or "hack." Technology is formed democratically but "harvested" authoritarian-ly --if I can coin a term that Mumford might use. Authority is plutarchy: a combination of aristocracy and oligarchy that is kept alive after all these millennia by using, or maligning, the information society as a part of the civilizing (or law-giving) process that embraces the dialectic as its method. Democratic restoration, that is to put humanity back on an evolutionary (and not de-evolutionary) track, I think, will require the exclusion of the "geek" from decision-making. As is, the free/open s/w culture attempts to give leadership to those who write the most lines of code --irrespective of their comprehension of the real world or relationship with normal users. We need normal people to somehow organize around common sense (rather than oligarchic rationalism) to bring to life useful and cohesive software and communications systems.

Interestingly, the most popular page on this site is about Carl Rogers' humanistic psychology, and has nothing to do with technology.




Monday, July 31, 2006

Linking Constructs in the Information Society: Push Notes

New Model Push Notes


As I started leading into my New Model ideas for the activist community design, I took a close look at embyonic ideas forming in the minds of bloggists about linking concepts. I simultaneously looked at a little yellow notebook I use for jotting ideas. I call the notebook my push notes, where the idea is to push ideas out of the mind and into the Information Society as quickly as possible: thought pushing.

Little scraps of knowledge-building appear first in notebooks (the computer being too bulky for creativity), then get introduced to the Information Society as a small entry. The entry is modified as the author extends the idea, and finds supporting information. While existing ideas contribute to the original inception, the inception, in reality, springs from the thin air of the author's inspiration.

A idea pushed to a scrap of paper evolves into a expressed idea, collections of pushed ideas can create an aggregates of ideas forming well documented text. As concepts evolve, and the scale upwards into the expanding Information Society, meta-joins of documented concepts can create high level and cohesive virtual repositories of information attributable to no single source. Still recognizable within the joined documents are significant contributors, and the mapping of constructed information can show the evolution of ideas giving a foundation of supporting ideas for the further development of ideas. This describes truly inclusive knowledge building in the Information Society.

Ideas are not spawned by ideas; a person has to form an idea and express it as a concept for an idea to exist, to be recognized, and to become part of constructed knowledge. A leading newly inspired idea combined with its contributing and supporting knowledge gives most, if not all, of the information necessary to create linking constructs useful in attaching this new idea with documents built of similar ideas.

"I have this thought: this is where the thought came from, and these sources contributed to the thought, or support it" --thus the author reflects the thought he just developed; he creates from the reflection linking information so he can allow it attach to other similar ideas.

By adding tags (really keywords) to his knowledge constructs that reflect the ideas within the construct, the author can allow the ideas in his documents to mix with concurrent documents from other authors, or even himself, usually in his immediate environment. Such is linking in a localized information soup such as a web community.

Since no two documents of original ideas will reflect the same impression with which to create linking mechanisms, similar documents, possibly closely linked, will offer differing profiles of linking information.

As documents with similar ideas link to each other they can form a cluster. They can pull to themselves, as a cluster, other text that contains more diverse ideas because of the differences between them. This ongoing linking process can create expanded clusters of ideas that blend, in a multi-dimensional medium, to other clusters likewise built of closely linked ideas, just as colors blend in a spectrum.

Thus form floating clusters of meta-information constructs, and with them, newly freed and joined knowledge-building with no physical limitations.

These floating clusters have to originate from somewhere. They may develop in a discussion environment, for instance, where each idea is proposed in the form of a response to some other idea. Here, the discussion environment provides a scaffolded construction area based on commonly accepted ideas of thought development. The resulting ideas developed in the scaffolded environment can separate from the scaffolding to join conceptual idea clusters, with the benefit of highly reflective linking constructs. The ideas can float away from the scaffolding of the discussion forum into an entirely different, nebulous architecture of gravitationally attracted idea clusters. This architecture is multi-dimensional; it is more like a cytoplasm than a discussion environment or a book shelf; it is more like a mass of floating dandelion seeds than a ship's dry dock that constructed it.

The entry point for a person into the atmosphere in which all the clustered ideas float--the cytoplasm of the Information Society--is really a guiding overlay for the joined concepts: it is a narration. Ideally, a narration successfully joins a sequence of short stories, the clustered concepts, produced as teleplays where the narrator guides a listening person through the many knowledge constructs of linked concepts and ideas.

Listeners join into the Information Society to become contributors as they find areas in which they are comfortable. They then can build knowledge from knowledge. Meditating on concepts, developing inspiration, pushing their ideas, they link their ideas to supporting constructs. As listeners become increasingly recognizable as contributors, their own constructs, complete with open-ended links built from a reflection of their ideas, allow allowing for further connecting ideas to attach to their information; new ideas are drawn to their information, supporting or, ideally extending their ideas. Their newly developed ideas become a foundation for ideas in the purely fluid soup of the Information Society.

The clustering of information, the quality of the supporting information, and the comparison of information allowed by clustering of concepts will build knowledge that comes to the real needs of the world, knowledge useful for the the true aims of activism.

Links and tags can be created externally for a developed document as the document comes to rest somewhere in the cytoplasm of the Information Society, typically as a blog entry or in a forum discussion thread. Information gleaned from the document, such as the originating information the ideas were built on; the physical source it was derived from; the author; his references; and an aggregate of descriptive words chosen from the text can create the basis of linking profile. Sophisticated linking constructs built from these clues can be used by server-based algorithms to make meaningful connections joining differing information sources, creating new and previously unimagined idea relationships leading to potentially valuable discussion and conceptual alliances.

Algorithms have been developed to find key-word matches in the document to create links to other information sources. But, these algorithms presently cannot recognize the distilled ideas behind the developed concept; they are unable to aggregate the links into meaningful joinings of documents. Corporations are uninterested in aggregating information concepts; commercial marketing only justifies the flow of separate unrelated and often inaccurate information presented with no means for comparison, nor meaningful dialog. Corporate developed information links occupy the Information Society, but provide no useful contribution.

These after-the-fact links are formed externally by algorithms, hence they controlled by the algorithms, rather than allowing the author of the ideas to create a meaningful reflection of this thoughts with which to encourage idea-linking. External, after-the-fact, linking of concepts by corporations can be ruthless: algorithms created by the Google search engine, for instance, pull thoughts and insights towards commercial products, often irrelevantly. They are unsophisticated and inaccurate because they cannot be aware of (nor would they care about) the author's original inspiration behind his thoughts.

As original ideas expand further outwards into the cytoplasm of the Information Society, the technology needs to focus inward towards the inspiration process. As people increasingly join as contributors, after having been listeners, their ideas become increasingly sophisticated. As they increase the volume of their information, they improve its quality. As both the quality and the volume increase, more time is necessarily spent in the management of their information constructs. Hence, a pressing need for algorithms at the personal and community levels. Linking algorithms now need to be distributed to all the Information Society contributors, just as the original networking services technology was transferred from the monopolistic corporations to the world's people.

"I have a thought, this is where the thought came from, these sources contributed to the thought, or support it" --this is the author controlled linking.

By adding tags (really keywords) the author can allow the his ideas in this document to mix with concurrent documents, probably from other authors, in the immediate environment: the soup.

Since no two documents reflecting original ideas will have the exact same profile of ideas, similar closely linked documents will have differing linking information; they will pull to them diverse linking documents, creating clusters of ideas that blend, in multi-dimensional space, to other clusters of ideas, just as colors blend in a spectrum.

These floating clusters, meta-information constructs, have to originate from somewhere. They may develop in a discussion environment, for instance, where each idea is proposed in the form of a response to some other idea. Here, the discussion environment provides a scaffolded construction area based on commonly accepted ideas thought development. The resulting ideas developed here in the scaffolded environment can separate from the scaffolded environment to join conceptual idea clusters, with the benefit of sophisticated linking constructs. The ideas can float away from the scaffolding of the discussion forum into an entirely different, nebulous architecture. This architecture is multi-dimensional; it is more like a cytoplasm than a discussion environment or a book shelf; it is more like a mass of floating dandelion seeds than a ship's dry dock.

The entry point into the atmosphere in which all the clustered knowledge floats--really a cytoplasm of the Information Society--is really a guiding overlay for the joined concepts: it is a narration. Ideally, a narration successfully joins a sequence of short stories, the clustered concepts, produced as teleplays where the narrator guides the listeners through the many knowledge constructs of linked concepts and ideas. Listeners join contributors as they find areas in which they are comfortable. They then can build knowledge from knowledge: meditating on concepts, creating inspiration from their pushed ideas, linking their constructs with supporting ideas. As listeners become contributors, they enter their ideas into the cytoplasm of information complete with open-ended links deliberately allowing for further connecting ideas to attach to their information, and ideas to be created extending theirs.

The clustering of information, the quality of the supporting information, and the comparison of information allowed by clustering of concepts will build knowledge that comes to the real needs of the world, knowledge useful for the the true aims of activism.

Links and tags can be created externally, after the developed thought, the concept, comes to rest somewhere in the cytoplasm of the Information Society, typically as a blog entry or in a forum thread. Indicators useful for linking, such as the discussion that the document originally built on; the source, the author; his references; and an aggregate of descriptive words chosen in the text can create the basis of linking information. Sophisticated linking constructs built from these clues can be used to make meaningful connections between information sources, creating new and previously unimagined connections leading to potentially valuable discussion and conceptual alliances.

Algorithms have been developed to find key-word matches in the document to create links to other information sources, but these algorithms presently cannot recognize the distilled ideas behind the developed concept. They are unable to aggregate the links into meaningful joinings of documents. Corporations are uninterested in aggregating information concepts; commercial marketing supports the flow of separate unrelated and often inaccurate information constructs presented with no means for comparison, nor meaningful dialog.

These after-the-fact links are formed externally by algorithms, hence they controlled by the algorithms, rather than the author of the ideas. These algorithms search for key-words to create links, or lists of tags. External, after-the-fact, linking can be ruthless: algorithms created by the Google search engine, for instance, pull thoughts and insights towards commercial products, often irrelevantly. They are unsophisticated and inaccurate because they cannot be aware (nor would they care) of the author's original intent, or the inspiration behind the thought.

Friday, July 14, 2006

The Katrina Hurricane

About the Care2 Discussion Forum which Experienced it


This is the introduction to my discussion about a forum, that became an action group on the Care2.com site.

This group will evolve into an action community, focused on helping those in immediate need.

Here is the link to the paper (Click)

Here is a link to this introduction as a nice web page (Click)

It wasn't the hurricane that flooded New Orleans. It wasn't broken levees, as you might imagine, that flooded New Orleans. Broken walls along some un-used canals flooded the city. These canals, whose structures failed, inexplicably run through centers of the city, a sea-coast city, below sea-level.

But, then, it wasn't the broken walls that actually destroyed New Orleans. There seems to have been the deliberate neglect of the drowning city, that evolved eventually into a blatant attempt by corrupt officials and developers to utilize the disaster to facilitate a real estate land-grab.

The discussion forum that provided all the information was formed by me in the Care.com activist web community when I heard Michael Chertoff, on TV, say that he was withholding rescue support from New Orleans during its most desperate days. From what he said, during an impromptu interview on a roadside, it appeared to me that he was deliberately holding back life-saving aid as if he were holding reinforcements back during a military offensive.

When I heard Michael Chertoff's military-sounding statement, I knew then that there was trouble. The situation, to me, felt like an a tactic in a military offensive; part of a long held struggle to hurt the remarkable African American culture, a culture brought here from Africa in slavery.

The African American, or the Black American culture, is the dominant musical youth culture in the world today. In this group we created knowledge which describes a deliberate neglect by the capital culture for the tens of thousands of people, overwhelmingly Black, who were stranded in New Orleans in floodwaters after the Katrina landfall.

As it turns out, we have here an amazing history of an equally amazingly thin slice of time. There were so many stories of heroism and villainy, so much sacrifice, that I feel a personal sadness knowing that the struggle is slowly being forgotten by the general public