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February 12, 2005
Asynchronous debate
Computer Scientist Alan Kay claimed in a recently published ACM Queue interview that got slashdotted, "All creativity is an extended form of a joke." Kay's generalization may be debatable, but it's also not clear whether he was kidding or explaining computer software.
Depends on how you see it?
It's not clear either whether my brother Matt was serious in email today when he said his next hack will be online debate software, but it sounds like a good joke, good enough to play with. I suggested he check out Jon Bosak and Ken Clements's Parliamentary Assistant idea, but I cannot find a trace of that getting standardized. Just email, in which Jon remarks:
I still believe that this is our best hope for a realization of the deliberative process that works online, but realistically, the implementation of such a mechanism is a long way off.
He probably has the full-strength version in mind, one that works as well as somebody with experience and firm understanding of Robert's Rules of Order. Maybe Matt can put 20% of that into PHP and SQL, meeting 80% of our needs.
Posted by Mark at February 12, 2005 06:48 PM