The Future of the Internet-And How to Stop It » Chapter 4: The Generative Pat... - 1 views
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three layers.
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Renata Avila on 01 May 08The Network = physical layer + protocol layer + content layer
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hierarchies
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Network layer separation is a condition of polyarchy --- "ordered independence".
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principle at work
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IP protocol is the "Natural Monopoly" in the system --- that AND NO MORE
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Generativity is a system’s capacity to produce unanticipated change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied audiences.
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JZ defines generativity: Generativity is a system's capacity to produce unanticipated change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied audiences. and says open, free and communal don't quite capture it.
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consumers
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Generativity requires unfiltered inputs and unexpected outputs; this requires contributors and participants, not just consumers to animate the system.
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f code.
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Conditions of generativity: 1. Leverage, meaning that it makes hard work easier. (sounds like the opposite would not be much use in any context...) This might also be called a productivity advantage - it increase output per relevant unit input.
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specialized
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Conditions of Generativity: adaptability- Can the same equipment be put to new, un-anticipated tasks? Plastic, AC electricity, PC ((How does a musical instrument do here? Does just one thing - produce notes -- but in an infinite variety))
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training
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Conditions of Generativity: Ease of mastery. Many code masters got there without formal training. They allow a certain level of use (lik cars) that falls short of mastery.
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accessible
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Accessibility - the easier it is to get mass adoption, the more likely to become generative.
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generative
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Transferability - or viral nature (/?) -- is it easy for copies to propagate?
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frequently generativity at one layer is the best recipe for generativity at the layer above.
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Frequent link btwn generative tools and generative systems - a question of culture?
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generates
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Free software satisfies Richard Stallman’s benchmark “four freedoms”: freedom to run the program, freedom to study how it works, freedom to change it, and freedom to share the results with the public at large
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generative
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Generativity is different from Stallman's 4 freedoms: Windows is generative, but not free to examine or distribute; and Linux in TiVo is free but not (technically) accessible.
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platform
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Subjective affordance maps the possibility space of an object -- greater affordance probably implies greater generativity ... but not if it leads to over-functionalism.
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detail
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Generative systems facilitate change.
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breakthrough
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The non-generative encourages change that is conceived of by the single controlling orgnaisation of change
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compete
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Generativity and disruptive change ... generativity helps with the process of creative destruction.
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market model.
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initial spark
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The venture capital model, the amateur, the long tail and generativity all come together - VC picks up once a generative experiment has hit a big seam.
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They represent tinkering done by that one person in a hundred or a thousand who is so immersed in an activity or pursuit that improving it would make a big difference—a person who is prepared to experiment with a level of persistence that calls to mind the Roadrunner’s nemesis, Wile E. Coyote.
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The type case of the use-innovator -- like Auden's: "caveman who first forgot his supper".
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The genius behind such innovations is truly inspiration rather than perspiration, a bit of tinkering with a crazy idea rather than a carefully planned and executed invention responding to clear market demand.
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In the young internet, innovations like wikis are inspirational, low effort, out of the blue innovations; lots of bang for buck.
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Web service
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Generative systems can accommodate many models of production - market, amateur etc
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Generativity, then, is a parent of invention, and an open network connecting generative devices makes the fruits of invention easy to share if the inventor is so inclined.
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Generativity as a medium of invention - it makes me think of a market place - 2nd Century Palmyra, say - as opposed to a market or a trade.
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He then noted the innate value of being able to express oneself idiosyncratically
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We are seeing the possibility of an emergence of a new popular culture, produced on the folk-culture model and inhabited actively, rather than passively consumed by the masses.
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makers
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Benkler: particpation and transparency potential of new networks changes us deeply as cultural co-creators.
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policy issues
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Benkler, contd: free culture makes us citizens, market cutlure makes us consumers.
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innovation
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An economy of "sharing nicely" has created great wealth and internet allows it to increase in scope.
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contribution
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Hierarchy and Polyarchy - who forages better? (is this intrinsic or extrinsic)?
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eccentric
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Intrinsic bebefits are not just there for the technically enclined - there is recursion in generativity, allow all sorts of activities to become generative.
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The divide is not between technology and nontechnology, but between hierarchy and polyarchy.72 In hierarchies, gatekeepers control the allocation of attention and resources to an idea. In polyarchies, many ideas can be pursued independently. Hierarchical systems appear better at nipping dead-end ideas in the bud, but they do so at the expense of crazy ideas that just might work. Polyarchies can result in wasted energy and effort, but they are better at ferreting out and developing obscure, transformative ideas. More importantly, they allow many more people to have a hand at contributing to the system, regardless of the quality of the contribution.
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Polyarchy is ... what allows parallel, uncoordinated action to nevertheless produced orderly wholes
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Internet
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Internetworled PC makes group coordination much simpler than it used to be.
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disruption
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economic harm.
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How much harmful mutation are we prepared to put up with from Internet - especially social harm?
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But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal impulses and preferences.
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The generative Internet and PC were at first perhaps more akin to new societies; as people were connected, they may not have had firm expectations about the basics of the interaction. Who pays for what? Who shares what? The time during which the Internet remained an academic backwater, and the PC was a hobbyist’s tool, helped situate each within the norms of Benkler’s parallel economy of sharing nicely, of greater control in the hands of users and commensurate trust that they would not abuse it.
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This is the generative pattern, and we can find examples of it at every layer of the network hourglass: 123 An idea originates in a backwater. It is ambitious but incomplete. It is partially implemented and released anyway, embracing the ethos of the procrastination principle. Contribution is welcomed from all corners, resulting in an influx of usage. Success is achieved beyond any expectation, and a higher profile draws even more usage. Success is cut short: “There goes the neighborhood” as newer users are not conversant with the idea of experimentation and contribution, and other users are prepared to exploit the openness of the system to undesirable ends. There is movement toward enclosure to prevent the problems that arise from the system’s very popularity.
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The general cycle of generativity, at every level. (NB How does the market avoid these? what is the role of free-riding and externalities?)
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surfing
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Spam and malware are like Mill's notion of individuality having got too far ahead of the collective power to discipline it.
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