From the historical perspective, Brian Lamb's article (2004), “The Way It Was Meant To Be” or
provides a few points that perhaps a current article cannot. For example, it informs of how people he know use wikis—first hand information, or at least it sounds like it; hee explains what wikis are in a way that anybody will understand; and he gathered so many, diverse quotes that he can get a very broad number of readers to keep reading and looking for the next citation. The illustration is also compelling; it looks like it was influenced by Bosch's or Varo's style.
There are two points from Lamb's article that I would like to talk about; one, Berners-Lee, and second, using multiple and diverse quotations.
One
Every time I read Berners-Lee's or Ted Nelson's opinion of the current state of the Internet, they are disappointed or mad, or they just say that the Internet is not what they wanted it to be. Ok. That's fine. Gutenberg, Edison, Ford or any other inventor would not be that happy with what their inventions are doing today. Hey, not even Jesus would be happy with so many of today's Christians. However, both Berners-Lee and Nelson have a better opinion of wikis than they have of plain linked web pages. The French government bought the rights to the invention of photography, so that humanity would enjoy taking photos without having to pay royalties. Ted Nelson's designs and dreams on “Dream Machines” became the bible of software designers, who by the way don't pay any royalties to him. Berners-Lee has practically given us HTTP, HTML, URL, and web coding, which makes the Internet look easier and more interesting. He only gets to be part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), be famous, etc., but I don't think he gets any royalties.
I know a few developers that are somehow mad at Berners-Lee for inventing HTML, the language for the graphic, eye-appealing Internet. These developers argue that HTML has made the Internet more democratic, but it has also produced less skilled users. In other words, they argue that with the Internet being so easy, there is more stupidity. Before, people had to learn a few tricks in order to participate in a collaborative project taken place on a series of networked computers. Now, ANYBODY, well, almost anybody, can use the Internet.
Two
The use of so many quotes indicates to me that since the topic was new, Lamb did not have that many sources to consult. Therefore he decided to pepper his article with the words of Berners-Lee, Bob Dylan, and, my personal favorite, John Cage. However, by the time I finished the article, so many quotations became similar to a dozen or more links that I'm pushed to click on. In other words, it was like John Cage piece: all I heard was the noise made by the other people (Dylan, Ibsen, etc.), and Lamb's words were like Cage's piano's keys on 4:13, silence.
I will post a second part on wikis later.
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