[okfn-discuss] Open Data proposals for XTech

[Saul Albert]

hi Jo,

On Sun, Dec 17, 2006 at 04:35:30PM -0800, Jo Walsh wrote:
> Below i include an 'atomization' proposal cobbled together from Saul
> and Rufus' outlines. 

w00t! Nice one :)

> Atomization: the Fourth Principle of Open Data Development
> ==========================================================
> 
> [[this title suggested by Saul is meant to bring a self-improvement,
> "Celestine Prophecy" tone to the proceedings]]

Er. I think I ought to issue a product recall on that? That was meant to
be a joke. Of course I thought 'World Summit on Free Information
Infrastructures' was a joke when I first heard that too ;) But
seriously, it's a silly name if we don't explain what the other three
principles are - isn't it? Maybe not. Maybe gnomic titles rule.

> [[i am not sure 'atomization' or 'atomisation' i think the first
> looks better and do we actually need to be consistent?]]

Atomisation = en-UK, which is our dialect I believe, and how Michel
Houellebecq would put it.

I'm intrigued to find out if other people find this idea resonant or
not, and if it will be borne out by examples in the wild.

Perhaps the best way to find out is to give it a name, stick up your
hand and shout about it - see who comes out of the woodwork. I still
like 'Atomatic' rather than 'Atomised' because it escapes the ised/ized
issue and sounds more r0b0t1k.

Jorg Baach (baach.de) had a good point too. He said 'it sounds like a
cross between zigzag and apt', and perhaps we should refer to Nelson in
there somewhere, if that's not considered too gauche. He also said it's
worth considering the 'dark side'. Transclusion always held the
potential for the most nefarious kind of micropayment / DRM /
enforcement and collection models.

I'd add a paragraph about it:

-----------

Systems proposed for extending Atomatic data into non-software, such as
Ted Nelson's concept of 'Transclusion'
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion) are very susceptible to
legal attacks. A highly interdependent modular system may become
incredibly vulnerable if a key dependency is not clear of potential
copyright issues. Worse, if atomatic knowledge becomes the norm, the
systems for controlling, distributing and interlinking that knowledge
may enable even more severe copy restriction. Atomatic data also needs
to be Open licensed data for the economic and logistical benefits to be
widely felt.

-----------

hmm. that's too long.

> Consider the way software has evolved to be highly atomized into
> packages/libraries. Doing this allows one to "divide and conquer" the
> organizational and conceptual problems of highly complex systems. Even
> more importantly it allows for greatly increased levels of reuse.  
> 
> A request to install a single given package can result in the
> automatic discovery and installation of all packages on which that one
> depends. The result may be a list of tens  or even hundreds of
> packages in a graphic demonstration of the way in which computer
> programs have been broken down into interdependent components.
> 
> Atomization on a large scale (such as in the Debian apt packaging
> system) has allowed large software projects to employ an amazing
> degree of decentralised, collaborative and incremental development.
> But what other kinds of knowledge can be atomised? What are the
> opportunities and problems of this approach for forms of knowledge
> other than Software?
> 
> Atomization also holds a key to commercial opportunity: unrestricted
> access to an ever-changing, atomised landscape of knowledge creates
> commercial opportunities that are not available with proprietary
> approaches. What examples are there of commercial systems that
> function with Open Knowledge, and how can those systems be shared?
> 
> OKFN is supporting software allowing the incremental, decentralised,
> collaborative and atomised production of open data. KnowledgeForge is
> one Open Knowledge Foundation project to provide a platform for
> collaborative data development and distribution. The "Open
> Shakespeare" project is a prototype distribution of public domain
> information with utilities for annotating and cross-referencing it.

Apart from that - all looks good! Nice one. I'm very interested to see
what kind of response this gets.

Cheers,

Saul.

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