How could, would, or ''do'' people use wikis, or things 'like' wikis, for learning purposes? This has to do with the question: what's 'like' a wiki? -- And, also, what's (beneficially) ''unlike'' a wiki, e.g. when it comes to hacking, or running, code?
Using what we know about the different ''property'' (or is it ''content''? -- or ''learning''?) management systems used by e.g. hackers, teachers, researchers, or students; and what we know about problem solving -- it would be great to have a ''How to Hack It'' book that updates Polya's classic ''How to Solve It'' for use in a social, online setting.
''Polya'': First you have to understand the problem. What is the unknown? What are the data? What does would it mean for this problem to be solved? Next, you have to find a connection between the data and the unknown. You may have to consider auxiliary problems if a direct connection does not present itself. Have you seen this before? Do you know a related problem? You should be able to work out a plan of the solution. Then you need to carry out your plan. You should check each step. And then you should examine the solution you've obtained. Can you check the result? Can you see it at a glance? Can you use the result, or method, for some other problem?
''me'': I wanted to tell you: for a moment when I was working on that pyramid, I had a wonderful feeling of freedom and joy -- I guess that's what they call "happy hacking". I'd like to have that feeling a lot more in life.
''A.'': this is such a nice comment. Me too.... ha, happy hacking.:) :) exactly what the installation was meant at.
...
''me'': This might sound extreme, but I think I only ever feel really good (free, I think, is what I initially typed) when I'd doing "art" of some sort
''T.'': i think that's a good insight.
Cf. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackfleisch
I think the emotional aspects of creativity are a fascinating topic. Emotions in general are pretty fascinating, and they seem to connect to so much of what we do. On the "positive" side of the spectrum, everything from love to friendship gets involved, and creative work seems to put the pedal to the metal with that sort of thing. I still get a good feeling looking at the corner of Our Collnnective Minds WikiSym 2010 pyramid, where I started to introduce the ideas about dynamics that I'd been thinking about recently -- happy because that corner had initially been left blank, giving me the chance to fill in something important. I think I was even more excited when I saw that someone had edited what I contributed, since it made me feel like I was participating in an activity with shared social value.
But how to keep the ball rolling? -- How to have this feeling more?
I think there is something about light-weight contributions that can go deeper; similar to BBC -- because actually every light-weight thing DOES go deeper, and you usually see a bit of this depth or potential depth right away. There is something about that that feels comforting, like having a storehouse full of grain when winter is coming on.
I had a similarly happy experience when I went to visit Redhog and we got various Etherpad things done, and I became much more hopeful that my GravPad ambitions might actually be realized in time for the demo (which ultimately the most important ones were).
I think I can look forward to similar experiences working with Scymtym on Rudel and then with Michael Kohlhase and his group at KWARC this month (still have to book my ticket, yikes!), and presumably with the ROLE developers after that. It seems likely to be quite a productive and happy time. But at the same time I don't think I should be complacent about it.
Like, going with the flow -- it's good if things are really flowing, but it's frustrating otherwise. I think in this way hacking is similar to (and inspired by) things like Kerouac's life story (some aspects of which are slated to be depicted in a movie sometime soon), though I think there is much more to it.
(Indeed the whole idea of "mincing my words" reminds me very much of the cut-up method of William Burroughs, who I think we can easily count as a sort of grandfather of hacking, as well as of heavy metal and contemporary queerness...)
Cf. http://www.archiegrand.com/
So, without the explicit permission of redhog, scymtym, and [...], I'd like to start writing some of my reflections on our experiences together. This is going to be somewhat tricky (maybe I should just ask permission?... or find a book on writing nonfiction?). I'm eliciting the help of Johan Kärrman in the first place (wouldn't it be nice to have a proper notebook for this project!)... but I don't know if my powers of elicitation are sufficient, so maybe I should say *so* liciting...
Anyway, this section reminds me of Derrida's book "The Politics of Friendship" and the thematic question therein of "how many friends?"
Hm... I get the feeling that little snippets of ideas could accumulate on this page indefinitely, but not result in an actual book of any sort ever. Maybe I need to get some composition books and start cranking out chapters, to be typed up later. Maybe pick a chapter a month or so? I have 27 months left in the program, as of the time of this writing; make it 24 working months because I'll be occupied with other things part of the time, maybe knock that down to 20 in case I need a few additional months for planning and editing this book itself. But 20 chapters might be a bit much. How about 10 chapters to start with, then I could do a sequel later :). Having never done this before I don't really know how to do it "right", but it is usually nice to write to an outline of some sort. (Presumably that's what this page is, and it seems like I'm getting close to having 10 sections.)
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_in_the_Bedroom
"... it is only by sacrificing everything to the senses' pleasure that this individual, who never asked to be cast into this universe of woe, that this poor creature who goes under the name of Man, may be able to sow a smattering of roses atop the thorny path of life." -- De Sade
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau
"These creatures you have seen are animals carven and wrought into new shapes. To that, to the study of the plasticity of living forms, my life has been devoted. I have studied for years, gaining in knowledge as I go. I see you look horrified, and yet I am telling you nothing new. It all lay in the surface of practical anatomy years ago, but no one had the temerity to touch it." -- H. G. Wells
Cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27LLPANAgzw
This is the book I was hoping my sister would write. But at the same time, I've heard that once someone knows "you" are a writer ("you" in this case is "my sister"), then "they" (me) will say: Ah, you know what you should write about! and then they will rattle off their idea to you. I read about this in a book called "What Should I Do with My Life?" by Po Bronson, who at least lives and works in San Francisco (or did when he was writing that book). Well, rather than passing the buck (or book), how about showing some initiative and writing at least a chapter on the topic myself. The idea is that SF (and maybe one or two "other" SF's?) are loci for some pretty interesting shit... (One thinks not just Gonzo and Google but The Man in the High Castle, On the Road, City Lights, bla ti bla bla.)
Stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere (used by permission... cf also Anne Goldenberg's "La participation dans les communautés épistémiques : don ou contribution", http://anne.koumbit.org/node/240 and compare Nietzsche on gifts...)
To conclude.
