michael said:
I guess you have a different way of interpreting what bowerbird says.
i think you're getting some of the references mixed up. but it would be too complicated to explain.
I keep encouraging him to encourage others, rather than to discourage
encouragement is in the eye of the beholder...
and that this is more likely to get him what he says he wants.
once again, this is not a matter of "what i want". to continue to operate under that erroneous assumption is to be misguided... when i want a consistent e-library, i will rework your e-texts. it's no big deal. in my spare time, i can probably do it in a year. no big deal. if you gave me a dozen volunteers, it'd be a month. (yes, i say that jokingly, since i know you don't "give" volunteers; they don't take your orders; _they_ decide what they want to do.)
Personally, I worry that he might prefer to proven right by history, rather than by carrying his own plans to fruition
when i am proven right by history, others will carry my plans to fruition. or, as is more likely, when others stumble upon the same truths that i have stumbled upon, and such truths prove to be the generative force for the "plans" of those people in the future, _then_ _they_ will make _their_ plans come to fruition... and i'll be as much of a footnote in those plans as ian feldman, if either of us is included at all... you can't stop an idea whose time has come. it's too grandiose to think these are "my" ideas. there is a truth out there -- that a document's structure can be indicated via plain-text means and "markup" that is "invisible" -- and anyone who taps into this truth is equally empowered. i have told people here about this truth, hoping that they would grasp it, but they have made it totally clear that they do not _wish_ to grasp it. fine. no problem. it would have made your life easier, but you _can_ live your life without it... nevertheless, other people _will_ discover it. other people already _have_ discovered it, and they are in the process of "making it work", so i'm not worried about the future, not in any way. (well, i'm worried about the very real chance that human beings will bring about our own extinction, but if/when that happens, our markup systems will be one of the last things we'll need to worry about.)
at least with the army of volunteers we have at hand.
i don't think you have _any_ volunteers for the job of making the library more consistent. and if there is no call for them, from the "top" of this bureaucracy, you never will have any, either. but if i am wrong, i can certainly provide any such volunteers with tools. but remember, the favor they'd do is for you, not me.
I do hope that he fines someone to pay for his work to the tune he hopes
interesting slip there -- "fines someone"... :+)
and that he, or someone in a similar position, will eventually create something along the order of his dreams.
did i mention i'm in the process of putting up lots of examples?
I just think it would/could/should be now not later,
and did i mention i'm putting up lots of examples _now_?
and via volunteers rather than via some billionaire who gives him an enterprise grant, venture capital, etc.
i'm fine with volunteers. i'm fine with a billionaire's money. i'm fine sitting alone in my girlfriend's spare room with her g4. i have no complaints. i enjoy life. and smile when i write posts. :+)
We've seen the billionaire approach to eBooks, and, frankly, it will be hard to imagine that such approaches could not have had any worse effect on the eBook world, even had that been their intention.
i quite agree. and if i do take a billionaire's money, it will be because i know i am able to do the job right. (or it _could_ just be because i _want_ to take a billionaire's money. but even then, i'll make sure i do no harm to the future of e-books.)
That said, I/we can still hope the change that in the future. . . .
if changing me is part of your plan, i'd say it might be easier to change your plan instead... ;+) -bowerbird