Have no doubt about this: Tantek Çelik is a visionary.
Before we get into the panel discussion proper, let’s look at how Tantek defines an “independent” ought to be.
Someone that dares to think or do something on their own, often outside, or against established conventions.
In addition, an independent must have:
- The conscious decision and desire to be independent
- The tools and resources to be independent
Independent thinking is paramount to sustaining the diversity of human culture. Without independent thought, there is no exploration. Where there is no exploration, there is no progress.
What then are building blocks?
- Tools, resources, or techniques
- Built by experts
- Usable by non-experts
- Combine with other building blocks
- Build larger blocks from smaller blocks
Tantek gave examples of Blogger, Creative Commons, Wikis and IRC, amongst many others. It is interesting to note that building blocks need not be technical solutions, as in the case of the Creative Commons, where it is a legal building block rather than a piece of code.
In essence, a building block is like a pre-packaged toolkit that empowers the non-expert.
I think I have a very apt real life, real moment example.
I’ve seen Tantek’s slides for this panel. They’re not in Powerpoint or Keynote. They’re coded in semantic HTML and their behaviour triggered by Javascript.
My church has been trying to templatise hymn lyrics for the longest time, and I don’t think Powerpoint slides are the way to go because it depends on the availability of Powerpoint. A HTML solution would be available more of the time, costs less money, and is much easier to maintain (I can edit it in any text editor).
So if Tantek would allow me to use his method of churning out slides for use at my church, he’d have provided me with the building blocks for use in a different environment and purpose. Think I’ll need to catch him and ask him for permission, or has he licensed his slide technology under the Creative Commons?
Anyway, back to the topic of creating building blocks. BarCamp was another great idea of a relatively non-technical building block. Detailed documentation on how to organise BarCamps (a derivative of O’Reilly’s FooCamp) enable independent parties all over the world organise their own BarCamp.
Something mentioned in the panel but not on the slides was the issue of mutation. Building blocks need not be the only way of doing things. Where BarCamp was open to all, MashUp Camp is open only to programmers. The evolution of building blocks help tailor the tools for more specialised uses.
This is definitely something I’m going to be looking into.
Comments
With reference to Tantek’s slides, I think that’s Eric Meyer’s S5 in action.
Posted by: Liza Ng | March 19, 2006 12:08 AM
yup S5, i think so too. btw on a side note, have you tried Presenter, we are using it in our church & it rocks, multi-screen, edit on the fly & all lyrics are in txt files. :) sweet…
Posted by: (O_o) nickpan | March 23, 2006 10:50 PM