What do you guys think a bazaar is? Is it chaos? Or is it a higher form of chaos, as they try to say in wave particle physics or Zen, "Organised Harmony In Chaos", or "The Butterfly Effect" - what we think is chaos is actually balanced and perfect.
Do you think our project uses the bazaar or cathedral approach? Or is it using both or none? <-- Another Zen kuon for the lazy meditators who rather lurk than help us in the trunk! :-) Whatever it is, there are applications in present day wikinomics. Wikipedia is one of them. It started on the utter anarchic premise that anyone but anyone can edit it. Then the forces of good pens vs bad pens fought it out and you end up with bad pages and lock out debates, banning of individuals and i even see words that demonised Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia. Wikipedia has lots of subject matter specialists, not your simple everyday microsoft word classroom project of writing short essays. It is getting very highly organised and very encyclopedic. Somehow when you remove the borders or barriers of entry, you draw the largest crowds and hatred, i mean interests. But coming out of the classroom and into the real world here cos our our project here is unique and that is exactly exciting. Because we are not Wikipedia nor Linux but ADempiere, a defacto non-commercial project in ERP space. We are also not Compiere nor OpenBravo as we put it.
What then makes us unique? How are we so differentiated to the point we are so proud of it? What are our good and bad points? Or are they both perfect as a whole - A Bazaar with a Cathedral?
This thesis is important as it affects our philosophy and outlook in this project. How we understand and perceive things is how we shall act and react.
I have my own opinons, and of course when one believes in own opinions one can express it strongly. One can also express it quietly, in pain.
Take Obama vs 'another 4 yrs of Bush' McCain campaign recently. Both sides love US of America. Both sides want to defend her. But both are dead on against the way to do it.
But to us outside, we say, "Who gives a shit about US of A?. We just want you out of our faces". I thought i will hear that in Middle East. But i hear it stronger in Latin America. Elected Presidents scoring votes for threatening to cut of oil to the USA.
In our own project here, we see 'some chaos' in action. Someone wants to do something good, someone else comes and create trouble. What resulted seems to be chaos. Or is it? Did good finally comes out of it? Did it draw people who were once far back into the fold? Did it send more ppl away?
It is hard to see things from afar since we are right in the middle of it. If we can see our earth from the moon we say its blue and beautiful. If we see it from another galaxy through the Hubble Telescope we say its magnificient. But if we stay on Earth, we say we have 4 yrs to live before 2012 when the Mayan Calendar ends.
Right here right now in the project, we have little arguments going on. Some like to say, "this is political!" and start another bush war. Is this helping? Or is it the energy that is as old as the Universe itself?
Even if the leader is a tyrant cum a priest cum his wife behind the scene, it can draw more hatred in the form of pure energy in the long run. It is someone you love to hate. It is someone you cannot stand.
Whatever it is, i am asking you to see it from afar. From a billion light years away. It will do you a lot of good. It can calm you down. At least you are standing far from the fires.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
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2 comments:
Redhuan, in our beloved Adempiere project, bazaar has shown to be very effective and successful way to achieve some goals.
I refer frequently to "community wisdom" - what is such cliche but a call to bazaar? Hoping to hear voices, unorganized voices, screaming voices, low voices. That's a bazaar. At the end something good is constructed dialectically.
But (always the but) I think for some things bazaar is not enough - some things would advance faster or evolve better with some type of organization within the bazaar. I suppose exactly like a bazaar can organize itself to evolve and becomes a marketplace, or to become a bazaar marketplace.
Anyways, my call is that we don't need to be so purists to believe that bazaar is the only way - or that "organization is bad/bazaar is good". We need to find balance between bazaar/non-bazaar.
Some decisions are better taken bazaar style. Some decisions are better studied initially by an organization and then proposed to the bazaar - or even sometimes even not proposed, but ruled and be ready to modify it.
Regards,
Carlos Ruiz
To Carlos:
"community wisdom", it may be a cliche but it's amasingly self-descriptive.
A society or community naturally thinks about the ways to grow bigger and better. That's why "community wisdom" is so effective; it's the unwritten law of nature.
In our project many times I disagree with others but then I say to myself: "we just both think about the same destination but with different paths. If others think A is the way to go I have no doubt that they are right."
Even _if_ they are not, I speak and try to tell them about the consequences but who am I to dictate something is right or wrong. I'm sure that 2-300 minds work far better than my single mind.
It's like Heisenberg's theory; one has to be part of the bazaar or she's gonna touch the bazaar -to speed something up or make it as she thinks is correct- and it won't be a bazaar any longer thereafter.
Ruling something or deciding something on behalf of bazaar is just ignoring "community wisdom" whether right or wrong and it means that ones who rule something believe that they think better than the community and this is fatal IMHO.
Trust me! A bazaar _will_ evolve in a bazaar way without needing any strict governance.
--
Bahman (BahmanM.com)
The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness...This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.
-Plato
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