On 15 December 2010 23:32, Barrett Brown <
barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
> No problem for the delay. We're actually having our weekly online meeting on
> our IRC channel at
freenode.net, #project pm, at 7:00 pm EST (New York
> time), thus in half an hour. Probably too late for you to make it. Anyway,
> I'll get back to you soon regarding how else you can get involved. I've also
> cc'd my colleagues Clark Robinson and Emma Allen, who are helping me to
> organize new participants; Clark will send along some basic info presently.
> Thanks again for your inquiry.
>
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 6:41 AM, David Ault <
jdault@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hey Barrett,
>>
>> Sorry for my extremely late reply! I'm still interested in your
>> project, but I've just started a full-time job here in the UK which is
>> taking up my day-to-day 9-5 life. However, if you have things I could
>> be doing to help, then please do get in touch and give me a list of
>> things for me to do, and I'll start taking a look.
>>
>> I work best when I know what's expected of me, so give me a list and
>> I'll let you know what I can do and do my best :-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>> On 6 November 2010 23:54, Barrett Brown <
barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi, David-
>> > Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
>> > Below, I've pasted some more info on what Project PM is. If you'd be
>> > interested in helping to administrate the project, let me know, and you
>> > can
>> > come into our IRC channel and talk with me and a couple other people who
>> > are
>> > heavily involved thus far.
>> > ***
>> > Project PM is an online entity designed to address problems of
>> > information
>> > flow in a variety of contexts while also perpetually expanding its
>> > participant base in such a way as to maintain the high average quality
>> > of
>> > existing participants, all without central direction or leadership. This
>> > is
>> > to be accomplished by way of a communication/collaboration schematic
>> > Ive
>> > developed for the purpose and which is best summarized as follows.
>> >
>> > Participants A, B, C, and D are provided a widget which allows them to
>> > send
>> > or re-send an item - an idea, a blog post, input on a task - to however
>> > many
>> > of the others to which theyre connected, who will in turn have the
>> > option
>> > to send items to them. Upon receiving an item, each can push that item
>> > to
>> > whomever else they are connected, who will in turn have the same option.
>> > A,B,C, and D may each also invite anyone else to adopt the widget and
>> > connect with him or her, and will thereby bring in new participants with
>> > the
>> > same ability to send and receive items and connect to new or existing
>> > participants. Now let us say that A, who is very clever and possesses
>> > good
>> > judgement, invites Z, who is similarly swell. But then Z brings in X,
>> > who is
>> > only moderately virtuous and tasteful and who later brings in Y, who is
>> > much
>> > less so. Y writes a blog post about how Obama is secretly from Tehran or
>> > finds a great article on crystal healing or some such thing and pushes
>> > the
>> > item to X, the person who brought him in. If X shows such poor judgement
>> > as
>> > to think this item worthwhile and thus pushes it to A, then A, who has
>> > better judgement, will refrain from pushing it forward to anyone else,
>> > thus
>> > stopping the item from making its way further into the network and
>> > bothering
>> > everyone with its nonsense. A might even opt to severe his widget
>> > connection
>> > to X lest he receive any further nonsense. Thus it is that the network
>> > may
>> > expand without limit while still ensuring that the information flowing
>> > through it is always of relatively high quality.
>> >
>> > There are a few other factors worth noting. Any participant may connect
>> > to
>> > any other participant, regardless of how far away they are within the
>> > structure of the network, assuming that both agree to the connection. A
>> > participant can be connected to as many others as agree to the
>> > connection.
>> > In order to prevent good information from being regionalized as the
>> > network
>> > grows, a pushed item has a 20 percent chance of also appearing in the
>> > widget
>> > of a random participant elsewhere in the network, which may then be
>> > pushed
>> > around among those participants as well if they find it to be of use.
>> >
>> > When the software is completed, slightly differing versions will be used
>> > by
>> > bloggers and by our general participants. The former will use it to
>> > better
>> > share their best posts while also being privy to the best posts of
>> > others,
>> > the titles of which will appear on the bloggers widget which in turn is
>> > visible to his own readers to the extent that the blogger has chosen to
>> > push
>> > the articles he receives; meanwhile, readers have widgets which display
>> > headlines with links of those blog posts which have been pushed around
>> > the
>> > network a particular number of times as set by the user, making it an
>> > aggregation tool that is not only crowd-sourced, but crowd-sourced among
>> > a
>> > particularly erudite and intellectually honest array of bloggers and
>> > other
>> > online commentators, rather than having been chosen by one or two
>> > editors or
>> > voted to the top by a huge group of internet users who have not been
>> > filtered for competence - thereby making it potentially the best source
>> > of
>> > news and commentary that has ever existed.
>> >
>> > Meanwhile, our network of Project PM participants necessarily connects
>> > the
>> > individuals themselves, rather than blogs, and items tend to be ideas or
>> > improvements in the context of loose working groups of participants
>> > collaborating on some particular task, such as our Africa Development
>> > Program or Science Journalism Improvement Program or one of many others
>> > that
>> > will be founded and furthered by groups of participants who will work
>> > within
>> > the context of the schematic and with other tools well be adding.
>> > Organizations such as charities and NGOs in general may also join the
>> > network as a single party.
>> >
>> > While we wait for the software to be completed, Project PM is operating
>> > in a
>> > more informal manner; about a dozen members are involved in setting up
>> > our
>> > various programs, building the widgets, recruiting new participants and
>> > advisers, and otherwise preparing for the integration of the hundred or
>> > so
>> > other participants we have on have on hand into what will eventually
>> > amount
>> > to an ever-expanding distributed think-tank made up of scientists,
>> > journalists, activists, software engineers, authors, activists, NGO
>> > workers,
>> > and combinations thereof, exerting soft power in a wide variety of
>> > contexts
>> > and otherwise serving as a sort of technocratic counterpoint to the
>> > other,
>> > lesser institutions that shape human society with the very mixed results
>> > that have presumably led you to inquire about Project PM in the first
>> > place.
>> > On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 9:51 AM, David Ault <
jdault@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Barrett,
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for the email - it sounds like an extremely worthwhile project.
>> >> My speciality is astronomy, although I've been a little out of that
>> >> academically for a while. Nevertheless, I'm intrigued by your mention
>> >> of working with you and the administrators - could you give me some
>> >> more information there please?
>> >>
>> >> Many thanks,
>> >>
>> >> David
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On 15 October 2010 20:37, Barrett Brown <
barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> > David-
>> >> > We don't have much interest in formal credentials; I've just taken a
>> >> > look at
>> >> > your website and in particular your page on the tour you're doing of
>> >> > science
>> >> > centers and your reasons for doing so, and I think you'd be of
>> >> > extraordinary
>> >> > assistance to us in general. If you'd like to advise a writer, let me
>> >> > know
>> >> > the particular branches of science in which you're most knowledgeable
>> >> > and
>> >> > I'll put you down on our list. But you also might be interested in
>> >> > working
>> >> > with myself and the other administrators as time permits as we
>> >> > oversee
>> >> > the
>> >> > project in general.
>> >> > I'll have my associate Clark Robinson send you some additional
>> >> > information
>> >> > about Project PM and our fundamental goals, which involve the
>> >> > development
>> >> > and promotion of improved methods of collaboration and information
>> >> > flow.
>> >> > We
>> >> > have a number of documents you might find interesting, and our more
>> >> > active
>> >> > participants tend to congregate in our new IRC channel which itself
>> >> > may
>> >> > be
>> >> > accessed at
irc.freenode.net, #projectpm (I recommend Xchat if you're
>> >> > new to
>> >> > IRC, but Clark will send along a short guide including other methods
>> >> > of
>> >> > getting on).
>> >> > Anyway, get back to me after you've heard from Clark, if you would.
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 5:48 AM, David Ault <
jdault@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Hi there,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I'm a UK-based science presenter and writer, and I'm interested in
>> >> >> your project. However, as neither a science journalist nor a current
>> >> >> academic I can understand if I'm frozen out somewhat. Nevertheless,
>> >> >> I've been going around North America this summer doing reviews of
>> >> >> science centres and so on, so I keep in touch that way, along with
>> >> >> presenting the twice-monthly Jodcast.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> If I can be of any use, please let me know.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Many thanks,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> David
>> >> >>
>> >> >> --
>> >> >> David Ault
>> >> >>
www.davidault.co.uk
>> >> >> Twitter: @astrotour2010
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > Regards,
>> >> >
>> >> > Barrett Brown
>> >> > 512-560-2302
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> David Ault
>> >>
www.davidault.co.uk
>> >> Twitter: @astrotour2010
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Barrett Brown
>> > 512-560-2302
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> David Ault
>>
www.davidault.co.uk
>> Twitter: @astrotour2010
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Barrett Brown
> 512-560-2302
>