FS

Index
  • Femke Snelting
  • Links
  • Texts and publications
  • Files
  • Search

    Tools for a Read-Write World I

    September 21, 2012 Abstracting craft, clay, Conversations, emerge, future, LGRU, massage, Networked graphics, Wiki, writing

    While working on a call for projects in the context of LGRU (codename: Tools for a Read-Write World) I drift off into reading an interview with Ward Cunningham. Cunningham developed concepts and codes for collaborative tools such as the Wiki, and also inspired programming methods like Extreme Programming.

    Bill Venners: Everyone would likely agree that predicting the future is difficult, but is it always a bad idea?

    Ward Cunningham: (…) When we start talking about what will be desired in the future, we might have some instincts and they might be right, but they won’t always be right. And we have to attend to the times when they aren’t right. (…)

    Somebody might say, “Why don’t we look forward, look at all the work we have to do? Why don’t we design a system that makes all work easy from the beginning?” And if you can pull that off, that’s great. It’s just that, over and over, people try to design systems that make tomorrow’s work easy. But when tomorrow comes it turns out they didn’t quite understand tomorrow’s work, and they actually made it harder.

    Bill Venners: To tackle the cost of change curve, you found a way to make it practical to make changes all the way through the lifetime of a project. And that made it less important to plan for the future, because you could make changes when they were actually needed as the future unfolded. Does an overall architecture simply emerge through the process of focusing only on each small step?

    Ward Cunningham: I like the notion of working the program, like an artist works a lump of clay. An artist wants to make a sculpture, but before she makes the sculpture, she just massages the clay. She starts towards making the sculpture, and sees what the clay wants to do. And the more she handles the clay, the more the clay tends to do what she wants. It becomes compliant to her will.
    A development team works on a piece of code over several months. Initially, they make a piece of code, and it’s a little stiff. It’s small, but it’s still stiff. Then they move the code, and it gets a little easier to move.

    Working the Program: A Conversation with Ward Cunningham, Part III. Bill Venners, 2004 http://www.artima.com/intv/clay.html

    ← forget that you are Toolbending →
    ← Design practice, Free Software and feminisms. Fed by and feeding into various activities, networks and collaborations ↓ →

    Affiliations

    • a.pass
    • Active Archives
    • Akademie Schloss Solitude
    • Constant
    • De Geuzen
    • Ecologies of dissemination
    • LGRU
    • Libre Graphics Meeting
    • Memory of the world
    • Mondotheque
    • OSP
    • Possible bodies
    • Samedies
    • The Darmstadt Delegation
    • The Underground Division
    • TITiPI
    • Uncategorized
    • Ustensile
    • xpub

    Links

  • Open Font Library
  • Medialab Prado Madrid
  • Domainepublic
  • Rotor
  • http://l-o-c-a-l-h-o-s-t.com/
  • LAFKON Publishing
  • rmozone Robert Ochshorn
  • Scumgrrrls
  • Missdata
  • Myriam Cea
  • Constant Association for Art and Media
  • OSP-BLOG Open Source Publishing – Graphic Design Caravan
  • BxLUG
  • a.pass
  • F.A.T.
  • Trashwiki
  • Potential Estate The most public secret society inspiring new folk rhymes
  • Feral Trade Trading goods along social networks since 2003
  • textzi.net
  • Automatist
  • Manufactura Independente
  • Permutations
  • aaaaarg
  • You are here / Vous êtes ici The online guide to Seda-think
  • Yi Liang
  • El museo del autor
  • Girls of the internet museum
  • Matthew Fuller
  • videomagazijn
  • Libre Graphics Meeting
  • Consentsus A critical feminist theory of consent
  • WVW
  • Waend A platform for subjective and collaborative spatial publication
  • Radio Panik 105.4 fm
  • Sabine Voglaire, Harrisson, Prof Papiko
  • <stdin>
  • Femmes et logiciels libres
  • Urban(e)(istiques) Anomalie(ën)(s) Bru(x)(ss)el(le)(s) through the eyes of Peter Westenberg
  • Genderchangers
  • b-l-u-e-s-c-r-e-e-n
  • Fudge The Facts
  • Open Source Video
  • GRAPA A journey to the promised land of FLOS publishing
  • mathieu-g Mathieu Gabiot: Designer Industriel
  • Artwarez Cornelia Solfrank
  • Olia Lialina
  • Martha Rosler Library
  • Constant Verlag A repository of texts from the depth of the Constant Archives
  • Foam
  • calligraffiti
  • +H+
  • Archive Cultures
  • Memory of the World The world’s documentary heritage belongs to all
  • Hackerspace Brussels
  • Jeanne van Heeswijk
  • OSP Open Source Publishing
  • – o r a m a
  • Dragan Espenschied
  • Copy Cult
  • artlibre.org
  • Rear Window
  • Information Observatory
  • SICV Scandinavian Institute for Computational Vandalism
  • Foomarx Reinventing Lorum Ipsum
  • Ludivine Loiseau
  • Adashboard
  • Speculoos Centre de spécialités graphiques
  • Towards
  • Le Syndicat des Robots
  • De Geuzen: a foundation for multi-visual research
  • Revealing Errors We reveal errors that reveal technologies, learning how they affect our lives.
  • Amateur Archivist
  • 404: School Not Found
  • Constant Feed

    RSS Constant

    • Mastodon: Putting people back at the heart of social networking 26.09.2023
      A year after Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X) in 2022, more and more people and groups are looking for alternatives to the famous microblogging network, which has become the plaything of a billionaire with libertarian ideals and close ties to the far right. One of these alternatives is Mastodon, a free and decentralised alternative, […]
    • Techno-disobedience commission: Cypher Sex - A Manual for Collective Digital Self-Defense Guides 26.09.2023
      In the framework of this year theme, Techno-disobedience, Constant is pleased to support the collective Cypher Sex in their work on a Manual for Collective Digital Self-Defense Guides. This support is brought within the framework of the commission call launched at the beginning of the year 2023. "Cypher Sex is a queer feminist collective aimed […]
    • Constant_V: a brand new catalogue 2019-2022 26.09.2023
      We are thrilled to introduce you to our latest publication for the Constant_V project. This catalogue offers a retrospective glimpse into the vitrines conceived from 2019 to 2022, showcasing the incredible work of various artists. If you are curious, feel free to reach out to us at info@constantvzw.org, or pay us a visit at our […]
    • Radical and feminist cartography: meet Nepthys Zwer 31.08.2023
      On September the 11th we will be welcoming Nepthys Zwer, a radical feminist historian and cartographer. We'll be looking at what a map is and discussing the issues surrounding cartography, its power and its social and political uses. In what way can a map serve power as well as struggles and the defence of the […]
    • Constant_V: Age of Dust 18.07.2023
      Opening: Thursday 21 September 2023 from 18:00 on Generations after the eruption of the Volcano, three communities meet around the discovery of a mysterious mineral: the Dust. Essential source of energy, sacred healing powers, geological warning, what messages and hopes does the Dust carry? When different belief systems meet, how to find a common ground? […]
    • Open Sound Lab 13.07.2023
      From 2012 to 2014 Jonathan & Yves Poliart animated a project called Open Sound Lab, a series of sound workshops devoted to the teenagers with no software or music practice. The workshops allowed the participants to try their hand at beatmaking (creating instrumental rap) with open source tools such as LMMS, Audacity & Hydrogen. - […]
    • Accessibility 13.07.2023
      Information on Constant's accessibility - About
    • Workspaces in our collective studio 13.07.2023
      Sorry, there are no workspaces available at the moment in our collective studio. - About
    • Open call: Techno-disobedience worksession Graz 03.07.2023
      This is an open call for participation in the second worksession around the theme of techno-disobedience, which will take place from the 23 to the 28th of October 2023 in Graz (Austria) at esc medien kunst labor. This worksession zooms in on disobedient tactics as means for finding new pathways to circumvent, question, detour and […]
    • An encounter with Framasoft 26.05.2023
      Founded some twenty years ago, Framasoft has made a major contribution to raising the profile of free software in France and the French-speaking world, initially through its free software directory, but also by making numerous online services available to the public. Among the best-known are Framadate, Framapad, Framaforms and Framalist, all of which can replace […]