[wsfii-coord] discussion of the front page of the Wsfii site

[Arun Mehta]

On 1/26/06, Jo Walsh <jo at frot.org> wrote:
> dear Wsfii coordinators,
>
> as part of my fiddling around with the
> http://okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/WsfiiPublication i hacked a little bit on
> http://okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/WhatIsWsfii and added some quotes and a
> little bit of commentary on the end. i know it's not three paragraphs
> any more, sigh.

To reduce the length, and in order not to lose those whose vocabulary
does not include words such as paleotechnic, may I suggest that we
delete the following from the whatiswsfii page -- perhaps Jo, a
separate page with a more detailed analysis might be appropriate for
these thoughtful paras?
Arun
_______
In Volume 1 of his classic "Technics and Civilisation", Lewis Mumford
describes the "paleotechnic" era of early industrial capitalism, which
preceded the "neotechnic" era of the Machine Age, which was brought
about by the availability of standardised tools, open best practises,
and a reform-driven consideration by 'professional' technologists for
obviating some of the clearly negative impacts of new technology on
human life.

Trade secrets, sometimes important, sometimes merely childish
empiricism, retarded the cooperative extension of knowledge which has
been the basis of all our major technical advances; whilst the system
of patent monopolies was used by astute business men to drive
improvements out of the market, if they threatened to upset existing
values, or to delay their introduction - as the automatic telephone
was delayed - until the original rights to the patent had expired....
[The machine] produced during the paleotechnic era was the systematic
negation of all its characteristics: nothing less than the empire of
muddle. ... The new struggle was over the system itself. ... The new
machines followed, not their own pattern, but the pattern laid out by
previous economic and technical structures.

The Paleoinformation age is drawing to a close;