RE: Biological Metaphor
"Logan, Patrick D" <[email protected]> Fri, 17 Jun 2005 10:53:26 -0700
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------_=_NextPart_001_01C57365.764E518A Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Another older example of long tail software and end user programming... =20 http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP181/ =20 This specific paper is one of the last from the team at MIT that began with the Information Lens in the early 1980's and ended with OVAL (Objects, Views, Agents, and Links) in the early 1990's. In these cases emergent design of groupware is evident in the way people pass around and organize semi-structured data. =20 The specific paper addresses new primitives they found useful to add to their original set. =20 -Patrick =20 =20 ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brian Foote Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 9:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [emergentdesign] Biological Metaphor =20 Genetic algorithms and genetic programming are fascinating in their own rights, I'd love to tinker more with 'em. But... The latter direction was the one I was hoping to see more of here. The "long tail" meme must have broken out and gone epidemic recently. I don't recall where I first saw it, maybe Barabassi's Linked, maybe not, but its suddenly impinging on my consciousness from several directions at once (this being one of them). I wasn't aware this meme had joined forces with the notion of end user programmability and one-off knock off apps, hmmm. One of those catfish in the memepool moments... I'll surf it. Later, alas. It is, I gather, agreed that it is not controversial to regard the process by which these phenomenon are cultivated as having broad similarities to those in play in markets, ecosystems, and the like, hence, notions like teleonomy, endosymbiosis, speciation, r-k strategies, etc. etc. all get to come into play. Signaling, megafauna, component Cambrian explosions, yup, there's lots of play left in biological metaphors... --BF, uh, back to work... -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Logan, Patrick D Sent: Thursday, 16 June, 2005 18:54 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [emergentdesign] Biological Metaphor "Is the biological metaphor necessary? Obviously it isn't, but=20 I can't help but feel that it is valuable." >From what little I know "genetic" or "evolutionary" programs have proven useful in certain situations. (cite: http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~mm/publications.html) I think there are other ways to consider the same metaphor. For example, a current topic on the web is "long tail" software, i.e. the ability to create niche applications through some end-user-programming capability where each application is not significant individually but are more impressive when you see all the niches they can fill. e.g. http://jotspot.com/ and http://smallthought.com/ What if end users had the primitive parts they could usefully combine (applications and data) and share. One could track the use and flow of these parts and perhaps observe a larger system evolved from parts by the people that combined them. Perhaps higher level capabilities could be discovered, automated, and supported more explicitly by observant people or tools. -Patrick Yahoo! Groups Links ________________________________ Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergentdesign/ =09=20=20 * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]?subject=3DUnsubscribe>=20 =09=20=20 * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .=20 ------_=_NextPart_001_01C57365.764E518A Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <html> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered)"> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} tt {font-family:"Courier New";} span.EmailStyle18 {font-family:Arial; color:navy;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --> </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=blue> <div class=Section1> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Another older example of long tail software and end user programming…</span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><a href="http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP181/">http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP181/</a></span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>This specific paper is one of the last from the team at MIT that began with the Information Lens in the early 1980’s and ended with OVAL (Objects, Views, Agents, and Links) in the early 1990’s. In these cases emergent design of groupware is evident in the way people pass around and organize semi-structured data.</span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>The specific paper addresses new primitives they found useful to add to their original set.</span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>-Patrick</span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p> <div> <div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1> </span></font></div> <p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Brian Foote<br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Friday, June 17, 2005 9:53 AM<br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> [email protected]<br> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> RE: [emergentdesign] Biological Metaphor</span></font></p> </div> <p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'> </span></font></p> <p class=MsoNormal><tt><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size: 10.0pt'>Genetic algorithms and genetic programming are fascinating in their own</span></font></tt><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">rights, I'd love to tinker more with 'em. But...</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">The latter direction was the one I was hoping to see more of here.</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">The "long tail" meme must have broken out and gone epidemic recently. I</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">don't recall where I first saw it, maybe Barabassi's Linked, maybe not, but</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">its suddenly impinging on my consciousness from several directions at once</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">(this being one of them).</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">I wasn't aware this meme had joined forces with the notion of end user</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">programmability and one-off knock off apps, hmmm. One of those catfish in</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">the memepool moments...</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">I'll surf it. Later, alas.</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">It is, I gather, agreed that it is not controversial to regard the process</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">by which these phenomenon are cultivated as having broad similarities to</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">those in play in markets, ecosystems, and the like, hence, notions like</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">teleonomy, endosymbiosis, speciation, r-k strategies, etc. etc. all get to</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">come into play. Signaling, megafauna, component Cambrian explosions, yup,</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">there's lots of play left in biological metaphors...</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">--BF, uh, back to work...</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">-----Original Message-----</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">On Behalf Of Logan, Patrick D</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">Sent: Thursday, 16 June, 2005 18:54</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">To: [email protected]</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">Subject: RE: [emergentdesign] Biological Metaphor</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">"Is the biological metaphor necessary? Obviously it isn't, but </font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">I can't help but feel that it is valuable."</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">>From what little I know "genetic" or "evolutionary" programs have proven</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">useful in certain situations.</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">(cite: <a href="http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~mm/publications.html)">http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~mm/publications.html)</a></font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">I think there are other ways to consider the same metaphor. For example, a</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">current topic on the web is "long tail" software, i.e. the ability to create</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">niche applications through some end-user-programming capability where each</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">application is not significant individually but are more impressive when you</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">see all the niches they can fill.</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">e.g. <a href="http://jotspot.com/">http://jotspot.com/</a> and <a href="http://smallthought.com/">http://smallthought.com/</a></font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">What if end users had the primitive parts they could usefully combine</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">(applications and data) and share. One could track the use and flow of these</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">parts and perhaps observe a larger system evolved from parts by the people</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">that combined them. Perhaps higher level capabilities could be discovered,</font></tt><br> <tt><font face="Courier New">automated, and supported more explicitly by observant people or tools.</font></tt><br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">-Patrick</font></tt><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <tt><font face="Courier New">Yahoo! Groups Links</font></tt><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> </span></font></p> </body> </html> ------_=_NextPart_001_01C57365.764E518A--