When
· Naughties
· · 2006
· · · July
· · · · 25 (2 entries)
Contribution and Experience · “User-Generated Content” is an irreparably ugly and broken phrase. First, we’re people, not “users”. Second, people write and speak and design and compose and sing and play and build and earn and pay; machines “generate”. Third, it’s words and pictures and sound and money, not “content”. The trouble is, we need labels; short ones that still say something. Say, contribution and experience? The Net (really, truly) is the sum of billions of contributions from millions of people, and that’s all that’s interesting about it. People contribute at the edge, and experience the contributions at the edge. (Experience, not consume; the difference is obvious). The Net itself’s a contribution, by humanity to humanity, the engine of future contribution and experience. The Net’s not finished of course; contributing and experiencing, both of them, are too hard and awkward and slow.
woof! is My Hero · I have often griped about Mail.app’s completely-braindead selection behavior (for example here), and in John Gruber’s excellent Standing in Line With Mr. Jimmy, he agreed. John also argued that the way to fix this kind of problem is not, as I proposed, for Apple to open-source its apps, it’s for them to be sufficiently scriptable that you can just put a bandage over this kind of bleeding neck wound. Well, someone has. The blog’s called woof! and it’s at “end.com/speth”. While its authorship is carefully unclaimed, my awesome powers of detection aided by fifteen seconds at the nearest search engine suggest that one Jim Speth is da man, or maybe da dog. I installed the patch and it works. Hey Apple, get a clue and just stop this pain. Mr. Speth, next time we’re in the same town, beers are on me. Does this mean John Gruber’s right? Maybe; but Apple would still come out ahead by open-sourcing its apps.
