Comments on: Blind men and the elephant http://mikepk.com/2008/05/blind-men-and-the-elephant/ Web Tech, Programming, Boston Startups, Entrepreneurship and Random Musings Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:49:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: mikepk http://mikepk.com/2008/05/blind-men-and-the-elephant/comment-page-1/#comment-3 mikepk Thu, 29 May 2008 22:52:12 +0000 http://mikepk.com/?p=7#comment-3 Hi Dave, thanks for the comment! I see your point, but I still wonder that if you bring your audience with you, if part of the charm of twitter is lost since the discovery part for both those left behind and those in the new "bubble" would be lost. The interesting thing will be to see if there will be communication channels between these new distributed twitter-like islands back to Twitter. You're right that centralized systems are inherently brittle, but in some cases they work, plenty of businesses are built on google at the moment. Instant Messaging is an interesting historical example of having excellent open source alternatives (Jabber) but large populations still living in closed ecosystems (like AOL) because thats where their data is. I may have to take back my statements about Twitter being able to survive though, as their downtime problems seem to be getting worse rather than better. We may yet see a mass exodus from the service. I'm doing well! Hope things are good for you too. Hi Dave, thanks for the comment! I see your point, but I still wonder that if you bring your audience with you, if part of the charm of twitter is lost since the discovery part for both those left behind and those in the new “bubble” would be lost. The interesting thing will be to see if there will be communication channels between these new distributed twitter-like islands back to Twitter.

You’re right that centralized systems are inherently brittle, but in some cases they work, plenty of businesses are built on google at the moment. Instant Messaging is an interesting historical example of having excellent open source alternatives (Jabber) but large populations still living in closed ecosystems (like AOL) because thats where their data is.

I may have to take back my statements about Twitter being able to survive though, as their downtime problems seem to be getting worse rather than better. We may yet see a mass exodus from the service.

I’m doing well! Hope things are good for you too.

]]> By: Dave Winer http://mikepk.com/2008/05/blind-men-and-the-elephant/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Dave Winer Sat, 24 May 2008 22:58:16 +0000 http://mikepk.com/?p=7#comment-2 I wasn't asking Alex to do anything for me, actually I was trying to make it easier for him, that maybe some of the requirements that Twitter has taken on might not be super-important to all users. I don't want his problems, but I have my own. I want to communicate with the people who follow me on Twitter. So I have to take care of this for myself. That's why there's going to be a diaspora, it seems, and that's going to be a decentralization. We can't keep building this way, we've learned this so many times, systems like this are fragile. Anyway, no one has to follow me. That's one of the requirements for getting people to follow you. A secret ingredient. :-) Hope you're doing well Mike. I wasn’t asking Alex to do anything for me, actually I was trying to make it easier for him, that maybe some of the requirements that Twitter has taken on might not be super-important to all users. I don’t want his problems, but I have my own. I want to communicate with the people who follow me on Twitter. So I have to take care of this for myself. That’s why there’s going to be a diaspora, it seems, and that’s going to be a decentralization. We can’t keep building this way, we’ve learned this so many times, systems like this are fragile.

Anyway, no one has to follow me. That’s one of the requirements for getting people to follow you. A secret ingredient. :-)

Hope you’re doing well Mike.

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