I don't know whether there is really a difference of kind or not. I suspect
that there is.
I'm presently reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books. They take
place in the 18th century, when much communication takes place by letter,
and the cycle can be quite long between them. I note these things about the
exchanges that take place, assuming them to be rather like it really would
be:
1. People spend a lot of time drafting their letter to the other person,
to get it "right". This includes a style of writing that is stylized,
intentionally witty, and that yet includes a lot of veiled references.
2. People get a lot done, in fact even get married, have children, or
die, in between letters.
3. Joint activities have to be very long term in order for everything to
come together.
All of this takes place in a world that is geared to that speed of
communication. Today, when much of what we do is so fast, the more languid
style might not work anywhere nearly as well, it seems to me. It might be
suitable for some kinds of work, and not for others, of course.
Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
Speculation or experimentation - which is more likely to give the correct
answer?
On Tuesday, November 9, 2004, at 9:22:15 AM, Larry Brunelle wrote:
> I'm trying to imagine whether there should be construed a
> continuum between the pairing activity and the high-latency
> communication of such distributed projects. Can one regard
> the communication between, say, Linus and his kernel
> developers as any species at all of high-latency pairing?
> Or are these activities so qualitatively different that
> any such construction would be a disservice to developers?
> Great question for Ron!
End quotation from Larry Brunelle, on Tuesday, November 9, 2004, at 9:22:15 AM
To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ad-free courtesy of objectmentor.com
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
