It doesn't matter that I am inexperienced in the annals of computer science because the reason why I wrote on this mailing list in the first place is that I share a similar, albeit smaller, experience as Alan Kay setting the conceptual foundation for an industry and then watching people, ignorant of it, start hitting walls because they are only concerned with the direct gains they can glean from the concept rather than its underpinnings as well.
In this case, it was smaller than an entire world of computers-- it was just a concept for "all-or-nothing" collection, by way of collective action. It is also called other names, but the general idea is that people set a goal and if everyone agrees to participate, their participation token (money) is taken from them; if not everyone agrees to participate, their participation never takes place and the token evaporates or is returned to them. At the time we started this, there were certainly people who had thought of it before, but no one had put it into practice or worked out all of the practical realities. It also was founded as a result of studying political science, not playing around with web pages and web programming, strictly speaking. Yet, people today believe that just having the concept and then buying a book on web programming is what allowed us to establish the foundation for an entire Internet phenomenon, for which we get little or no credit (or money, if you are interested in that!). In fact, it took a unique set of backgrounds, unlike those who wish to become the next Facebook. So I am sympathetic to Alan Kay on a number of levels, and while I would never equate myself professionally or academically in terms of university position, I do understand the experience he has gone through more than almost anyone. I also know, more than most, what it is like to witness an entire environment that is totally empty of the concept you are trying to implement, and then just a few short years later witnessing its emergence across the world, to my personal astonishment. It is why I am so confident that people will practice Falun Dafa even though I am one of the first people in the United States to recognize this. I have seen an entire environment go from voidspace on top of the foundation I started, to a total flourishing of what people now deem "crowdfunding." But like Kay, I am not mentioned very often, if at all on this topic, even though I drove it. _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list [email protected] http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
