[Search-l] Defining this community (was Re: IRC Meetup for Technical Discussions)

[jer]

> 	Let me clarify that in discussing the Google and Wikipedia
> models, I was speaking at a very high level of abstraction, and not
> referring to simple things such as using Wikipedia as a seed site for
> Google or using Google-type algorithms within Wikipedia.

In mating these two genetically disparate parents, many children with  
a great variety of afflictions and genius are possible.  I agree in  
spirit that there are quite a few different approaches here and I'm  
sure we'll see many of them tried, and hopefully many evolve and  
become useful as well.

> Rather, I
> was talking about the overall approaches, where Google is all Machine
> (with a few tiny human tweaks) and Wikipedia is all Social (with a few
> tiny robot tweaks).

The fun question is, which becomes sentient first? Or perhaps, which  
would anyone _prefer_ be first? *grin*

> It's almost mythic how they're such complete
> opposites, like the kind of science-fiction novel where there's a
> high-tech city next to an agrarian farming commune.

Very cool metaphor, and to extend it just slightly, the city gorges  
on the fantastic farm produce, and the farmers and visitors delight  
in the great gadgets to help them navigate the terrain.

The future of this segregated society is a diverse blend of the two :)

> "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy." - Field  
> Marshall
> Helmut Carl Bernard von Moltke

Who's the enemy?

Jer