:: No really, his full name was Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, I'm not making it up ::

Friday, March 11, 2005

Smartbrief's email today contained a link to this WP article with the following description:

You might have just gotten comfortable incorporating "blog" as part of your lexicon, but a new term is on the horizon: "wiki". Derived from a Hawaiian word meaning "quick," wikis are similar to blogs except that they can be modified, edited, augmented and otherwise built out by a larger universe of users -- a college class for example -- to go beyond simple data sharing.

You may have just gotten comfortable hiring "scribes" to copy down your edicts or religious texts for dissemination amongst the tiny percentage of the populace capable of literacy, but a new term is on the horizon, which is believed to be the entirely flat edge of the Earth: "printing press". Developed by Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, printing presses are similar to scribes except that they do not require food, payment, or plague insurance and enable mass-production for a larger universe of readers -- the landed gentry of France for example -- to go beyond simple transcription.

It is hoped its advent will not result in mass-media latching on to stale news, adding "pander quotes", and regurgitating it five years later.

Posted by morland @ 04:34 PM

:: Comments ::

I actually found that article informative, you "motherfucker".

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some "i-banking" to take care of.

Posted by: Grenergy on March 11, 2005 05:58 PM

Oh, I'm sorry, do they not have computers on your commune? Damn hippies.

Posted by: morland on March 11, 2005 11:53 PM

Hey, morland, now that the nation has been put on notice of the "wiki" phenomenon sweeping the web, why don't you reintroduce MikiFiki? Sure, it didn't really... take off the first time, or, um, the second time, but now it can't lose, what with your expanded readership and their nascent willingness to try new things. Back in 2003, they just didn't know.

You can't be mad at us, morland, or anyone else, for you being ahead of your time.

Posted by: barrett on March 12, 2005 03:37 PM

Barrett, you're my favorite global variable.

I'm going to reintroduce the wiki as a Barrett-specific forum.

Oh, and now that you've mastered hyperlinks, you may want to learn about gerunds, too.

Posted by: morland on March 13, 2005 02:35 AM

no hyperlink from "gerunds."

Posted by: barrett on March 13, 2005 09:06 AM

plus, that would have been, like, two instances of "your" within the same phrase. Can't I just claim colloquialism? Intentional use of poor grammar to alleviate awkward style?

And you used "global variable" against me? but that was a joke. I mean, who really says, "you know, the whole global variable blah blah local variable error"? or whatever. I mean who?

fine.

dejected.
beaten.
again.

Posted by: barrett on March 13, 2005 09:16 AM

you serious, though, about the Barrett-specific wiki?

Posted by: barrett on March 13, 2005 09:24 AM

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