Sandalwood is considered the epitome of excellence, imparting fragrance even to the axe that cuts it.

The Hindu Vedas

Sandalwood

Are you good at what you do? Or are you just good at appearing to be good at what you do? Those who fall into the former category are the Sandalwoods of this world. Those who fall into the latter category are good at what they do (or appear to be anyway) in only very specific circumstances.

In most disciplines, generally speaking, we have control over both the context in which our work is encountered and by whom. If we lack the skill to solve the problem laid out to us then it is possible for us to manipulate the context, and thus the problem, into one which we do know how to solve. Or failing that maybe we can borrow someone else’s solution, tweak it a little and attempt to ensure that none of the original problem solver’s fans see what you’ve done. It all comes down to our ability to authentically respond to the utterly unique nuances of an individual problem. What differentiates the master from the amateur is that the master can conjure, seemingly from nowhere, a response that is as unique as the problem, perfectly matching, without shortage or excess, the precise nature of the question posed to them. The amateur however, struggles and must fall back on mere mannerisms, clichés and set-pieces.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an amateur, it is a most worthy stage to find oneself, the concern is those that habit this phase yet claim, whether implicitly or explicitly, to be otherwise. The work of a master is a joy to behold, it oozes confidence, it invites scrutiny at every turn, no detail has been left unaccounted for. To achieve such a level of mastery one’s skill must have been truly taken to heart, to have saturated every facet of one’s life. Such a person spares not a single thought for how their solution might be criticised by others, because they know it is self-consistent in every aspect.

If you have expended any of your energy on the appearance of your solution — rather than on the core of the solution itself — then you will inevitably squirm and whine when faced with critical scrutiny; the inherent contradiction in it will be exposed and there is truly nothing uglier. However when the axe of scrutiny slices at the work of true skill then there is nothing to fear, not a single aspect of its nature could ever reveal discrepancy. In fact the deeper the axe penetrates, the sweeter the scent of integrity that wafts through the air.

Real-life Human Beings

I’m not against the whole Web 2.0 bandwagon, in fact I quite like the term and what it stands for. Let me just distil one feature of this widely recognised paradigm shift; namely the relocation of the web’s centre of gravity from the privileged elite of rich and clever developers to the everyman of good, honest and humble users. Facebook, Wikipedia, Blogs, Youtube, Twitter; it’s all about the users creating that which we find most engaging and valuable on the Net. Now the interesting thing here is that complimentary to this user-centered shift there’s been a simultaneous increase in the authenticity of the Net as a genuine medium of expression — we can date, make friends, lose friends, chat, hate, laugh and cry all the more easily because we can express ourselves all the more easily, warts and all. However, there’s something historical — and perhaps internally cultural — about the Net that encourages a re-imagination of our identities; think alter egos, exotic username handles, fantasy worlds and such like.

So whereas you hear a lot about the Net becoming more and more a social phenomenon, you hear very little about the Net as a bastion of the benefits of being involved in a society. In fact, more often you hear the opposite; parents complaining that their children don’t spend enough time with real children, for example. I would like to think however, that this is not so much a symptom of the Net itself, but more a reflection of the human desire to appear in the best possible light. The Net, more than any other medium, allows us to control both the context of how we are perceived and who perceives us and many of us choose to take advantage of this fact. Which I believe means we can choose otherwise.

Instead of re-inventing ourselves in cyberspace we are allowed to just be ourselves, to be real-life human beings. We don’t need to hide or censor anything. In fact, on the Net honesty is recognised as a valuable currency  just as much as it is everywhere else. The deciding factor isn’t so much the medium or the context through which we choose to express ourselves but the intention that we cultivate within our own inner worlds. We have a choice to actually be a likeable person, rather than just appear to be a likeable person. This is a personal and universal choice and one that applies unconditionally, no matter the context.

So after a little bit of Google research I was tremendously excited to find an already established and earnest movement towards, what is in many ways, an ‘open Facebook’. Now, that’s not to say that what is beginning to stir is a Facebook clone, merely wearing ‘open’ clothes, it’s a little more complex than that; in fact I think it would be more appropriate to understand it as a paradigm shift in the way we interact with others on the internet.

To comprehend what’s going on I think firstly we need to recollect the whole, for want of a better term, ‘Web 2.0′ revolution. We, the humble web user, now help create the vast diversity of content found on the internet. From Wikipedia to Youtube, we are no longer mere consumers of information but authors, editors, commentators and directors. This ‘new’ web is important here for two reasons; one, it means we leave traces of our activity for all to see and two, it inspires practical and productive grass roots, bottom-up collaboration.

Let’s take a look at these traces of activity us web citizens are making. For instance, this blog entry, it’s a record of my current thinking and feelings, then there’s Flickr for photos, Youtube for videos, Twitter for microbloging, Facebook for social networking, Digg for bookmarks, a forum on programming here, a comment on someone’s podcast there and this is just a fraction of the possibilities, the actual list is overwhelmingly enourmous. And this is where we arrive at the first and perhaps most significant aspect of the emerging ‘open Facebook’; what if we could track all of a person’s activity and be notified of it through an ever updated feed, just like on the real Facebook’s news feed, except even for events outside of Facebook? Well, you can and you’ve actually been able to do so for a quite a few years already, it’s called ‘lifestreaming’ and there’s a proliferation of services that help you accomplish this. Perhaps the best of these is FriendFeed, currently allowing you to aggregate up to 56 web services.

In fairness I must point out that Facebook have actually recently implemented lifestreaming functionality, for instance you can add your Flickr stream or your blog’s RSS feed so that any activity from those sources appears in your friend’s feeds. And I like that, I prefer Flickr’s community and photo management interface to Facebook’s and I prefer my WordPress blog to Facebook’s mediocre note system. Yet now Facebook lets my friends keep up with this activity without each of them having to tirelessly subscribe to numerous and unintuitive RSS feeds (Tip: Facebook also allows you to filter off the specific activities of friends that you’d rather not hear about, not that I find any of my freind’s activities boring!).

In fact, double credit must be given to Facebook because they have actually gone a step futher towards the new open social paradigm by opening up each user’s stream to outside applications using an open standard (yes, not a Facebook developed standard!) called Activity Streams. This means that should an application receive permission from you, the owner of a stream, then it can take all the activity from your Facebook news feed and do what it likes with it; display it on your desktop, mash it up with other streams, filter it, the sky’s the limit.

Okay, so this is pretty exciting, what if all web services had the ability to broadcast user’s activity in this universally recognised Activity Stream standard? What if all social networks spoke the same language? What if you didn’t have to go to MySpace to find out what one bunch of friends were up to, then go to Twitter to speak to another portion and then finally return to Facebook to get the latest on your remaining web contacts? Wow! That would be something wouldn’t it.

Well, there’s only one real hurdle now and that’s identification. It’s one thing registering with a site and validating yourself with a password, but how do we get all sites to recognise those credentials? We need something like an OpenID. You can get a taste for what a unified login experience might be like on my blog here; if you’re a Facebook user then you can login to my website by clicking on the big “Facebook Connect” button at the bottom of this post, whereby any comments you make will be automatically approved and displayed along with your current profile picture which links back to your Facebook page so people can find out more about you.

I think one of the main reasons why this whole ‘open Facebook’, or open social networking concept is so important and also why it’s going to work is that, like I indicated at the beginning of the post, it is not a replacement for Facebook or any other network or service for that matter. Rather, it is a way of bringing them all together and allowing users to freely choose their online identity without being restricted to the limitations of any one single service or network. An open Activity Stream standard and OpenID protocol that becomes universally accepted across the entire internet will both provide new and richer ways of interacting but still allow us to enjoy the very same social network experinces we currently enjoy. In the words of evolutionary theorist Ken Wilber, an open social network will, like all evolutions, transcend and include that which precedes it.

Blogography

These are some of the notable sources which aided my research on this subject;

• DiSo Project
• FactoryCity — This can all be made better. Ready? Begin.
• David Recordon
• Will Norris — Thoughts on Identity, OpenID, WordPress, and Life
• OpenSocial – It’s Open. It’s Social. It’s up to you.

Perhaps the most significant reason was the stepping down of Barry Kauler from his full time position as creator of Puppy Linux, though I’m sure the fact that my own change from working at home to a nine to five office job was, due to the reduction in spare time, also a further nail in the coffin. I am still a happy Linux user, that passion hasn’t diminished at all, but it is now in the form of Debian, a project on a markedly larger scale.

My reason for writing this is that it touches on a topic not just applicable to the world of computers, but one of a more universal relevance; namely the importance of working together. It would seem that the life of a computer programmer is a lonely one, with only the warm glow of the screen for company. I am sure that in many cases this is true, but perhaps more to the point it is the fact that the nature of computing lends itself in such a way that isolation is very easy to achieve and sustain. Now the point that I am interested here is; to what extent can good software, whether in the form of applications, websites or operating systems, be useful and successful when created by an individual? It’s clear that, technically speaking, one can learn the finer details of any programming language through books and websites and with a little trial and error become the proud author of a functional program. For solving simple, small-scale problems this is fine, but when faced with the unforeseeable diversity and complexity of larger-scale environments and operating conditions, an entirely new set of problems are faced; how does one retrieve, manage, assimilate and implement feedback?

Although such a question has always been paramount in computing, I feel it is taking on a new dimension in the landscape of the internet, where the speed and volume of communication has become a defining charateristic. To fail to take advantage of, or at least acknowledge this reality, would be to miss out on an immensely valuable resource. So here we get to the crux of it; it is not enough to simply be able to code deeply complex software in the privacy of one’s own computer screen glow. In order to actualise the greatest possible potential for a computer program one most also be able to engage with a wider community, a skill of an all-together different calibre, requiring, quite appropriately an all-together different hemisphere of the brain. In the case of an operating system, perhaps the most complex of all software, the case for community is strongest. Somewhere, somehow, the time-honoured values of relating to others, such as gratitude, openness and humility must be sincerely exercised. There is no shortcut or substitute here, merely generating a large number of users is not the same as a genuine sense of community.

To give a practical example, I have found by far the most striking difference between Puppy and Debian to be the Package Management System (the means by which you can install new software). In Puppy the PMS is more of a useful bonus, as on the whole, one must search the internet and install new programs by hand. There is only really a limited selection of software in the official repository of packages and they are created and maintained almost solely by Barry Kauler himself. In Debian, the PMS takes on a radically different role, it is to all intent and purpose the very backbone. For instance in Debian it is actually possible to upgrade your entire operating system to a newer version using aptitude, the name given to the current incarnation of their PMS. However, what is more striking is the sheer scale of the number of programs available through aptitude, practically every program ever created for Linux is available. And there are yet more and more awesome features to Debian’s PMS, but the point I must make here is that the success of it is fundamentally dependant on a community of relationships. No one single person could ever maintain that many pacakges and keep them up to date. Okay, so it hasn’t always been easy for Debian, they’ve unsurprisingly had their fare share of commuinty drama, but their overall success has won through and earned them widespread respect and recognition. The precedent they have set has been the subject of academic study and the stability of their code is depended on for numerous derivatives, included the most succesuful Linux of all time, Ubuntu.

Okay, so Debian is clearly a much bigger and more ‘official’ project, that’s certainly appealing in itself, but it’s still a non-profit organisation run by volunteers, exactly the same as Puppy. However, I am finding that Debian is demonstrating to me that there is so much more to computers than the solitary programmer, that an operating system is just as much about a community of people as it is about lines of well written code.

So, I’ve been thinking about doing a redesign of my site here, seeing as it will serve a different purpose now. I’m thinking along the lines of some kind of hand-drawn, skethed type thing; just grey’s a single colour making up the pallete.

In 12 months time…

The main thing I would like to see in 12 months is a growth in my reputation as a reliable and innovative web developer. Likely this will be tangibly reflected in the calibre of my portfolio, it will contain more websites from local, wholesome individuals and organisations. I’m currently very inspired by the example set by The Grow Collective; Jon Tan, the founder, is a local Montpelier lad, now internationally renowned, who’s business is based on the Co-operative model.

Financially my ambition is modest, I would simply like to be earning enough money to support my simple lifestyle, if anything, the more I earn the more I would like to take the opportunity to have significant periods away from computer screens!

I’d like to always find myself learning new skills, at the moment I want to learn more about Accessibility in web design, so I’d like to make it a goal to have designed at least one website to the standards outlined in this article. Currently I don’t feel I mix enough in the local web design community, I am acquainted with a few local peers, but would like to meet and socialise with more. This might come about through work (whether paid or voluntary) with local web design companies, attending local events, like talks at Skills Swap, or the Bristol Usability Group. I would also like to position myself more as an ambassador for open-source web design, therefore as someone to whom people can look to as an example and promoter of this approach as a powerful and complete practice. This might come about through more advice and instructions about how to do it on my website, also through other websites and magazines writing articles about my approach, and perhaps even a series of classes, given locally, practically teaching this approach.

In 5 years time…

My long term goal is to remain a freelancing sole-trader, although it is tempting to set up a full business based on my approach, I am very reluctant of the responsibilities that would entail. Essentially I would like to see a continuation of the goals achieved after 12 months. Where I would like to see the most development though is in my reputation as a down-to-earth, yet experienced internet person — someone known for their appreciation of the profound power of the internet as a medium of communication and someone who advocates a sober and practical approach to getting the most from it.

The internet is still so young and we are just beginning to see people coming together to try and formalise a set of standards and promote guidelines for best practices, this is significantly unprecedented territory where no-one really knows what’s around the next corner. So figures like Jeffrey Zeldman, a father of modern web design, provide more than technical clues in this emerging adventure but also a reassuring voice of sanity and encouragement that web design is a respectable craft that has the potential to be considered amongst the other great crafts of humanity. Perhaps I will never match the profile of a Zeldman, but if I can at least be heading in that direction I’d be very pleased. Perhaps if it’s just writing articles in respectable magazines or websites, perhaps giving talks, or maybe even writing my own book.

Essentially they’re a charity that help young people start up their own businesses, through courses, mentoring, loans and general all-round niceness. To begin with you attend some courses, create a business plan, meet other people in the same boat as you, figure out how much loan you will need and then present your plan in front of a panel. I didn’t have to do the ‘panel’ bit because I’m not borrowing enough money (probably none actually), but I’ve done everything else. One of the most helpful aspects is just meeting other’s like yourself, being self-employed or starting up your business is not like working in an office, it can be pretty lonely and there’s generally not that much information out there about it. I think a lot of people never even consider working for themselves, as they think it’s only really clever, or rich, or entrepreneurial types that do that kind of thing. But that’s absolutely not the case, it’s actually very straightforward and lot more accessible than most would imagine — and there is a lot of support for it, both from organisations like the Prince’s Trust and in fact the government (well the British one anyway). So just having the information at hand and friendly voices to listen and advise just makes the whole thing incredibly easy and exciting.

So I’m now formally registered as self-employed, I have a business bank account, I’ll be getting a one-to-one mentor for the next two years, whom I’ll have regular contact with, the option to borrow up to £1000, should the need arise, plus I’ve already got some business through other Prince’s Trust folk wanting websites for their new businesses. So now I feel a lot more confident about my business, which in turn has effected the quality of my work and attitude and overall I’ve just been really surprised and impressed by what the Prince’s Trust has to offer. I would heartedly recommend it to any other young folk thinking of setting up their own businesses.

So here’s a big thank you to everyone at the Prince’s Trust, and to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for kicking it off ;)

But what exactly are computers and what exactly does the internet do? At the most basic level are they not anything more than information tools? Like paints and paper to the artist, they’re no more than mediums. With all the multimedia, news updates, games and emails, it’s easy to think that computers are prolific creators of audio-visual stimulation. However, what if we’re mistaking the message for the messenger? What if it wasn’t computers that were creating this unprecedented proliferation of information, but rather it was simply that, like never before, computers and the internet were opening up a panorama onto the universes of creativity that are already there?

What if it wasn’t computers that are changing the world, but it’s just that we are, for the first time, collectively bearing witness to the ceaseless evolutionary changes that are always going on? That computers were nothing more than windows, (in the non-Microsoft sense!). This would mean that computers and the internet aren’t really ‘heading’ anywhere. The seeming exponential growth of a young technological seed will never mature into it’s final state because it is already fully functioning in it’s capacity to simply uncover, reveal and communicate. A window does not ‘create’ the tree and fields which can be seen through it – although a bigger and cleaner window will allow us to see more and in more detail.

However, the interesting thing that the panoramic vistas of the internet may lead to is that we could, as a group, see this. That rather than the internet being the doorway to a new realm it is more a new perspective on the universe we’ve already met. Okay, so this new perspective may seem like an uncharted realm, but is it not that the more we listen to, and the clearer we hear our world, the more likely we are to begin to consider that newness is actually an inextricable part of living? That the internet only seems new and uncharted because it amplifies and reflects the newness that is ever-present? A newness that, for as long as the past is behind us and the future ahead of us, will never diminish.

OK, so I don’t pretend to have the answer, but I do know that it is here, that it came about somehow, apparently out of nothing, and confidently seems to be hanging around for a while longer! It’s in everything, the stars, computers, people, feelings, words, food, you name it, it’s there. But it’s not really a thing though in itself, not like a misty substance that infuses everything, in fact, despite its ubiquity, it seems utterly unfindable and ungraspable – frustratingly so.

To be honest, it’s rather a lot to take in, it’s size, variety, mysteriousness and it’s rather unfriendly promise to remove me from it at some unspecified point in the future. Yet, by that same token, I also find myself sometimes feeling rather exhilarated and privileged to be part of such a huge and unique adventure!