Activity

My Facebook Friend Sue Braiden (see also http://suebraiden.com ) posted about my post “Launching the FreeZine Online Magazine Publishing Platform” on Facebook. Here is an excerpt from our discussion there:

Tucking this in because in another thread Norbert rightly pointed out the fallacy of a comment I made in my note above:

This excerpt — though again: very #well #written — gives me a #haunted #feeling… perhaps we DISAGREE?

>> I think #WordPress is a bit of a lightning strike for one particular reason: #sustainability. The #cost of #scaling a #digital water-cooler like #Facebook or #Twitter is staggering, so there must necessarily be #innovation in the ways that the #monetization is met. Where people see value, they are often willing to pay for something, but you have to be able to demonstrate that value before they do. <<

My reply to Norbert was this: First of all, you’re absolutely right to disagree with me on the point I raised about WordPress being a lightning strike. The reason is worked was no accident; it’s because it was distributed. No one person bares the load of the design, infrastructure or cost. It is open-source (huge benefit, and where I’d put my money everytime); it’s easily deployed on anyone’s server; and it allows vast collaboration across multiple platforms. While there is a central shepherd for the project, it is constantly grown and improved upon by an organic, democratic network of stakeholders. For these reasons, I also absolutely agree with this observation you made:

… we do not #need single TOWERING TOMES. We need networks of #pocket #guides. My work is all about creating such a #community #project

Spot on!