When Good Ideas Hold Up Progress: When Structure Is For The Sake of Structure

I did something that I rarely do today, something that I contemplated carefully over the period of three months before doing. I unsubscribed from the ICA Caribbean email list, and when I submitted the email that freed me of that list, there were no regrets. It's not that it's a bad list - it just seems to me to be a sinkhole for time. Perhaps I'm too 'results oriented', but when I get involved in a flurry of emails debating whether or not crossposts to an email list should be required to have an introductory paragraph, I have to step back and wonder - 'Why?'. Because there are rules, and then there are discussions of rules, and in the end - nothing is really being discussed but what is a legitimate post or not.

If I wanted to do that, I'd be in politics. Still, there is some importance to structure, and on the internet the importance of structure is not lessened - in fact, it's increased. So I'll write about that, and then give it context.

The Importance of Structure

Every successful thing has to have some form of structure, this we believe based on knowledge that we can explain - or at least rationalize - why things work. Someone who uses software, as an example, is using some form of structure defined by the person who wrote the rules and that the software abides by. The software is supposed to evolve based on the needs of the user; the people who ultimately dictate what software does are the users. This is a capitalist version of democracy, be it with proprietary or open source software, though with the latter it is balanced more toward the user than a shareholder (at least for now). This is recursed into the software life cycle, through the actual requirements acquisition and analysis to the implementation and ultimately the maintenance phase.

The motives for changing a software process - or any other engineering process - are typically motivated by money, or as someone with more ethics than money would say, 'greed'. Systems evolve that way.

In the military, there is a chain of command which is clearly defined, and which does evolve as conditions change. In a hospital emergency room, the same applies, though the chain of command is markedly different. Both systems mentioned here, as they are now and as they evolve in the future, are based on life and death - survival. Thus these systems have less tolerance for faults and are more amenable to change when faults occur.

I've worked in all of the above structures (and mixes in between), and what one finds is that the more adaptable the structure, the longer it keeps things going.¹ But the ability for the structure to change in a rapidly changing environment - it's potential for rapid change - is what defines whether it survives.

Survival In an Internet Culture

People are often amazed that they can send me an email and I respond almost immediately (for short answers). It's not that I sit here waiting around and checking my email - it's just that I have adapted to a fast moving culture. The internet culture. While I got upset with one person for using a private email for seeding discussion on one list, I get upset when there isn't actual discussion on a list. Recently on the Digital Divide email list, supporters of the $100 million laptop by Nicholas Negroponte didn't respond to questions, instead regurgitating the same rhetoric. It's frustrating when you can see when people do that, but that's just a fact of life.

Quite a few people that I know and correspond with deal with multiple email lists. I'm on about 50, though there is one less now, and some I lurk on - some I am active on - and some which are sporadic at best. I'd have to say that the best list that I am active on is the DigitalDivide list - and it's not because of the moderation, it's because of the loose rules which allow adaptation. A lot of sensible discussion goes on there, between educators, NGOs, Government folks, educators and anyone else I failed to mention. I've met people who I value highly through such discussions, and a lot of those discussions started off with someone asking a question, or answering a question from their own perspective. There's little or no 'intellectual incest'.

Intellectual Incest

I've used the term 'intellectual incest' quite a bit recently. When I use it, I am usually talking about the same ideas being discussed in the same ways by the same people in different words, in the hope that some new love child will spring from their cerebral loins. Since it's not one person alone doing it, it cannot be 'intellectual masturbation', unless it's 'mutual intellectual masturbation'. It's incestual because the group - or clique - forms, and disregards what any outside perspectives are. If you don't know the secret handshake, you can't play even if you're on the list.

In internet culture, you can see this in many guises - my favorite example is the blogosphere, where original thought used to be the commodity but now it's more about consensual thought, or popular thought. I won't say that it's good or bad - it is what it is - but few people out there are putting out original thoughts, or actually expressing their perspectives.

Another guise is the email list, especially closed email lists. A closed email list is sometimes necessary, and the clique is then important because on a closed list there is usually a defined focus. But on a list of open discussion, or one that is about open discussion, there is supposed to be discussion - otherwise it's a newsletter.

I could go on, but if you don't get the point yet, there's no reason for you to be reading further.

Why I leave email lists, discussion boards, and other Internetish things

Email lists are tools, tools which I use to learn, explore new perspectives, and get new information. In return, I share my perspectives, explain things and share new information. Once upon a time, I would dig in and fight to do those things. Nowadays, I try to manage my time and blood pressure a bit better - when it becomes apparent that nothing is happening quickly, and that nothing is likely to happen quickly, I leave. There are plenty of email lists out there, plenty of websites with what I like to participate in, plenty of things I like to do with my time. Why waste it?

Why I Left CIVIC in particular

CIVIC is supposed to be an email list for discussion about ICT in the Caribbean, which on the surface makes sense. But ICT doesn't really have geographical borders, and people are hard pressed to define the borders of the Caribbean itself. So what goes on the list and what doesn't? It's presently arbitrary, and dependent on a moderator's approval - which is fine. But to expect people who participate in multiple lists to write a special introduction to make a funded moderator's job easier is not something that I would willingly do. I'm not funded to participate.

The other reason - and probably the main one - is that the archives are not public. While the list is doing a great job of connecting people who are involved in the bureaucracy (be it in NGOs or governments or CARICOM), it's not sharing that information publicly which goes against my grain. Certainly, if it were an email list regarding National Security, that would make sense - but if a group is discussing information that affects the people throughout the region, that information should be made available publicly, especially if people within discussions are talking about transparency.

To further that, if a discussion about the rules of an email list take longer than 72 hours on the internet, it's going nowhere - and if someone mentions creating a side group to discuss it offlist, run away screaming. It means that the same processes that existed without technology have just been brought into present technology, and that people haven't adapted to technology. That's a real negative on an email list related to Information and Communication Technology. When someone proposes an amendment and there is no clear means of voting for or against the amendment, again - run away screaming.

There really isn't a central internet portal for the Caribbean yet. I've seen overly long Powerpoint presentations at conferences discussing how it should work, I've heard people talk about it, but I haven't seen one person do anything other than talk. Last year I offered to build a portal, specifically for CIVIC, at no cost - but it wasn't taken seriously.

What is amusing is that the grassroots of the Caribbean ICT community - the ones who aren't on the CIVIC list - understand all of this at some level, and are progressing more rapidly as non-funded entities than the funded entities are. And they will continue to progress and evolve more quickly because they understand the internet culture - they are in fact the internet culture which the region needs.

In the end, unsubscribing means not getting insight into whatever people are doing in the region that they decide to share on CIVIC - but I don't know that I was getting insight anyway. All the real communication I get from members of the Caribbean community comes from private emails and other email lists. On the ground, there are some really pissed off² people who seem to realize that NGO and government discussions are just circular and non-productive.

On the ground, people want action. Having seen the other side of things, I've tossed attempts to try to influence NGOs and government officials. It takes too much time - it's easier to just go around them to get things done. Maybe it's time for the grassroots to just marginalize the people who are marginalizing them... like they already are.

What I do know is that I'll have more time to correspond in discussion now, and write, and do other things. We all have our places to be. My place is not on CIVIC at this time... it's at the keyboard, coding, writing, and eeking out a living. I'll leave bureaucracy to the bureaucrats. I'm happier that way, but the scissors doesn't hate the red tape. It's just good at cutting through it. :-)

¹There's a story sometime in my past where I 'commandeered' the Base Commander's Hummvee to get an unresponsive Marine, who hadn't been breathing, to the Battalion Aid Station. PFC Regan's OK, last I heard. :-)
²