When software and services move from the desktop to the browser (network as platform), what happens when the network disconnects?
Consider: I am sitting here trying to surf, research, and interact with del.icio.us, on which I have come to rely heavily in a very short time frame. I click to tag a page. I receive:
"del.icio.us
Temporarily Down for Maintenance
We are performing scheduled maintenance. We should be back online shortly."
There is no IT or support desk to call, no fix or hack to look up on Google. I simply have to wait.
Reflection: Well, I'm glad the maintenance was on somebody's schedule, because it wasn't on mine. What happens when essential processes migrate to the network-as-platform?
del.icio.us has come back online, but I am still waiting for an answer to the bigger questions.
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"To be sure, [society] cannot exist except through the individuals who serve as its substratum; it is, however, something more than a collection of individuals. A whole is not identical to the sum of its parts, even though without them it would be nothing. In the same way, by coming together in a definite structure..., men [sic] form a new entity which has its own nature and its own laws." -Emile Durkheim, A Course in Sociology
"
Why do wars and revolutions happen? We do not know. We know only that to produce the one or the other men [sic] form themselves into a certain combination in which all take part; and we say that this is the nature of men [sic], that this is the law" -Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
"A phase transition is a sudden, global change in behaviour arising from the interactions of many constituent particles" -Philip Ball, Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another
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About Me
- Nathaniel James
- Washington, DC, United States
- In my professional life, I'm the Campaign Coordinator at the Media and Democracy Coalition. Beyond my commitment to advancing the values of justice and democracy in the media sphere through policy change and advancing community media, I have an intense interest in the social structure and process of intra and inter-organizational collaboration; social networks and social network analysis; network theory; complex systems; and emergent phenomenon. The views expressed here are my own and don't reflect the positions of any organizational entity.