Really like this analogy Roger. Guess it is ancestral, but I had not heard it before - will henceforth use it shamelessly.
It opens some interesting philosophical questions for TDWG (and other community projects). For example, even if we had the funds to build a walled garden (gated community? sheltered workshop?) I am prepared to entertain argument that we should not do it, investing rather in improving and defending the commons, fending of the looming tragedy thereof.
TDWG is (or supposed to be) about 'standards' and I have always taken this to be standards "by all, for all", but increasingly we get drawn into implementation and application, in effect walled instances of the standards intended for the commons. This is unavoidable as the standards have to be ground truthed and reality tested but the boundary between a standard and its implementation is becoming grey and oftentimes I get this uneasy feeling that the commons is getting walled off by tribes of Google wannabes with their perfect hammer for our imperfect nail.
(Also like, "we are clever techie people". Clever techie people brought us thalidomide, Microsoft, the titanic, Hiroshima, the leaf blower, silly putty, climate change and computer driven derivative trading...)
jim - deciding whether he should go to work or lie down in front of the GUI/LSID/DOI bulldozers... :)
On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 7:57 PM, Roger Hyam rogerhyam@mac.com wrote:
If we don't have the money to build a walled garden we have to graze on the common with everyone else.