

Ward Cunningham working on new wiki software (progress videos) - bcjordan
http://wardcunningham.github.com/?

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jcromartie
I'm having trouble putting into words the kind of inspiration that Ward
Cunningham gives me. His original Wiki (<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiWeb>)
might seem really outdated and a bit obtuse at first, but then you realize how
good it really is, and can get lost in it for hours.

The fact that he's an old-school hacker and is still building innovative
things is really cool. I kind of want to call him a living fossil, but I think
that might have some connotations. He contributes new ideas in a timeless way.

~~~
pjscott
The phrase that comes to mind is "A dinosaur, but in a good way."

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chefsurfing
I bet you two would like Alan Kay and Christopher Alexander. Google'm.

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bcjordan
I should note that Ward Cunningham developed the first wiki:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham>

I really enjoyed listening to his appearance on This Developer's Life:
<http://thisdeveloperslife.com/post/1-0-6-abstraction>

~~~
draegtun
Ward Cunningham can also be found on here!
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=WardCunningham>

However thus far it was just to leave one comment:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2911327>

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DanielRibeiro
Original discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2892085>

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acangiano
The code is here: <https://github.com/WardCunningham/Smallest-Federated-Wiki>

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caseorganic
If you live in Portland and are interested in working with him on it, there
are short work sessions. <http://pin13.net/2pj>

~~~
caseorganic
The newest work session is here: <http://caseorganic.com/2rQ>

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bcjordan
The last video really illustrates the software's possibilities:
<http://vimeo.com/29540826>

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Someone
Some loose remarks:

Interesting to see Ward 'discover' a new wiki variant (listen how often he
states that the software he is writing 'wants to be X')

I am not really familiar with it, but I think this could be called 'pragmatic
Xanadu' (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu>). It will be
interesting of this will be successful, or whether it will eventually run into
the deep problems that project Xanadu thought it had to solve to be
successful.

~~~
chefsurfing
It seems that Ward is looking for a pattern in the code and context of the
web, the same way that Michelangelo was searched for the sculpture in the
stone.

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the
sculptor to discover it”. [1]

It also seems to me that he is keeping the Law of Demeter [2] in mind as well.

It's a beautiful way to be! Bravo Mr. Cunningham!

[1] <http://www.michelangelo-gallery.com/quotes.aspx> [2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Demeter>

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asolove
This is fantastic. It would be nice to combine this with some of Bret Victor's
work on mathematical interfaces, see his essays Scrubbing Calculator [1] and
Magic Ink [2].

[1] <http://worrydream.com/ScrubbingCalculator/>

[2] <http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/>

~~~
beefman
From the 3rd video, it looks like the scrubbing calculator could be
implemented as a "plugin".

~~~
asolove
Yeah, I agree. It would be great to be able to go through a federated wiki,
combine data from multiple stories into a single calculated story, and then
see how they relate.

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gregwebs
This software seem still immature now. seems very similar to tiddlywiki.com
which is very mature. Federation is a special feature of tiddlywiki though,
whereas Ward's work is exciting because it is designed for it from the ground
up.

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andrewflnr
Does this remind anyone else of Wave? Except that here federation apparently
actually works. I love this kind of thing; I hope it does better than Wave
did.

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bdr
Very exciting. It's like a DVCS for Wiki-style content.

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muyuu
I want to have endless passion like this man...

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misuba
What's it for?

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nevster
I want to ask the same question. I have the feeling there's something very
interesting here but my mind is failing to see what it is. I feel like someone
from the 60's watching the mother of all demos and not quite understanding
what's going on. What are the use cases?

