The Cathedral and The Bazaar is of course quite a famous book which the curious can explore from the link.

Why did this occur to me today? Because on Wednesday evening I found myself in Lincoln, walking up the steep hill to the Cathedral, made even more enjoyable as it was a night of camponologists. I regularly pass some of the great cathedrals of England - Durham, York, Peterborough so I’ve become quite interested in their history and architecture and the social and technical organisation required to build such large constructions *by hand*.

So how will all our great marvels of today fare, particularly our technology? how much of it is going to be usable in 5-10 years? Are we building properly for the future? I still don’t think enough information systems are scalable so that the content can be used and re-used effectively.

A main part of the problem is the way in which the technology is created by certain businesses with certain ends in mind, namely making money. Production for profit rather than social need comes with a huge amount of pre-set agenda items. One of the interesting aspects of PCs however is that they provide a relatively cheap way of acquiring a small instrument of production.

Have PC, can create and develop (open source) software.

Footnote & weblinks:
The bells of Lincoln cathedral can be heard on the internet

The cathedral has an ‘official’ website - possibly one of the most irritating I’ve come across for a while