[Wittrs] Will to Power (case history)
- From: "kirby.urner" <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:43:20 -0700
Here's an interesting story about grammar (way of life) and its morphings.
You have this open source and free tool, the Python computer language,
around which user groups form (a list), and around which conferences
occur. Then there's Django, Plone, SciPy, Zope... other spin offs
with subcultures of their own. Many companies use it privately for
competitive advantage and are under no obligation to publicize that
they do. NGOs, universities, governments likewise...
At some point, a subculture wants to define norms (rules) of behavior
(slap slap Skinnerites, wake up!). This is where "we" sneaks in as an
ownership principle i.e. "we the owners of Python, welcome you to use
our language, however..." (and here attaches a laundry list of
subcultural norms).
So how does a free and open source tool, such as a screwdriver, such
as a language (like a human language) come to be claimed and policed,
social norms enforced, outsiders kept out, insiders kept in? These
are physics questions, not just metaphysics questions. We're talking
Will to Power here. What did Nietzsche teach us? How about Jung?
There's some analysis that needs to be done. Python does have an
owner, one Guido van Rossum, originally from the Netherlands. He was
joined early on by some loyal co-developers, and more have since
joined his posse. These are the owners of Python, should there be
such.
Then we have spin-off Pythons, such as the one that compiles to the
CLR byte codes, and the one that compiles to JVM byte codes. A bevy
of engineers surrounds each one, plus around these various 3rd party
modules, such as Django and NumPy.
The language is distinct from the virtual machines it runs against
(on), is also distinct from its own applications in various knowledge
domains (Vpython from Vpython.org is another great example, something
I use quite a bit in geometry classrooms).
However, the "welcoming we" that wanted behavior standards, i.e.
"don't be offensive if you plan to come to our conferences or join our
community" (we'll tell you what "offensive" means, just read our
Wiki), was not constituted purely of engineers that had sweat blood
and tears to bring us this language.
The group was ad hoc, open subscription, and yet once glommed
together, it formed a mob, a "we" that was empowering itself, out of
the blue as it were, to "welcome" others, to possibly enforce
standards, to possibly retaliate against any bad behavior (addenda
apply).
Heading off this posse required some footwork. The Python Software
Foundation quickly devised a countering diversity statement, getting
power back were it belonged, with the PSF membership. This draft was
then thrown over the fence to the self appointed rogue owners with
their closed archive (subscribers only).
Not surprisingly, the PSF's initiative was labeled offensive (too
cold, too corporate) and word smithing occurred, with the ball going
back over the fence, slightly spun (reworded). The ad hoc and
self-appointed Diversity group didn't want its authority eroded by the
PSF's crafting its own statement, so needed to assert its ultimate
right to reword, even though PSF had beaten them to the draw.
In the meantime, some of the "we people" were indeed doing serious
work to promulgate true diversity. A rating system of geek icons was
proposed, to help steer conference attenders by ethnicity. Those
Australians seriously into particular rituals around coding projects
could follow these sets of icons, whereas Anglophone Asians with a
penchant for San Miguel beer, yet work on the same projects (thanks to
svn, hg, bzr or one of those) might follow those instead. Pycon /
Asia-Pacific is currently on the launch pad.
Adding to all this confusion was the mythological or lore side of the
equation. The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has this snake totem
(stuffed store-bought toy, repurposed to serve geekdom), which was
FedExed in a satchel to Portland, Oregon to meet the Django Pony
(adorable pink unicorn with wings). This meeting occurred, after
which the snake had a child, claiming the father wasn't the pony
(biologically impossible anyway, but this is Python remember), and
hinting her Florida vacation was her occasion to shack up (with a
cobra? -- seems unlikely but the child does have rather chubby
cheeks).
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2009/09/snake-story.html
This news percolated outward via Twitter (@psf_snake has a Twitter
account: http://www.twitter.com/psf_snake). Especially interesting
was when the snake began *nursing* the baby Adonis, thanks to multiple
inheritance ("snake breasts" are not oxymoronic in this grammar, as
spelled out on edu-sig for the CS crowd).
Probably the solution to our dilemmas will emerge if/when the Chamber
of Whispers (aka diversity list) gets a green light to permanently
join Python.org with an open archive that anyone might read and/or
link to without subscribing. This will restore the needed
transparency so that "we people" can't so easily conspire in secrecy
to seize control of the welcoming authority and enforce their
vindictive tendencies (some wanted to crucify Richard Stallman, one of
our great ethicists, for off-color jokes that he'd made).
As I put it bluntly in emails to some PSF members (I joined in 2009,
voted in by Guido, Jeff Rush, many others, among ten other inductees):
> """
> To actually *be* diverse, you need to *come from* being diverse
> already. We're cannibals in the high desert, we use Python, and if
> you cute little Christian kids come around, being tolerant and
> welcoming, we're gonna eat you and log that in SQLlite. Just being a
> troll in the back office again.
> """
Yes, I know, it's SQLite, not SQLlite.
Also, they really *like* trolls in Sweden (some of them) -- you might
have to actually go there to see what I mean.
Anyway, just thought I'd share how my training in Wittgenstein has
heightened my sensitivity to namespaces. I'm especially interested in
pronoun use and "the music of authority" as I've mentioned several
times on this list already.
Kirby
WEB VIEW: http://tinyurl.com/ku7ga4
TODAY: http://alturl.com/whcf
3 DAYS: http://alturl.com/d9vz
1 WEEK: http://alturl.com/yeza
GOOGLE: http://groups.google.com/group/Wittrs
YAHOO: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wittrs/
FREELIST: //www.freelists.org/archive/wittrs/09-2009
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- » [Wittrs] Will to Power (case history) - kirby.urner
