Re: [LogiLogi-list] Presentation went well, though 2 worries...

On 2/14/07, Wybo Wiersma <wy...@lo...> wrote:
> The Presentation of LogiLogi Manta for the Center for Metahistory went
> well!
>
> In about forty minutes I explained the virtues of Manta to the people
> present; which were mostly jounger philosophers of history, though a
> few more seasoned figures like Rik Peters and the wife of professor
> Ankersmit (Ankersmit is one of the most erudite philosophers of
> history in the world), were also present.
>

Great! Congratz!


> They liked the idea, but they were a bit worried about two things:
> 1) Usabillity; it should be, or become really easy to use. We will try
>    to tackle this issue with the usabillity research of the people in
>    Nijmegen, and if our application makes it; with the funds from the
>    "Digitale Pioniers" programme. So this shouldn't be our greatest
>    concern, although it will nevertheless pose quite a challenge...
>

Ok, we knew it and what concerns me now, is what could we do to make
Manta more usable for Fosdem. We've already talked about some place
where the most basic things could be explained so to get people to
understand the basic concepts faster. This could be the colors meaning
(requested, received, logi), the URL elements meanings (tags NOT
folders, @=, i=, v=), and so... I mean, in a very schematic way, in a
clearly visible area, always visible.

I also thought about having the logilogi-links colored all time, and
maybe think on how to make this approach not too disruptive.

Also, the usability research will bring up a lot of light to this
matter as you said, and it will bring up clarification on the way to
approach the current usability problems.
I've been thinking of ways of solving some of the usability problems,
but got stuck most of the time because of my lack of knowledge about
Manta theory background. I feel I'm currently playing a small
technical role in Manta, where I change things as they are committed,
as this are the priorities. As I've mentioned before, I will create my
(personal) approach to the UI layout when I get to know better all the
components behind Manta. Also, it would be great to have the usability
research results.


> 2) Existing power structures; the people with important positions in
>    the humanities could consider what we are doing as potentially too
>    disruptive. Many projects - even just digitalization projects - have
>    stranded on this. Accordingly the impediments on sharing information
>    and the intransparent procedures as they are now, would be kept the
>    way they are on purpose. I really don't like the negativistic tone
>    of this view, but nevertheless; what if there is truth in it...?
>


Why don't we discuss about this at LogiLogi.org? LogiLogi-Manta?


> To this I answered with what I see as the purpose of Manta:
>
> Namely to create an informal sphere for insightfull discussions that
> can be thought of as fitting between the conversation and the journal-
> paper. And thus it's not meanth to replace of even to directly compete
> with journals. Manta intends to become a different life-form, to speak
> with Wittgenstein, that is orthogonal towards journals.
>
> Nevertheless we have to be aware that Manta could, or will, create
> a sphere of philosophical and humanities-related debate more vibrant
> journals can ever offer. And this could - on the long run - place us
> opposite to journals.
>
> Also we should not forget that there might be, or are, many bright
> people who are (being) shunned away from the humanities, especially
> because of things like the ones referred to above as worry 2 - which
> I, if honest, would be inclined to call plain instances of corruption.
>
> And thus there might be a moral side to Manta too. One that we might
> not want to ignore.
>
> Anyway Rik Peters also proposed to get the big names in the Philosophy
> of History together (after Manta is completely stable, and the UI is
> more usable), and to offer them a chance of expressing their vision in
> a Logi-document. According to him this could be feasable, and if so,
> there might be a great top-down opportunity for Manta too!
>


Exelente oportunity! Lot's of things comming up!


> greetings,
>
> Wybo Wiersma
>
> PS: I put the slides of the presenation online at (it's in Dutch):
> http://www.logilogi.org/pub/PresentatieVoorHetCMG/PresentatieVoorHetCMG.html
>
> PPS: This week I will try to get the logic done needed for enabling
> the deletion of logi's.
>


Later.

--

Bruno