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February 16, 2005
Weinbergian thinking
A few years ago I read Michael E. Gerber’s The E-Myth. Gerber deflates a lot of thinking about entrepreneurism and what it takes to create and run one’s own company. He does this by profiling three types of people all organizations need: 1) The Visionary/Leader, 2) The Manager, and 3) The Technician. Gerber then asks the reader to locate themselves within these three profiles. Who are you?
I was stuck with this sense of profiling as I worked through Weinberger. His description of the physical topography of the web (more precisely, the Internet [is that a capital “I”?]) as a false representation of the web’s space had me thinking like a technician – and reacting to his more “visionary” proposal that web space is boundless. The technician views the web through the infrastructure, understands the document-based network from a file-management perspective – from a very physical, real, and “fixed” space.
Through The Manager’s lens I was struck (but not surprised) by Weinberger’s notion of what the web is teaching us (I wondered a lot about who his “us” was) about management.
”[The web] is the most complex network ever created … It is far more robust than networks far a smaller, yet it was created without managers.” p. 23
Now while I understand Weinberger’s purpose for this statement, again my Manager persona wants to argue this point vehemently. Yes, the web is about egalitarianism and freedom (as well as inequality, suppression, and exploitation) precisely because it is not “managed” in a traditional sense. But there is a level of management that makes Weinberger’s limitless playground of expression possible.
Specifications like SGML, HTML, XML, ODBC, CORBA, etc. are about a specific type of “management” in the same way that teachers “manage” their classes. You want students to play in your wide open playground? Who(some individual, group, or GASP! Company) will establish the standards for playing. As a consultant, Weinberger’s position will cause a lot of heads to nod around a board of directors table. But I don’t think he’s being overly genuine or original in continuing to forward the notion that the web is about individuals doing things their own way without any sense of oversight or, well… management.
I really think Weinberger’s most important comments come when he moves out of trying to define the web as something and into describing what the web creates. His term “social clearing” is truly in the spirit of the web, a place where
”… associations are being created with a rapidity unequalled in our history … The Web is a hotbed of experimental couplings. In fact, the Web sometimes seems to consist of 300 million monkeys chained to Web software development tools and randomly creating new ways for us to be together” p. 113
I’ve worked with some of the same monkeys who produce those software development tools and found them to as creative and expressive as the monkeys expressing, communicating, and discovering on the other side of the glass. And maybe that’s what underlies Weinberger’s narrative. He comes to the web with a business background and a hippie groove, which is both refreshing and a little forced.
More later over at my house.
Posted by mfrascie at February 16, 2005 11:18 AM
Comments
If I had to put myself in Gerber's categories, I'd have a hard time choosing between the Visionary/leader and the Manager. I have no trouble not seeing myself as the Technician. I see myself as being a good manager of technicians, but I'm completely clear that I don't know how to do what they do to fulfill the vision or direction I can see. And while I am a "big picture" enthusiastic communicator, I'm also pretty good a troubling any project with numerous and annoying reality checks.
I understand what Weinberger is saying about the unmanaged space of the Web, but agree that he isn't counting the very enabling technologies as a management system. It seems the very process of making one's creative web efforts connect is a management device, just not in the manner of a traditional permission-giving authority.
One of the rules of developing a database is being able to envision the possible applications, uses, and users of it in some detail before you ever begin designing it. I think I see that corollary in your final comment. You have to think creatively to design a creativity supporting playspace.
Posted by: Chris Geyer at February 16, 2005 01:18 PM
Chris, yes!!! That is exactly where I wanted to go. Thanks for articulating it that way. The tension in Wienberger's treatment of the management aspect of the web is exactly about "the very enabling technologies as a management system." Nicely put and qualified.
Posted by: mike at February 16, 2005 08:00 PM
There also seems to be a macro/micro level disconnect in the Web. What "works" or defines the Web on the macro level does a crappy job of defining it on the micro level. Focusing on management demonstrates this. One set of developers created management tools using .XML while another found that this was not conducive to their persuits. So, this second group made up their own management structure. On the macro level, there is no overall management, but on the micro level, we see the wide array available. Am I making sense?
Posted by: TR at February 16, 2005 08:32 PM