A Systems Design

The intent that I set out with when beginning this work was to create a system for collaborative social construction, through contribution, research, education, and decision-making. "Social Construction" is the range of practices commonplace to a Culture, making the system a facilitator for the development of forms within a given culture as well as laying a foundation for respect between the forms of different cultures.

The most essential problem I looked to address was to develop a map of Open Source collaboration models in relation to my own vision of a collaborative system. I chose Open Source models because their existence through opt-in collaboration and use establishes their general acceptance and ease of being understood by the public. The secondary aspects of the problem include development of a modular & adaptable system architecture, the use of interface metaphors that are intuitive due to common elements of human experience, and maintaining the use of standards relevant to involved communities (including metaphors of values, respect, etc).

© New Alexandria 2002