Re: tlug: It's STORY time

[Frank Bennett <bennett@example.com>]

Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com> writes:

> > You're bound to fail if you address a skills shortage as being
> > solely about knowing things; you need institutional structures
> > that promote the acquisition of skills in the first place.
> 
> Hmmm. That's the kind of argument they used against Linux for a
> long time - there is no organisation behind it. Since Eric
> Raymond's famous essay we know better: if things have to be done
> quickly and efficiently chaos and the ensuing self organisation
> is the way to go. The famous "bazaar style working".

Well ... looks like we've got plenty of chaos, so what's the
complaint?  :)

But seriously, you're reasoning by analogy here with concepts
that are not congruent.  There is no doubt whatsoever that
"institutional structures that promote the acquisition of skills"
are a necessary precondition to the existence of Linuxworld
itself.  There are rigorous standards and benchmarks in the
software industry against which quality can be evaluated.  That's
an important institution.  So is the market for lateral hires of
technical staff.  Without basic underpinnings like these, you
wouldn't have a software industry _and_ there would be no Linux.
Small surprise, then, that Linux did not originate in the
Japanese economy, where competition on raw skill in the market
for software jobs did not figure until (I'm guessing) recently.

What I'm saying is that this kind of fundamental structure ---
which is not that simple to call into existence --- has to be in
place before a skills-based industry becomes self-sustaining and
picks up pace.

> > Giving a lot of dosh unconditionally to a bunch of foreign
> > consultants wouldn't be considered smart practice in the US (or
> > Germany for that matter); I can't see any reason to think it
> 
> I know. Still too many suits in charge everywhere. But that will
> change eventually.

It's not a point about work culture, but about economics.  If you
subsidize an activity, more time will be spent on it.  Hire the
cream of the US software trade on unconditional retainer to do
things that they find entertaining, and they _will_ entertain
themselves, but there's no guarantee that they will improve your
communications and data processing infrastructure.

> > would be a good idea in Japan.
> 
> I think it would be a very good idea. Things have to be done in
> a hurry there. Consequently bazaar style.

The obvious (congruent) analogy to what you seem to be proposing
is the English-teaching trade in Japan.  For instructors, little
or nothing in the way of performance evaluation, and a high wage
against the run of the market for similar work.  For students,
methods of evaluation that are unrelated to real-world
performance.  With respect, this is not the way to achieve
consequential results.  The bazaar model does not rely on
external subsidies for idleness --- that's what self-perpetuating
bureaucracies are for :)

> Yes. You overlooked the glaring success of the bazaar style
> of doing things in the vast majority of cases it was applied.
> You are right that it hasn't been used yet for solving problems
> outside things revolving ( more or less ) around computing. But
> that is no excuse.

Didn't know that I was at fault :)

But I'm not convinced that there is a universal turnkey solution
to the problem of organizing social activity.  Horses for
courses: one should at least be open to the possibility that what
works in the computing industry might not work so well in another
context.

Cheers,
-- 
-x80
Frank G Bennett, Jr         @@
Faculty of Law, Nagoya Univ () email: bennett@example.com
Tel: +81[(0)52]789-2239     () WWW:   http://rumple.soas.ac.uk/~bennett/
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