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Agentcities

 [1/8] from: tbrownell::shaw::ca at: 23-Mar-2002 11:10


I think Agentcities suffers from what I call "Academia Syndrome", or AS. AS is "when folks trained in a university think just a wee bit too much, to the point of becoming absurb." University committees are especially prone to this ailment as it grows exponentially when more AS suffers are together. When a project becomes infected by AS, it... - goes round and round and round.... very...very... slowly. - becomes bloated with jargon, diagrams, charts, formulas, studies, technical commitees, working groups, specs, reports, memos, drafts, consortiums, processes... (point truncated by 4,242 bytes). - is debated to death, literally. - can produce output, but only if you understand Latin. I first encountered AS working with four clinical psycologists on a multimedia cd project that was being distributed to 2000 physcians... where one such person insisted that a bright blue background with yellow text was the best format because his study showed that some doctors are color blind, and that color combination is the best for them. Of course, this was discussed for two days (I'm not kidding) and was concluded that yes, blue and yellow IS the best way to go. (Ack, grieved just thinking about it.) XML creators obviously suffer from AS. I found the Agentcities concept interesting and a similar, non AS suffering project would be a niche for Rebol. Could piggyback on Rugby. TBrownell PS - Rebol does not suffer from AS, nor does Rugby.

 [2/8] from: tbrownell:shaw:ca at: 23-Mar-2002 11:36


AS sufferers are in constant denial, and as such are resistant to therapy. A committe was created in 1963 at the University of California, Berkeley to study therapy options. At last word, the committee.... ...elected seven to the AS Task Force Sub-committee, who'll report to the 12 on the AS Task Force, appointed by the 15 on the Trustee Board. Their recommendation will be reviewed by the Finance Executive Committee of 5, who'll place it on the agenda of the 18 member Finance Committee. If they approve, they'll bring a motion to the 27 Member Faculty Board, who'll appoint another 12 member review committee. If they recommend that the Faculty proceed, a resolution will be brought to the Berkeley Business Meeting. They'll appoint another 8 member review committee. If their report to the next Berkeley Business Meeting supports the AS Task Force, and the Congregation votes in favor, the issue will be passed on to the Trustee Board. So, at least it's getting somewhere now. TB

 [3/8] from: chalz:earthlink at: 25-Mar-2002 0:55


And yet, what does it have to do with... anything? And what's AS? And what's Agentcities? And why should we care?
> AS sufferers are in constant denial, and as such are resistant to therapy. A
committe was created in 1963 at the University of California, Berkeley to study therapy options.
> At last word, the committee.... > > ...elected seven to the AS Task Force Sub-committee, who'll report to the 12
on the AS Task Force, appointed by the 15 on the Trustee Board. Their recommendation will be reviewed by the Finance Executive Committee of 5, who'll place it on the agenda of the 18 member Finance Committee. If they approve, they'll bring a motion to the 27 Member Faculty Board, who'll appoint another 12 member review committee. If they recommend that the Faculty proceed, a resolution will be brought to the Berkeley Business Meeting. They'll appoint another 8 member review committee. If their report to the next Berkeley Business Meeting supports the AS Task Force, and the Congregation votes in favor, the issue will be passed on to the Trustee Board.

 [4/8] from: tbrownell:shaw:ca at: 25-Mar-2002 1:29


>And yet, what does it have to do with... anything? And what's AS? And >what's Agentcities? And why should we care?
Perhaps you could get a committee together and look into it Charles? TB

 [5/8] from: webmaster:windsweptfarm at: 25-Mar-2002 8:17


more_silly_nonsense:[ And perhaps we could start a Canadian chapter and call it Eh?gentcities We could populate it with quizzical bureaucrats queuing for perpetual committees.] NOT All very good points Terry! Terry Brownell wrote:

 [6/8] from: tbrownell:shaw:ca at: 25-Mar-2002 13:03


I live close to the border and cross quite often and in doing so I've noticed a difference between American and Canadian border guards. The Americans have a 9mm on their belts, and the Candians have a rubber stamp. Perhaps my "Academia Syndrome" persona is geographically biased. TB

 [7/8] from: chaz:innocent at: 25-Mar-2002 13:45


According to the website http://www.agentcities.org/About/ The ultimate aim is to enable the dynamic, intelligent and autonomous composition of services to achieve user and business goals, thereby creating compound services to address changing needs. compare with this from the REBOL website IOS is for group communications. It lets people work together privately and in real-time from anywhere in the world. It transforms physically separated groups of individuals into productive, unified teams by providing a direct, secure, and responsive environment for collaboration and sharing. Agentcities appears to be an initiative that could easily be implemented in REBOL. The downside about joining Agentcities is that it's attracted a lot of academicians who would rather talk than code.

 [8/8] from: chalz:earthlink at: 25-Mar-2002 23:11


Thanks for the info, Chaz. Quite a bit more useful than just a subject line.