[WSIS CS-Plenary] Collaboration software debate

[Federico Heinz]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 14:31 -0500, Taran Rampersad wrote:
> I really wish people would stop talking about solutions and instead
> implement one.

Well... if it's wishing time, I wish people would stop talking about
solutions, but rather concentrate in needs first, and only then search
for a solution.

I still have to see any evidence for the need of more sophisticated
tools for collaboration than e-mail, a wiki and maybe IRC. The folks at
Wikipedia are building an *encyclopedia* with just that, do we really
need more?

The more I read about it, the more I become convinced that the only need
involved in the whole thing is some people's desire to find some
problem, any problem, real or not, for which they can push the solutions
they already have at hand.

We are talking toys for rich people here. We are talking about moving
part of the debate from the current platform, where anybody with a
text-only terminal and a dialup connection can join in and participate
in equal conditions, to one in which the ones with broadband, lots of
memory, fast processors and webcams are priviledged.

Sad.

	Fede

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