I remember years ago working with Northwestern Mutual Life on their first web page deployment. They developed a simple "game" which would lead the play through a set of question and then determine the players life expectancy. It was a perfect game for a life insurance company, since it was driven by actuarial tables.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Internet is the capability to create ad hoc collectives in order to create computer programs, literature and art. The very underlying structure of the Internet, that is the protocols that make it all work, are the product of collaborative work perform by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Take the IETF as an example of a collective endeavor. The IETF develops standards through working groups. The working groups do most of their discussion via e-mail discussion groups. The IETF befuddled traditional standards organizations such as the venerable IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the ISO (International Organization for Standards) because it was open and required no credentials other than the intellectual strength of each individual's work. As the "Tao of IETF" points out: A WG is really just a mailing list with a bit of adult supervision. You "join" the WG by subscribing to the mailing list; all mailing lists are open to anyone. Anyone can post to a WG (Working Group) mailing list, although most lists require non-subscribers to have their postings moderated. Each Working Group has one or two chairs.
Open source programs and the concept that you could build usable computer programs with a collective group of network strangers, was an early product of the Internet. The standards used by the IETF where often tested using open source programs. An old saw used in the IETF standards process was "Rough consensus and working code."
Without digressing much further, the point of bringing up these "traditional" Internet collaborative processes is to show that on the Internet; collective intelligence has been at work for almost 20 years.
Network games build on this tradition. In some ways you can think of network projects, like IETF standards, as a vast intellectual game.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Internet is the capability to create ad hoc collectives in order to create computer programs, literature and art. The very underlying structure of the Internet, that is the protocols that make it all work, are the product of collaborative work perform by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Take the IETF as an example of a collective endeavor. The IETF develops standards through working groups. The working groups do most of their discussion via e-mail discussion groups. The IETF befuddled traditional standards organizations such as the venerable IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the ISO (International Organization for Standards) because it was open and required no credentials other than the intellectual strength of each individual's work. As the "Tao of IETF" points out: A WG is really just a mailing list with a bit of adult supervision. You "join" the WG by subscribing to the mailing list; all mailing lists are open to anyone. Anyone can post to a WG (Working Group) mailing list, although most lists require non-subscribers to have their postings moderated. Each Working Group has one or two chairs.
Open source programs and the concept that you could build usable computer programs with a collective group of network strangers, was an early product of the Internet. The standards used by the IETF where often tested using open source programs. An old saw used in the IETF standards process was "Rough consensus and working code."
Without digressing much further, the point of bringing up these "traditional" Internet collaborative processes is to show that on the Internet; collective intelligence has been at work for almost 20 years.
Network games build on this tradition. In some ways you can think of network projects, like IETF standards, as a vast intellectual game.
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