Excellent piece pulling together theories, making them understandable and relating them to current practice and people. Possibly only missing Lave's concept of peripheral participation and community of practice. I have always assumed an affinity between the idea of a journey from periphery to centre of a community of practice and that journey across a ZPD
link to the post with discussion started by Robert Scoble arising from Google's real-name policy, which started a long conversation, pro and con, about the use of names on tinternet
"Algorithms are what make our site run, (and) such a unique place to shop. It's through algorithms that we're able to do things like make recommendations and tell you what customers who bought this item also bought," said Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith.
when you interact with a service online or by phone there may be software in action that mediates how you experience the service: by sorting you. Live in a high income postcode? Get routed to a sales person more quickly than if your IP address makes you look as if you come from a less promising area. On record as an awkward customer or "time-waster"? Then wait in the queue.
we were all hoping that OpenID would end up being the sum of all (good) parts. Unfortunately, it became the opposite: an oddity not true to any of the visions, and far, very far, from being an aggregate of the best. Worse, its evolution has disintegrated into multiple incompatible architectures all of which have plenty of trees, but no forest. None of the original visionaries are actively involved in it any more, and it shows.
large site, attractive new design as of 11/06. essays, links, delving into popular culture and playing with it, theoretical explorations and savvy; highly recommended