Reminds me that back in 2001 I was suggesting the Squeak (Smalltalk) Foundation's purpose should include supporting collaborative software and the community around it -- beyond supporting just personal development. There were a bunch of interesting discussions related to that although ultimately the focus still ended up moving towards the narrower traditional Smalltalk culture idea of empowering the user rather than the community.
Example of something I wrote then:
https://lists.squeakfoundation.org/archives/list/squeakfound...
"I guess I always saw Squeak's purposes as a bit broader still, relating
more to "individual and group empowering transparent ubiquitous
computing". For example, I see Squeak concepts as providing an OS
neutral platform for various languages (Python, Lisp, Forth) [an open
source .NET] and I don't see how that is going to fit into a mission
statement that links to Squeak as is with a perception of a Smalltalk
environment only. Granted, most people joining this list may have no
direct interest in this, so that is not to say the purpose of the
organization should necessarily incorporate that, especially if it has
detrimental effect by making things too overly broad.
Here's an alternative -- anchor the effort on one side by Squeak and
have it open ended on the other. For example, "To assist the evolution
of a individual and group empowering transparent open-source ubiquitous
computing platform starting from the initial Squeak code base".
I don't think this is out of character with for example where Alan Kay
has wanted to go with Squeak in regards to a "Dynabook"."
Smalltalk (and Squeak and its derivatives) of course can empower groups like with, say, the Croquet project. What I was talking about then was mostly about emphasis around a common shared purpose (like the Chaordic Commons approach suggests) in the context of creating a formal "foundation" organization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_Project
If I squint, it sort-of appears that JavaScript/asm.js (supporting a variety of transpired languages and running in every browser and communicating in a variety of ways) is a sort-of realization of part of that vision.
Example of something I wrote then: https://lists.squeakfoundation.org/archives/list/squeakfound... "I guess I always saw Squeak's purposes as a bit broader still, relating more to "individual and group empowering transparent ubiquitous computing". For example, I see Squeak concepts as providing an OS neutral platform for various languages (Python, Lisp, Forth) [an open source .NET] and I don't see how that is going to fit into a mission statement that links to Squeak as is with a perception of a Smalltalk environment only. Granted, most people joining this list may have no direct interest in this, so that is not to say the purpose of the organization should necessarily incorporate that, especially if it has detrimental effect by making things too overly broad. Here's an alternative -- anchor the effort on one side by Squeak and have it open ended on the other. For example, "To assist the evolution of a individual and group empowering transparent open-source ubiquitous computing platform starting from the initial Squeak code base". I don't think this is out of character with for example where Alan Kay has wanted to go with Squeak in regards to a "Dynabook"."
Smalltalk (and Squeak and its derivatives) of course can empower groups like with, say, the Croquet project. What I was talking about then was mostly about emphasis around a common shared purpose (like the Chaordic Commons approach suggests) in the context of creating a formal "foundation" organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_Project
If I squint, it sort-of appears that JavaScript/asm.js (supporting a variety of transpired languages and running in every browser and communicating in a variety of ways) is a sort-of realization of part of that vision.