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back to article Dreamer calls for revolution of the algorithm

Fresh from challenging Silicon Valley to invest in ethical Web 2.0 efforts, a blogger-cum-consultant has proclaimed a "manifesto" for the next industrial revolution using Web 2.0. Umair Haque, director of the Havas Media Lab think tank and founder of Web 2.0 consultant Bubblegeneration - seriously is this post-modern irony, or …

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  1. Eduard Coli
    Gates Horns

    Vulture Capitalism

    Hopeless, sad and misdirected, you can't eat code.

    "The map is not the territory"

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  2. Andy Barber
    Boffin

    Vapourware...

    ... remember that term?

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  3. Phil Endecott

    Doomed.

    To paraphrase Jamie Zawinski, web 2.0 is about helping people get laid. Not about solving world hunger etc. (unless some "22 year old college student living in the dorms" gets laid along the way).

    http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html

    QUOTE: "How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).

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  4. Tom
    Unhappy

    I remember when...

    Linux was hailed as the new messiah, to solve world hunger and free computers, leading us to the promised land. I think we all grow jaded with time, though we would wish otherwise.

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  5. Herby

    A good starting place...

    ...is to look into a mirror. Seems logical to me!

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  6. Gareth

    The weapons of the revolution...

    ...will be AJAX and excessive use of gradients?

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  7. Chris C

    A place to start

    The ideals of helping others and leaving a legacy by actually doing something important (as opposed to leaving a legacy by coding flying penises in Sadville) are, sadly, the ideals of generations past. The same is true of honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility. Very few people my age (31) or younger care about these ideals.

    However, if you'd like to return to those ideals, a good place to start would be to stop this "Web 2.0" crap. Simply put, disconnect. Actually leave the house and interact with the peoplearound you. Returning to active, friendly, and helpful communities would go a long way.

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  8. Rhys Parsons

    Communist Manifesto

    Having read this a few years ago, I seem to remember it was less about people 'being nice to each other' and more about how the bourgeoisie had better look out because the proletariat were in the ascendancy. Quite an entertaining rant.

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  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Re: Doomed

    Does that mean that computer viruses will become Social Diseases in the Web 2.0 world?

    Oops, I think I left my coat at the pox doctor's.....

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  10. breakfast Silver badge
    Happy

    Must look differernt depending on were you stand.

    It makes me laugh that all these web 2.0 and open source guys tend to be very right-wing in their political views, often tending to the libertarian, and then they come out with these very left-wing ideas like they're amazing flashes of insight nobody else has ever thought of.

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  11. John Savard

    The Real Problem

    Since programmers need to eat to, they generally do their programming for somebody with the money to pay them. One of your countrymen, Adam Smith by name, worked out how letting people alone to do that was a good way to increase productivity that would eventually benefit everyone.

    Since eventually is a long time, effective forms of charity that help people get started, or things like disaster relief, are appealing enough that they can usually find donors. The chronic poverty that comes from too many people on not enough land, though, is another matter.

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  12. Colin Millar
    Stop

    Things fall apart

    Human society has never responded positively to a programatic approach - it was the fundamental flaw with marxism and other highly ordered societies. The underlying trend has always been the chaos/order cycle - and the high levels of order required by a programmed approach cannot hold - indeed it is probable that the increasing the effectiveness of the programme increases the trend to chaos.

    Someone should send this guy a copy of The Second Coming

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Irony

    Remember the OLPC project where they shipped out laptops to kids in Africa? They could have e-mail and internet (so they could look at stuff like BMW's and Louis Vuitton luggage). These boxes cost $100, and Intel pulled the plug as there's no profit. You could do a linux desktop box for £150, but that's no good to them if (as Bill Gates said) they don't have any food. I've always thought Internet to poor folk projects were always a bit of a piss take. I don't think Sainscoda (and their corporate partners) deliver to Ethiopia. Skull and crossbones for obvious reasons.

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