Its that time of year, retrospective reviews, perky or pessimistic predictions and of course fanciful day dreaming for the future. I am going to add a few of my own over the coming few weeks and I will (try to) stay on the collaborative narrative that this blog is (ostensibly) about.In keeping with the links between Christmas and related winter celebrations with religion over-tones, I thought my first wish should be a bit 'Biblical'.
Mankind was scattered over the earth and given a multiplicity of languages with the destruction of the Tower of Babel. This came about with as a result of Man's hubris leading him to try to physically ascend to the heaven. Since that time we have tried to better understand each other, a sort of global collaborative effort.
Its not for me to question the Omnipotent's rationale for for this, however in keeping with the season we could try to establish a more charitable approach to content standards. 2008 was marked by a remarkable amount of hoo-ha and hot air in respect of OOXML and ODF to nobody's benefit. In reality it seems to me as we move into 2009 that both of these standards are co-existing without a spontaneous development of a collaborative 'black-hole' reeking destruction in its path.
So my wish for the coming year is for more interoperable standards and less 'not invented here' responses to those placed in the public domain by others.
Comments (1)
The Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues is one of the most misunderstood accounts in the Old Testament. This misunderstanding leads to claims that the account is purely mythical. But this is not true. It was a real event. An objective reading of the biblical text (and modern clinical experiments) explain what really happened. God did not change the languages of man. Check out
www.eloquentbooks.com/ManAndHisPlanet.html
Posted by Jim | December 16, 2008 5:35 PM
Posted on December 16, 2008 17:35