Ode to Inspired August 31, 2007
Posted by Ned Stark in Uncategorized.trackback
This post is rather belated; nevertheless as the saying goes, better late than never.
I refer of course to Inspired’s “retirement” from the blogosphere. The departure of such a prominent aggregator does change the dynamics of the blogosphere some what. In fact since its conception Intelligent Singaporean has played an integral role in the blogosphere; by directing new comers or old timers to posts of note and by archiving old debates such as the ministerial salaries and the infamous Wee Shu Min Incident. What makes things even more impressive is that Inspired does things on his own, and it definitely ain’t easy looking through all the stuff in the net and highlighting them on a regular basis.
That said, it is indeed sad to see Inspired go; however such is the nature of the blogosphere. With that I would like to thank Inspired for linking some of my posts and for providing a service to the Singapore blogosphere for the past 1 year or so. Indeed aggregators do play a role in the vibrant Singapore blogosphere and it is my hope that there be more people who will deign to provide such a service.
Winter Is Coming 
Hi Ned,
Yes it is sad.
I guess Sg’s socio-political blogosphere will just have to chug along until someone else takes up the mantle that SI had discarded.
I have been busy with my studies and my personal work and commitments.
Cheers
Yeap Dr, all of us have been busy. Its been a long week.
There is another tribute paid to the Intelligent Singaporean, here:
http://whatotherssay.wordpress.com/page/2/
Hi Ned,
Just returned from Europe with wifey to find this. I am still reeling. This is certainly a lost in more ways than I can possibly elaborate. IS was a very significant carrier in the sg blog scene along with the BP. I do not believe it is possible to draw a distinction without the risk of splitting hairs which is which and where it overlaps and crosses the line. Forgive me I really cannot draw a line between the IS and BP, the same to me. If you dont believe me just go and ask any regular reader, 99 out of a 100 times you are likely to get the same answer.
Allow me to elaborate further, why I believe this is a mega disaster of mega proportions for the Sg blogworld. In terms of actual loss of intellectual capital. The BP has a significant number of readers, many like myself are reclaimed readers who didnt bother abt the blogs till they returned.
The BP did not as much take away existing readers as much as they reclaimed those who have once stopped reading blogs. For many it was a return to the famed icered.com days.
They attracted a significant number of intellectuals around my age group early and mid 30’s. This incidentally are also the category of people who have the best mix of theory and experience to contribute to a richer, vibrant and exciting blog scene by virtue of their experience.
The BP act will be hard to follow. Some people are dispensable I know, but we are not America, where there is already an intellectual ecology to replenish those who have gone with an infusion of fresh blood. The SG blog scene is no where near this, it lacks so many things neither does it have the ability to regenerate and replenish itself when it suffers such a dramatic set back.
What I feel most people do not realize is many of these readers who came back to blogosphere will not be staying around. This is not a case of if we do not have coffee, then we will just switch to teh tarik. Most of them will just tune off completely and return back to their old life.
I do not believe we can plug the brain drain. Not the Sg blogworld lack the creative writing skills, but what most people do not realize about the BP is they dont so much write as they assemble information very much like automobile manufacturers from their network of dedicated readers and they run into the thousands spread right across the work spectrum.
It is a bit like a pyramid where information is drawn from every level and assembled at the top to create the final product. Much of this was accomplished by their unique technology they term the SLF – Single Line Feed which allowed many of their readers to contribute directly or indirectly to their final content.
The second factor is time. Most bloggers are also working people. Darkness understood this limitation and got around it by creating what he called Toyota or “machine” writing – this was a very speedy way to collate, sieve and assemble information based on manufacturing principles.
Much of this was weaved culturally into the SLF – so if lets say, I am a subject matter expert who is able to add value to an article, I can actually use the SLF to communicate this information to Aurora (the controller) who will then incorporate it into the final product. This method of writing means the BP can produce a 8 page article in less than 30 minutes just using two writers and one controller!
If the system runs full toss it is able to produce at least 3 to 4 articles a day just using less than 3 writers in less than one hour. I know this because part of the SLF was actually tweaked by me and my read group, each SLF is distinctive and has a core competence e.g science, law, tech etc.
I believe it was very generally mentioned here:
By Aurora in comment (33):
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm
But it is much more complex than that, as much of the logic darkness used was developed by a chicken farmer turned self professed corporate turn around guru. A dubious character by the name of Dr E. Goldratt.
Darkness eliminated the constraining factor by creating a very accessible means of information respository using the net itself.
So for example if you google: EP 400394B
Something comes up accurately. Each code is encrypted and managed by the chronicler – that means if they write abt lets say “is the world round” – they can get as many as 70 detailed feedback from their network in the SLF anywhere in the world without even having to maintain a server.
The reason why I say this is a mega disaster is. I really cannot understand how all this can really be reproduced again bc the SLF was originally designed to support their gaming network, it was supposed to be a very primitive form of AWAC that eventually developed into a writing tool by sheer accident.
This is definitely the end in more ways than I can possibly elaborate, it is a disaster of mega proportions that will have far reaching implications because the end of the SLF era means so many intellectuals are cut off and can no longer contribute and if they cannot do that what do you think will be the final outcome? For the record, I have spent time to explain all this so that their history is clear, complete and unambigious. I owe them all this much.
We are back to the age of Mr Brown again. The whole network is gone. This is not an end of an age as it is a disaster that we will never be able to recover from.
Sad, so very sad indeed.