On The Margins

Wednesday August 18, 2004

[ Web ] Ineffectiveness of automated translation on the Web

On the Lessig Blog, Tim Wu has written about the Balkanization of the Web, and in a later post, he writes about the ineffectiveness of automated translation to solve the problem. As I noted earlier, what is needed, practical, effective and possible is not automated translation but multi-lingualism and multi-cultural upbringing, or one that has a built-in tolerance for the other. This naturally occurs in some cultures. Others have a way of avoiding it with a great pull to conformity of ideas. For example, if one watches 10 hours of television a day in a particular language from a particular culture, it is highly likely that person will grow with a great degree of identification with his own culture and language as learned from the television environment, particularly when the programming is (mechanically) designed to be highly attractive. Whether a culture which is primarily propagated through television could be an authentic culture or not is a serious matter for consideration.

2004-08-18 20:56:09.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Web ] A London Blogging Directory

Writing weblogs has a tendency of drawing one to other blogging communities.

It's a form of participatory, or popular culture rather than a mass culture.

Personally, I'm still trying to understand the role of blogging directories (see here) such as the London Bloggers which organizes blogs on different dimensions, including their "originating" tube station sites.

Perhaps, someone can explain the significance of associating blogs with the tube stations on the London Bloggers.

Of course, there are other blogs that are devoted to life on the London Underground. Presumably, this would be best readable if it were easily accessible through mobile devices. Perhaps it is. I have not checked it.

2004-08-18 19:21:22.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Society ] The Functions of the Executive: Chester Barnard and Organization Theory

Earlier, I quoted the summary of Chester Barnard's views on the individual and on why we cooperate with each other in organizations.

Here, I'll quote the summary of his views on the total context of organized cooperation and on how cooperation changes the very context of organizations.

Cooperation is the social aspect of the total situation and social factors arise form it. These factors may be in turn the limiting factors of any situation. This arises from two considerations: (a) The process of interaction must be discovered or intervened, just as a physical operation may be discovered and intervened (b) the interaction changes the motives and interest of those participating in the cooperation. (The Functions of the Executive, p. 60.)

From my own experience, item (a) in the above is primarily about change and strategy. If you want to remove a limiting factor, you may organize yourself in a band or a group. On the other hand, item (b) is about the dialectics that follows, making strategic behavior a cause of its own demise. More importantly, item (b) is about changes in motivation and interest which affect the participant in an organization simply through their participation.

2004-08-18 04:12:12.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.