Re: [9fans] UN to fund linux for the 3rd world

["Wes Kussmaul" <wes@village.com>]

> > We need more who, like Dan Geer and Bruce Schneier, are willing
> > to actually do what thought leaders do, add the voice of intelligent
design
> > to the public debate. Otherwise the only voices they hear are those of
> > vendor PR flaks.
>
> i invite you to participate in any IT-related discussion on any public
> forum on the internet (Slashdot is usually the best (and worst) place
> to do it) and observe the reactions -- suddenly everyone is an expert
> at everything and everyone has their own opinion which won't change no
> matter how much sanity you throw at them.

How much leverage do you get in Slashdot? How many journalists will you
influence?

For every Slashdot know-it-all there are ten thousand everyday users who
know they don't have the smarts or time or curiosity to dig into the
workings of their computer. They pick up a pc magazine or they call their
cousin who knows someone who actually posted something on Slashdot. Who from
the Plan 9 / Inferno / *BSD / Eros world is talking to these people?

> not even people with proven
> track record as being smart (such as the ones above) will be listened
> to.  enough people will tell them 'you don't know anything, this is
> how it's done...' to throw them off the conversation.

Bruce Schneier is very much listened to (and very well off from book sales
to the masses.) If he had chosen operating systems rather than firewalls and
intrusion detection systems to talk and write about, Plan 9 would be getting
a lot of attention from journalists and users. He does have a love for the
spotlight, which is a good thing for everybody.

> the only reasonable way to filter out the people who know what they're
> talking about from the cheerleeding crowd is to throw in some serious
> mathematics -- that's the only thing everyone is scared of :)

Serious mathematics such as that used in Blowfish and Twofish? You know, the
symmetric algorithms created by Bruce Schneier, one of which as I recall was
a finalist for AES...?

Schneier doesn't do that. He knows he is much smarter than his audience, and
his audience knows it too. They trust his judgement, and they appreciate the
fact that he takes the time to communicate with them in their language,
without rubbing it in by using math that they will never be able to follow.
He addresses another level of audience in his email newsletter, and uses
language and concepts appropriate to that somewhat more sophisticated
audience. He does refute the know-it-alls and charlatans, but his public
discourse isn't about confrontation, it's about enlightenment. That is
thought leadership.

Sorry, this is getting too flamey. It's meant to be constructive. Lots of
ordinary computer users would love to hear the Plan 9 story.

wk