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Weblog:   Political Patterns on the WWW
Subject:   On my footlocker
Date:   2004-01-31 05:22:08
From:   brian_d_foy
After I read this I had to go back to my tent. Next to the weapons and other military paraphenalia, I have:



  • Last week's Economist
  • Three old issues of the New Yorker
  • Margaret Thatcher's Statecraft, which I am halfway through
  • Toqueville's Democracy in America, which is the book I carry around just in case I get stuck somewhere (halfway through that too)
  • A Louis Lamour book that my tentmate gave me, although I probably will not read it
  • The current Foreign Affairs, with an article by Colin Powell.
  • Reefer Madness, by the same guy who did Fast Food Nation
  • The Lyric Opera of Chicago's guide to this season
  • An old issue of Sun magazine
  • Several MacWorlds and Dr. Dobbs Journal that someone just sent me
  • Several week old issues of Stars & Stripes
  • A pocket copy of the US Constitution (of which I am defending against all enemies foreign and domestic)
  • A minidisk of This American Life programs


I wonder where all that shows up on the map.
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  • Tim O'Reilly photo On my footlocker
    2004-01-31 08:47:48  Tim O'Reilly | O'Reilly AuthorO'Reilly Blogger [Reply | View]

    No question, brian. There are lots of us who are exceptions. But what social network analysis tools tell us are what *most* people do. And this kind of self-reinforcing pattern is extremely common.

    At O'Reilly, we do what we can to counter it -- the open source convention, for instance, was an attempt to get the various projects together rather than in their silos -- and we do silly things like invite lots of Microsoft folks to our open source events. But that doesn't change the overall tendency of people to spend time principally with like-minded people and self-reinforcing ideas.
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