Maybe it’s just me, but don’t you get tired of just “snacking” on short snippets of “nano news” and “itsy bitsy info”*, such as two-paragraph “articles” and other prevalent forms of the ever-shrinking size of published information? Seems to me that information today is being presented in smaller and smaller bits in every medium—from magazine and newspapers with articles that are rarely more than a few paragraphs, sound bites on the radio and TV news, blog entries that are little more than a link to another short article, and podcasts that are less than one minute.
Now don’t get me wrong, granular-izing and modularizing have my FULL support. But to me, the purpose of making things small, is to enable these small bits to be put together into larger assemblies with more meaning and value, especially when they can be personalized to match my context. So I hope you’ll be as delighted as I am with my latest recommended readings—two InformationWeek articles that are wonderfully long and rich.
In this month’s InformationWeek (May 2007), Charles Babcock follows up his August 2006 article “What’s the Greatest Software Ever Written” with a new one, “What’s the Greatest Web Software Ever Written”. In his original article, Charles put together a group of “experts” who took a very long and comprehensive look at what makes any software great and provided their list of the top 12 best programs ever. In his latest article, he focuses on web-based software written since the launch of the Mosaic browser in 1993. This makes for good follow-on reading to my previous posting, “Readiness for the Unexpected” about web-based applications and the online/offline dilemma.
I’m recommending these two educational articles, because they are so much more than “top ten” lists (well, 12 in this case). I hope that these articles might initiate some discussion about what makes software great. Some of the choices may surprise you, some you may never have heard of, some you won’t agree with, and you’ll likely have a few of your own that you think should be on the list.
Each item listed includes a detailed explanation of their history, who was involved, some of the context of the time and the ensuing effects. The “experts” cast a very broad and deep net, so I think the articles provide a great look back and are helpful for looking ahead. The length does make lots of scrolling in your browser, but as with most good web sites, they have a “print” feature or you can download a full PDF version of "What's the Greatest Web Software Ever Written".
BTW, if you do want to add your own choices, Charles has a blog set up just for this purpose called “Greatest Web Software: Let’s Hear Your Choices”, so send in your candidates.
I will not spoil your reading pleasure by giving you the lists, but I do recommend that you read both articles in their entirety, since they are full of fascinating bits of history, including stories about their creation and about how many of these are connected to each other. Great reading and great learning.
One of the things I find most valuable in any kind of “best” listing or other competition is how the criteria for judging is determined. In this case, they decided on “Superior programming [that] can be judged only within its historical context. It must represent a breakthrough, technical brilliance, something difficult that hadn't been done before. And it must be adopted in the real world.” Sounds about right to me, and you can use this to help guide your thinking and choosing software for your list.
These articles started me thinking that it might be a very useful exercise if we were to add the context of learning and performance. If we were to put together a list of the Greatest Software Ever for Learning and Performance, what would your list include? Don’t limit your choices to software that was only made explicitly for learning and performance, but instead, consider any software and choose the ones that you feel have had the greatest positive impact on improving learning and performance. Of course, as the criteria above suggest, and as Charles notes in both articles, one of the challenges is that greatness can only be judged within their historical context, and current software will need to stand the test of time first before it can be judged. But the exercise will still be of great value, so send me your nominations as comments to this posting and I’ll compile the list as it develops. It should be fun and offer more good learning. And THAT is the best of all combinations!
* NOTE: For those of you who are too young or otherwise unaware, this is a reference to a funny #1 pop music song from 1960 called “Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini”. And below you can listen to the original song played direct from a 45 rpm record, which many of you probably also won’t recognize! <g>
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