Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Goal of Community Color

The goal of the Community Color project was to explore the way in which the local community was reflected on the Internet.

The Internet is written in a language called HTML (Hypertext Mark Up Language). The defining characteristic of HTML is the Hyperlink.

HTML lets you link one web page with another web page.

The interesting aspect of the Internet is this network of links.

At the dawn of the Internet, there was a big question on everyone's mind: Would the Internet develop into a robust structure with millions of thriving web sites, or would it devolve into a stagnate structure dominated by a few players like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

I figured that the linking structure of people in local communities would determine the question. If a large number of people were actively engaged in making link pages and if the public used these link pages, then we would have a robust internet.

So, I decided to concentrate my efforts on studying and promoting the local linking structure. I figured that the best way to start this project was to travel to small towns and encourage people to create networks of links within their local communities. I began buying and developing geodomains.

I sold and gave away most of the first domains I worked on.


In developing geodomains, I wanted to create extremely simple structures that included all of the links I could find for a community. I wanted structures that reflected the community and not structures the sought to define the community.

My initial desire was to create a business structure where I worked on the back in structure of the web site while other people worked on the front end structure of linking and social networking.

Sadly, I've never found any people who were all that interested in exploring the ways in local social networks are presented on the web.

If find the structure of the local community much more interesting than politics. This blog is political.

I confess, I have classical liberal leanings.

Government, by its nature, is a limiting factor. Government is a network of constraints placed on the people.

The statement "limited government" is a double negative.

Removing negative things from a society is a positive act. However, arguments for a double negative quickly become convoluted.

Everyone's heard the adage: "Two wrongs don't make a right."

Removing constraints from a psychopath who enjoys killing will end up in bloodshed.

The act of limiting government removes constraints from the people. Eliminating constraints has the potential of empowering the people and creating a more robust society.

But, to win the argument for increased liberty, we need to move beyond debating double negatives and find ways to talk about ways in which a free society can solve the problems of the day.

The Internet just happens to provide a wonderful structure that people could use to discuss the structure of a free society.

The best starting point for such a discussion is the local community.

If there were people who were interested in advancing the cause of freedom, I just happen to be sitting on a veritable treasure chest of information.

In contrast, simply yammering in double negatives is unlikely to lead to a restoration of freedom because such arguments are simply too easy to manipulate.

Anyway, I've spent the last twelve years and several thousands of hours trying to find ways to get people involved in this fascinating discussion about the structure of the local internet. I am currently developing geodomains in three states. Here are the projects: Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

BTW, I've worked on this project since about 1999. I started the projects up in Idaho and Montana, where I received a great deal of positive feedback. I moved back to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympics. In twelve years, I've not once received positive feedback on this project.

I occasionally get feedback on the sites I've developed in Colorado and Arizona. Isn't that strange?

1 comment:

ChrisM said...

Correct - HTML is very powerful.

Chris
Owner CEL Financial Services
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