Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

To work, prodded at what I thought was a simple gpk-update-icon issue, and eventually ended reading much more of PackageKit, discovering that egg_debug_init seems to do some unexpected putenv() calls & found the (pretty) debug churn when using --verbose. Poked with Richard at a fix for doing the first ever update sooner; working beautifully now - fun.
Prodded boot-time more; call with Jared. Bruce & Anne, Sue & Adam over for lunch - good to see them again, Bruce's knee replacement improving seemingly.
Fascinating article in the Economist ('Briefing Media') on the long tail - and how, while a real effect - how it could perhaps be called the flight from the mediocre middle - whereby both 'hits' and obscure / legacy titles seem to be sustained, or have growing markets.
- It seems that the long tail of (say) books, is usually consumed by a critical and well-read population - whereas the best-sellers are mostly read by people who don't really read at all.
- Apparently, that is not news - the effect was publicised by [ quote the Economist ] "Formal Theories of Mass Behaviour" by William McPhee who noted that a disproportionate share of the audience for a hit was made up of people who consumed few products of that type. (Many studies have since reached the same conclusion). A lot of the people who read a bestselling novell, for example, do not read much other fiction ... the most popular books are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it." - I love the droll side-swipe of him liking it.
- "The hit is carried along by a wave of ill-informed goodwill.".
- So - what does it mean ? well - perhaps there is comfort in irrelevance ? if your product, or project is not doing well, you can at least re-assure yourself that your few users must be really discerning to have even found you, nevermind stick around. Conversely - examining the run-away popularity of (say) 'hit' OSVs it is interesting to wonder what their users' experience of the outside world is ? are they the Dan-Brown one-book-per-year readers ? I'm always struck, when I'm hearing about how much better XYZ operating system is, at how incredibly limited the perspective of the advocate is - to the point that (apparently) they have no clue that ABC feature was not only implemented by others, but shipped first and at better quality elsewhere: which of course is probably irrelevant to their post-rationalisation of their choice anyway. There is simply great re-assurance in the collective group-think of meeting other people that say the same sorts of things. Can that even be fought with a good marketing slogan "Linux - the choice of people who took the time to choose !"; is it even true ?
- More depressing, from a social policy perspective - how can we create social mobility, increase aspiration and drive our culture upwards, when apparently - some large proportion of the populace are self-selecting culture-ghetto dwellers ? If, when given the choice, people vastly prefer to watch bland and sentimental pap, film versions of the Minitrue novel writing machines output (popularised in 1984) ? Perhaps sending 50% of the population to university to improve their minds, at some staggering national expense, is worthwhile after all. Could it stimulate sales of excellent literature, thought provoking films, challenging poetry etc. Anyhow, thankfully the phenomenon is not a new one, and perhaps even the overall quality of the hits will improve in the end - with such huge budgets, you might hope so.
J. out to give the last counselling session for a lady; giving us an evening back; while I synched with Federico - great to be working with him again, this time on Moblin. Up late talking to Guy.

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In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE, Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International), or anyone else. It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy. Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences or fun.

Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

2009-12-02: Wednesday.