Unacknlowedged legislators

Shelley wrote that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, and this dream lies behind a lot of blogging, though the literary archetype is perhaps Peter Wiggin rather than Byron.

The challenge for social software is to construct frameworks for people. Suw and Adina have recently discussed the analogies with architectural spaces; Joel about how having lots of people involved changes design.

I spent the holiday weekend building sandcastles, watching waves closely to decide which one to jump into, and reading Churchill's description of how political organisation evolved in the UK.

What I hope to do while guest-blogging here is to talk about how we build enduring frameworks that enable people to grow new, surprising institutions together.