Wow, after all this talk I’m finally starting my first real blog adventure. God knows if anyone will actually read it…
So, why Connectionist? Well, I’ve recently discovered a common theme in all my endeavours – connecting things. I’m riding the ‘wisdom of crowds’/web 2.0/collaboration wave because it’s the first time in my whole life I’ve found an area of enquiry that I am both willing and able to engage in. It’s beginning to become clear to me that my ultimate aim is to enable both the efficient sharing of knowledge and collaboration so that we may sort this world’s problems as quickly as possible – it increasingly seems like we’re running out of time. My underlying belief (which I seem to forget all to often) is the rather unoriginal concept that the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, that out of a collective consciousness unexpected and amazing emergent structures and solutions will be born.
All this may seem a bit vague or misguided. I suppose that’s why I’ve started this blog, to get more experience at articulating what I’m thinking, and (hopefully) to get your valuable feedback. The Connectionist is not just me, but everyone with whom this current wave of connectionism (read web2.0/collaboration) resonates – and I know there are a lot of you.
This year I’m doing my honours thesis in the department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne (Australia). Over the next few months this will be a project blog of sorts, which will hopefully keep me on track and clear about where I’m at with my thesis, what my beliefs are and where I think I’m going to go next.
Posted by Matt Daniel 