[Edu-sig] re: Python "3" and National Project to establish the Knowledge Sciences as an Academic Discipline

[Arthur]

>Art and the edu-sig

Thanks for the reply.  I have gotten use to the interspersed practice, and
will follow it.  But, for one, have no strong feelings about it one way or
other.  I would vote that you communicate in the way you are most
comfortable.

Python community fact 1:

I, Art, do not speak for it in any possible sense. My standing is marginal,
in fact.

I speak for myself. And often, not well.

<snip>

>So, our primary educational objective is to teach about the limitations of
>computer science, when one is attempting to use the computer as a means to
>assist in community based knowledge management.  The position is that our
>society will be better off when computer technology is easier to understand
>and more generally accessible (and this is in the spirit of Python - as
>well as other languages.)

>The Orb technology is one possible inclusion in the Knowledge Technology
>Toolkit.

I am a bit the resident Luddite.  Sharing the general goal of technological
literacy, and being unconvinced that technology itself can be a major factor
in achieving it. Python points in the direction of what may be achievable.
But there is no credible evidence I have seen to indicate that teaching and
learning something like Python is not an essentially low tech endeavor,
inherently.  But I don't know whether that sentiment is oppositional to your
own, and in any case, it is certainly does not represent any kind of
prevailing sentiment at edu-sig.  

In fact you can safely ignore the last paragraph.

>We are, however, looking for assistance in developing multiple user domain
>(MUD) environments that support both peer-to-peer communication and the
>machine representation of indicators of subject matter (such as we find
>from the Orbs (Ontology Referential Base) models of linguistic variation.)

>It is our expectation that a discussion can develop in which if there is a
>question then we will have an opportunity to answer the question, in a
>scholarly fashion, and a discussion in which our group, BCNGroup, of
>primary scientists can listen to the comments of this edu-sig group.

>Python does not have to be in the middle of the proposal for a National
>Project, this is why we ask for this discussion - to make a determination.

Edu-sig is a group of diverse - sometimes wildy diverse opinion. Obviously
it is Mr. Guido van Rossum and other members of the Python Software
Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ with whom you need to be speaking. 

Certainly there is no reason I see for your group not to explore the
possibilities of the use of Python in achieving your goals. It has a liberal
license for use it any project of this kind. At the same time I see every
reason not to do so in a manner that purports to be speaking on behalf of
anyone in or out of the Python community who hasn't explicitly signed on.  I
am gathering Guido has not at this point explicitly signed on.  Which is why
I am baffled at the Python3 component of the discussion.

>And no, I still do not know who Tim Peters is...

Nobody very important really <wink>

Art