Full Circle Associates

From Peter Kaminski, last December, comes another community indicator. Immune Response linked to the work of Eugene Kim. He calls these "signs of life" (which resonates for me).

I learned about -- or at least about the existence of -- the VisiblePulse community pattern from Eugene Kim. (Currently the VisiblePulse page on CollabWiki is empty, awaiting a description if you're so inclined. :-)

Tonight in discussion with a friend, I suggested a new one, "VisibleImmuneResponse" -- a reaction obvious to others in response to damage or attack.

And then it struck me that these are also ways of telling that something -- a community, a wiki, a website, or a bird or a snake -- is alive and vital.

	Wiki	Community	Animal
VisiblePulse	Recent Changes	newsletter, email list, gossip	breathing motions, eyes track objects
VisibleImmune Response	wikispam gets removed	trolls repulsed, members aid others in trouble	scabs form over wounds, sneezing/coughing during viral infection

What other SignsOfLife are there? How do you judge the quality of SignsOfLife?

Quality is difficult because it is contextual. So it seems that we need more than signs of life -- that is the first step. The second is relevance to a community. For example, quality of life for me includes chocolate. :-) (only half kidding)

The pattern language approach is still a tug for me. I am both attracted by it, and also sense something lacking when trying to use it for human interaction patterns. I can't put my finger on it. It may simply be my lack of fluency. But the flip side is it seems that a pattern language would be useful if it did not require a lot of fluency.

More Monday rambles... what can I say? I think I need a sabbatical to start thinking through these things more deeply rather than just splatter them on my blog!

Tags: community_indicators, signsoflife