[LINK] UK government to create 'super websites'

[Jan Whitaker]

At 07:16 AM 11/01/2007, Antony Barry wrote:
>Perhaps it's the contrast between one resulting from bottom up
>cooperation and the other from central direction.

Tony, your point about pointing to someone else's work is also worth 
putting into the mix as why you may feel more comfortable with 
decentralised systems. It's why we like the Internet. If part of it 
breaks, the whole thing doesn't collapse. Same with all centralised 
monolithic systems (dare I say the proposed ID card?). Fewer points 
of failure, perhaps, but that isn't always the most important factor. 
I think many centralisers are mostly trying to reduce support 
overhead. That's the point of many mergers, besides control. Roger 
said it well: Will anyone ever re-discover diseconomies of scale and scope?

Speaking of control.....There is also the matter of who controls the 
data. If it's centralised, whoever has the button in that spot makes 
it on or off. If it's distributed, the control lies in the hands of the source.

Jan


Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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