Open source may be a virtue –
if infinity and everything are welcome –
although accompanied by its underbelly,
the curse of discord that haunts
a public forum where consensus died
and concord on what is civilised
may be betrayed by any editor
or self-styled birdsong with a pen.
We began to build an open-ended truth –
the transparent earthly grail in silicon –
a home to hold and open up to access
all our knowledge (superficially described);
a store of instant information, if not wisdom
scripted by and for the restlessly connected
even if it’s inconsistent, incomplete or wrong
or randomly repeats offsetting errors….
Now who can contradict a sage monopoly
purported by the wisdom of the crowd?
Who’d hazard reputation against the orthodox
or forfeit entry to the cloud community?
Or be exposed, a victim to be trolled
and eaten while the blood still flows
then spat out by bottom-feeding slime
as ignorance, unsatisfied, moves on….
So what would the Johan Raeders make of this?
Did they want their posthumous fame?
Would they have even cared?
Or detected us in what we’ve made –
reflected in the unintended outcome
of our best and joint endeavours:
our disordered mirror of Utopia,
a boundless land where freedom reigns.