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Subject:Paradigms and Models From:CHELAGOI <CHOWNING -at- ACUVAX -dot- ACU -dot- EDU> Date:Fri, 19 Mar 1993 21:27:41 -0600
Paradigms and models seem to being treated as something of two words
for the same thing.
Models are examples ---- usually in the context of our discussions, examples
of variations along a certain theme or course of action.
Paradigms very almost totally from each other.
Most of the models that have been discussed on this list over the past week
that I have been reading concern some centralized information storage
for use by anywhere from ten to ten thousand users.
A different paradigm would be to decentralize and allow the users a conduit
to connect to a great number of other systems where information is stored.
The centralized, empire building, can be very wasteful in disk space (becasue
the information is already being stored somewhere else) and a waste of
money (because labor and hardware are being used that have already been
put into the remote site).
"What new and useful information can I put on my system," are the dreams
of a redundent, centralized model builder. "What can I connect my
users to?" are the visions of the decentralized network builder. Which
one offers the most to the users? The more provocative question is,
"which one offers more to the builder?" What is the basic difference
between a user and a builder? The builder must sit in the shoes of the
user.
