A while ago I posted an opinion about sharing and the point of openness. It was intended to be focus of conversation and so I took a stance that was controversial and was thoroughly attacked for it. It happens a lot more that we would like. A few months later I overheard Bre Pettis talking about physical threats of violence over not completely opening the hardware designs for his product. I understood both sides of the argument however I could not understand the state of our world in terms of its inability to have real discourse with compassion and respect without hatred and violence. Reading the comments section of almost any major news or opinion piece or even hanging out in the average technical IRC channel makes me want to cry.
And so I stopped sharing and posting, withdrew and shut down.
But its still all out there effecting people I love and respect. This internet thing seems to have no filters, knows no bounds in its capacity to hurt people with things that they have no control over. Even as I stop participating the conversations and ugliness come around through the people close to me.
Somehow we’ve got to be better than this as people.
Starting with me.
I realize that I can be harsh and opinionated. I have said some things over the course of the years that I am ashamed of and I am sorry.
I am working on that.
I hope to be less judgmental and more constructive as I try to promote the projects that I care about and share what I learn along the way. I think you will find me very hesitant to have a personal opinion but I believe that is just the nature of the beast. I hope that someday we can learn to have opinions and constructive dialog out here on the net without tearing each other down.
In the mean time I am trying to open up again.