celebration of imperfection

Chapter 4: Perfection of David Weinberger's Small Pieces Loosely Joined

"The Web works because it is broken" (83) or "The Web will always be a little bit broken" (76) and "The Web is broken on purpose" (79)

"The imperfection of the Web isn't a temporary lapse; it's a design decision. It flows directly from the fact that the Web is unmanaged and uncontrolled so that it can grow rapidly and host innovations of every sort. The designers weighed perfection against growth and creativity, and perfection lost. The Web is broken on purpose." (79)

The Web/ Internet is unmanaged and uncontrolled. Nobody owns the internet. It is a network of networks. It has no centre. There is no job in the world called, Chief manager of the WWW.

Anyone can link anything to anything else. Openness, freedom, growth and creativity are far more important than perfection on the Internet / Web. No one has to ask anyone for permission before they put something on the Web (82).

People often don't talk nice on the Web. There is an in your face informality about the place. (91)

People like it. There are over 8 billion Web pages and a new blog is created every 5 seconds or so. The Web is refreshing.

One of our biggest joint undertakings is successful because it is the opposite of a corporate model.

It has been built by voluntary work. There is no centre. There are no ideal images. All types of voices can be heard. It is a bottom up design.

Weinberger contrasts this with corporate speak, when something goes wrong, they use phrases that begin with:
"We regret ..."
"Rest assured ..."
"We appreciate ..."
"Please accept ..."
"Your call is important to us ..."

And when are going right then glossy marketing brochures show ideal images of smiling people clustering and gesturing about corporate product xxx

The Web liberates us from that. The Web is human, it feels human, on the Web we hear the sound of the authentic human voice. The Web is not perfect, like us.