I should have noticed this. I erred in saying that our only mandate was that the TWiki be "some kind of a learning tool." In isolation, I read that as our Declaration of Independence. Moglen's post reminds me of this second mandate. (I say "mandate" because I actively listen descriptive statements into prescriptive ones).

Apparently, in the land of active listeners, I'm not just a revolutionary but an illegal immigrant -- i.e., a poor active listener -- a Lenin, who came to exploit a captive audience of active listeners and hear himself talk. To clumsily extend the metaphor (as one does, when he is actively listening only to himself), I thought TWiki was a more fertile audience than the classroom, and besides, the classroom power had forged my passport. Blowback, as they say.

It scares me a little to know that someone's going to refactor my words, I'm not gonna lie. Had Lenin known how his words got refactored by his next spokesman, he might have spoken more carefully. Even he would have passed that active listening test. Unfortunately, he was dead.

It's tempting to insert footnotes under

Lesson learned: Revolutionaries die, but their words live on, and they're their words live aft, and now I get to suffer the indignity of watching them get "refactored" by a bunch of Trotskyites.

but the whole idea of "captive audiences"

of gradegivers The usual practice is to "refactor"--or consolidate--pages periodically, by replacing the long threads of discussion with a responsible summary of the points made; the person refactoring is accountable to the group for the clarity with which she or he renders the points made, briefly, transmitting the essence of each point of view. That's another part of the active listening test. I will soon begin assigning people to refactor the discussions that are building up on certain topics.

-- AndrewGradman - 26 Jan 2008