[cap-talk] Historical Development of Capabilities Workshop

[Jed Donnelley]

Dear cap-talk,

I wanted to let you know about work we
are starting on a workshop dealing with
the historical development of capability
systems.  Jonathan Shapiro has been so
kind as to set up a mailing list for us
to discuss this topic - cap-conf at eros-os.com:

http://www.eros-os.org/mailman/listinfo/cap-conf
<where you can sign up>

To give you an idea of early thinking on
what this workshop might include, you
can take a look at a "blue sky" agenda
that I put together:

http://www.eros-os.com/pipermail/cap-conf/2008-January/000000.html

and you can see further discussion just
getting started on that list.

I would like to suggest a role separation
between the cap-conf list and this related
cap-talk list:

To me it seems reasonable to confine any
thoughts just about the logistics of
the workshop to the cap-conf list.  I
think that would certainly include
things like preparations for the venue,
coordination of people working on the
workshop, and likely outreach efforts.
I would like to keep the discussion on
the cap-conf list generally "above the
fray" in terms of technical/political
discussions.  There will be many people
on that list who are interested in
the historical developments, but not so
much in current technical activities.

I think that there are a number of aspects
of such a workshop that are appropriately
discussed on the cap-talk list.  This
would certainly include discussion of
how technical issues will be portrayed
(briefly) and the relationship between
historical topics such as past criticisms
of capability systems and modern topics
about how these issues are viewed today.

I also think there are a number of topics
that might be appropriately copied to
both lists, such as information about
people and papers relevant to the
historical context of capability
systems.

I hope many of you will find the cap-conf
list and the workshop of interest and
I look forward to discussing these
historical developments with you.
Current thinking is that we will hold
the workshop in the San Francisco Bay
Area, perhaps at the Computer History
Museum.

One other thing I should mention is that
we are considering organizing what one
might call a "Capabilities Moving Forward"
second day associated with this workshop,
perhaps at one of the Silicon Valley
companies such as HP Labs.  Very preliminary
thinking on this second day is that
it would be an opportunity to strategize
and network among current capability designers,
developers, and thinkers - to plan for
ongoing and future developments.  By
combining these two gatherings we may
be able to give many people currently
working with capabilities the opportunity to
get together in person and discuss these
ongoing developments as well as the
chance to meet historical movers and
shakers in this area.

Please feel free to share any and all
thoughts about this workshop on cap-talk
and to participate in cap-conf as seems
appropriate.  Naturally we will keep
cap-talk informed about developments
for the workshop.

Thank you (!) for the years of stimulating
discussion on this list.  I look forward
to many more of the same.

Sincerely James E. (Jed) Donnelley
http://www.webstart.com/jed/