One of the challenges I face with UoD is the vast universe of stuff I don’t know. And, for the sake of this post, let’s just talk about web technologies, web enabled applications, users, culture, development etc – that whole sphere. Not only that but I don’t know what I don’t know, and when I start to learn something, I don’t always know where it will fit in with what I know already, or the overall space-time of the web.
I find it hard to learn when I don’t understand where this new piece fits into a (possibly oversimplified) model or map. A year or so in to UoD, there is no doubt that I am building a map of my own in my head, and to some extent that is useful to my learning, but this map is not captured anywhere or refined in any explicit way. So I wondered today two things. Does this map exist already? If it does, is it suitable to help would-be developers and spectators like me, and if it does not, is there room for me to create or contribute to this? My conclusion today is: I am not sure yet. There are things out there, but not designed for an audience like me, or a total outsider. I think I may take it on as a project anyway, just to document my own discoveries and understanding, but it would be great if it could be a useful tool for others to learn with.
One really lovely and useful (my two favourite qualities) site that I found today is Evolution of the Web. This is a document of the change in technologies over time, which is not quite what I am after, but it is one aspect of it. Informative and beautiful.
If anything comes of this I’ll let you know.
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