Edward Zimmerman

I am currently employed as a software engineer at Autodesk. I have been developing CAD and CAE software professionally at both the core and applications levels since 1988. In the four years previous to this (1984-1987), I designed printed circuit boards for custom realtime systems.

mailto:edward.zimmerman@autodesk.com

For those of you that might want to classify me:

MyMyersBriggsTypeIs ENFP
My personal cosmology aligns well with taoism
Kolbe: Persistent fact-finder (9); Resistant follow through (2); Well-adjusted quick start (5) and implementer (4)
A scorpio with five planets in scorpio and a cancer moon
Preferred mating pattern: polyamory in a multiple primary partners open model
I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs
Favorite quote: "If the map and the terrain differ, believe the terrain."
I am not a Swarmy Varmit of Zydeco (see http://pub189.ezboard.com/fzydecofrm1.showMessage?topicID=390.topic)

I am also a licensed massage therapist. I am interested in putting technology to work for something other than (or in addition to) the profit motive. Grassroots healthcare education is where I think technology could be leveraged to raise the quality of life baseline for many. I have envisioned a collaborative learning game which I currently call Our Universal Free School of Healing Arts (OufshaHome). It relies on a learning technology backbone called ExtremeMeme. I recently wrote a personal narrative of how I came to this vision called A BetterGame. If any of this sounds interesting (positive) or infuriating (negative), I would love to hear your comments. Feedback is the easiest way to participate in the game. If you want to take on something more challenging, I have lots of ideas for deep participation.

A couple of suggestions:

Try refactoring the pages you've written. They're MUCH longer than an accessible wiki page ought to be. In fact they're longer than my browser (Internet Exploiter under MacOsx) can edit. As is, they might make better standalone web pages than communally owned wiki pages.

Is there any hard limit on how long is too long for a wiki page?

Try placing your pages in context. It's difficult to see just where they connect to other wiki material here. Obviously they're in EasternWuss land, but you could spend quite some time profitably exploring possible connections all over WikiDom.
Try explicitly identifying your intent with these pages. Are you solving a problem, sharing your experience, or proselytizing? If all three, try to make clear which is which.
Try to avoid autobiographical exposition. Your experience can be recast in a form accessible to communal editing. Doing this will probably reveal considerable implications you haven't thought of yet.
Re page size, see TooBigToEdit.

In ExtremeProgrammingExplained, KentBeck tells a personal story about learning to drive with his mother. Would you call him an EasternWuss because he uses this personal experience (Metaphor) to illustrate the general shape of the solution?

Oh heck yes. Kent's almost as much of an EasternWuss as I am. Check out chapter 2 of ExtremeProgrammingExamined if you don't believe that.

In a BetterGame, I use personal narrative to bridge the gap between a potential end user community (Oufsha students) and, hopefully, everyone that would want to participate along the entire value chain (open software developers, content authors, curriculum designers, class facilitators, etc). I describe the general shape of both the problem and a potential solution. Some related topics discussed on this site includes TragedyOfTheCommons, CategoryOpenSource, EducationOnComputers, EducationalGames, EducationalTechniques, and ExtremeProgramming.

Um, yeah, but XPExplained is a book, not a wiki page. When Kent has participated here, his contributions have observed the form scrupulously. Including all his work on the XP pages here.

Perhaps I should be setting up my own Oufsha wiki. I thought maybe some members of this community would be interested in my ideas. I will try to trim it down. In ExtremeMeme, I am attempting to describe user stories for the technology backbone of Oufsha. I intend to describe a sample implementation. It is my hope that I could find some developers who want to play the Oufsha game by helping me implement the ExtremeMeme technology. I think this wiki is the most appropriate site to ask for help and feedback on my ideas.

Yes, I think it is too. Only talking about form, not substance.

Thank you for your feedback. I will try to refactor. However, more concrete questions about the specific bits of content might help me think more clearly.

If you make your content accessible, they will come.

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