I was about to write an email to Mike Caulfield thanking him for his leadership of this happening. I chose to write my reflection here instead.
Mike, let me tell you that I have just again experienced this wiki as it was meant to be. I just completed Thought Soup which I couldn't have written two weeks ago. You made the place I could write it. Thank you.
I wanted to write something about the biology that has inspired me working on this wiki. My thoughts have been too vague, too experimental, too unproven to write anything acceptably formal so far.
Thought Soup did not develop into the sequence of paragraphs I set out to write. I wrote slowly. I paused to think about who might read it this afternoon and what experience they would have had over these two weeks. I grabbed and wrote bits of the analogy as they drifted by.
Thought Soup is a big and complicated idea that would be difficult to explain to anyone who has not had the experience we have had these two weeks. I hope it resonates. As speech acts go it has been good for me.
Mike, let me close this note by assuring you that I recognize the risk and effort you've invested when you asked for and got the attention of your distinguished colleagues. They've been great. -- Ward