This article reminds me of two experimental ~20% projects we worked on at one of my companies in the mid-2000s. Some unreleased projects age like fine wine, off

This article reminds me of two experimental ~20% projects we worked on at one of my companies in the mid-2000s. Some unreleased projects age like fine wine, offering a chance to inspire others years later. The first project was a wiki with active scripting capabilities. By “active scripting,” I mean that the wiki could execute embedded code snippets and display the results directly on the page. This concept feels somewhat akin to modern tools like Project Jupyter or Wikipedia’s feature that calculates ages and other data dynamically. The second project was more radical and linked with the first, aiming to introduce a new kind of collaborative scripting. We developed a small proof of concept (PoC) by modifying Jython [1] to enable shared namespaces among users. This allowed users to access each other’s functions, objects, streams, variables, and more—in real time—creating an experience reminiscent of the Matrix in Neuromancer [2]. All in Python. [1] https://www.jython.org/ https://www.jython.org/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer