Dear BJS,
It has been a year now I decided to rediscover your work started already more than half a generation ago.
At this time of Christmas 2019 and just before Covid, I was remembering with nostalgy the early days of OpenGL (@Microsoft: sry about that. I also remember DirectX as the first and for a time only method to bring ‘useable’ 3D to the digital world)… I was remembering the early days of Photoshop (yes, I know, I’m that old;), the early days of css, of video creativity (with tools such as Final cut), 3D creativity (with Maya, C4D and later Sketch and Blender) - The early days of Unity that first tried to bring our ‘gamers’ vision of a digital relation’ to the commercial Internet after 2 decades inspiring and sandboxing the ‘human2digital’ interaction; this was already 12+ years ago.
Today, I can say that BJS in 2020 (and overall WebGL/WebGL2) has been a ‘digital life saver’ for me (at least, for my business life with the digital). Nothing less, nothing more.
In 2019 and after 25+ years of service attempting to build a commercial digital relation and next a ‘customer/user experience’, and next ‘Digital transformation & Governance’, I was really thinking of starting to grow potatoes in my backyard to make a living;) In truth, I was just so sick and tired from the 2 previous decades of a formatted Internet and Communications, raised as a fortress in the middle of a huge and inhospitable digital jungle, I was really thinking of taking an early digital retreat and simply pillage the resources and secure my playground on my own little and very secret digital island. I still love the idea… but only the idea or the idea of an idea;)
In reality, you don’t want to be alone in this world, in this digital world. Our best chance for survival and growth/expansion is to collaborate with others.
Here are my thoughts and wishes for 2021 and beyond,
We need a new Internet. We need a new digital relation and We need a new digital governance. This is not an Evolution; this is a Revolution. A cultural revolution. A new stage in ideology and governance, Digital Governance. New ways for us to interact and communicate with others, with the hierarchy, the community. New ways to create and sustain ‘a purpose’ for the time we spend from our (still limited!) human lives settling and trying to make a living in a foreign dimension: the digital dimension.
The older format of governance model(s) and ideology(ies) is/are no longer sustainable with science and the digital and therefor, will not remain. I can state this loud and clear.
Now, those with the power, the resources && the ‘early-vision strategy’ have already started harvesting ‘the boost’ from this neo-ideology revolution. An enormous boost.
It’s time for all of us to react. It’s more than time to start debate, confront, (constrain, commit or convert),… in short,: more than time we understand the digital and next, take immediate action.
What we want - what We should all want - is a New Deal! …All ideological and governance ®evolution come/came with a ‘new deal’.
Where ‘Science’ has returned to a better understanding of Nature (or ‘the source’) and since then, never evolved as fast and strong as when ‘teaming-up with Nature’; Culture and Governance, under the pressure of Commerce/economy, has been simply ‘lagging’ or/& ‘soaking out the most of it’, just before the end. I don’t think ever in the history of Modern Civilization(s) we had such a distance between ‘science’ evolution and ‘culture/governance’. And yet, with the challenge of Covid, the only action ‘We’ (or our governments) found appropriate to do was to shut down all places of cultural and social interaction. Except for the digital, of course. A digital realm mainly ruled with the format of social media and under governance of the GAFA(M)s.
Now, some of you (incl. @necips
) might ask yourself, what does this have to do with BJS? Well, everything in my opinion.
The digital and the Internet cannot be any longer considered as a simple ‘sandbox’. Not if we are to use ‘the Digital’ as our primary source for Governance and Communications.
The architecture, the framework, the approach, the method, the sourcing, the dependencies, the routines… we use when acting in the digital world are not ‘innocent’.
We, people from The Digital, have our share of responsibility when we use (collaborate, share, push, adhere to…) one or the other.
The ‘alliances’ we make, the ‘values’ we carry and showcase through the digital, the level of ‘control’ we want to keep or are willing to delegate,… all of these parts have an existence and a meaning in the digital, as they have in the real world. We just can no longer deny or elude this aspect.
And for those who’d like to know who I am, who I really am, I’ll give you my moto:
‘Tell me how you play and I’ll tell you who you are’.
Want to know how I play?
I play BJS, C4D, PSD, Blender, OpenGL, FinalCut, Unity, Campaign Monitor… I ‘play’ on all vectors/Os/Mediums, but I don’t trust any. I ‘play’ the tools, apps and games that let me 1) Discover, learn/explore and ‘win’ my own way. 2) Express myself 3) Be challenged and/or team-up with the app, game or community or AI to finally achieve ‘victory’ (milestone or objective).
I don’t play the games I can’t win/control/understand.
I always dispatch my skill points in all abilities (with this. creating a coordinator, PM or ‘spec ops’ /adventurer profile, with versatility and agility). With this profile, I always end-up exploring the entire map/project, harvest all I can from it and try to perform in all side quests, while always keeping the final objective in mind and sight. Being just above average in nearly everything, I also plan my strategy well in advance and try to select/use the appropriate tactic/method and… I always watch ‘my six’. This is how I play. And this is also how I like to ‘play’ BJS.
Happy 2021, BJS Community.
Stay safe 
, stay healthy 
and stay Digital 
,