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+In June of 2005, I finished reading 
+<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006099486X/qid=1118686905/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-3489889-4045537">"The Professor and the Madman"</a> 
+by Simon Winchester, 
+which is an intriguing story of two significant contributors to the 
+<a href="http://www.oed.com/">Oxford English Dictionary</a>, or OED.  I
+first heard this book mentioned in an interview on the
+<a href="http://www.charlierose.com/">Charlie Rose</a> show, and it 
+sounded interesting, so I bought a paperback copy,
+and it was indeed an interesting read.
+
+I wrote these thoughts down then, but neglected to post them until now.  That
+was likely in part because others beat me to the punch.  In particular, I 
+think I remember listening to a presentation by 
+[Nat Friedman](http://nat.org) on the topic at around that time.  In any
+case, I stumbled today over the text I wrote back then, and thought the words
+were still worth sharing.
+
+The most interesting thing I learned in reading this book wasn't
+actually about the principal characters, but instead involves a speech given
+by 
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chenevix_Trench">
+       Richard Chenevix Trench</a>
+to the Philological Society, 
+entitled "On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries."  This
+is the talk that eventually led to the creation of the OED, and the intriguing
+bit to me is an idea Trench proposed that was new at the time, but absolutely
+fundamental to the Open Source & Linux world today.  Trench well understood 
+that an undertaking of such magnitude as compilation
+of an exhaustive dictionary of the English language, detailing the history
+and lifetime of each word illustrated with many example of usage from existing
+literature, could never be accomplished by one individual.  Instead, he 
+proposed explicitly involving a large group of unpaid volunteer 
+contributors.  Winchester claims that while this may sound obvious today, 
+that this idea had never been put forward before for such an undertaking.
+
+Absolutely brilliant.
+
+As an up-close observer of the evolution of the community approach to software
+development and maintenance, I couldn't help but draw connections.  We are 
+today engaged in an equally grand effort that may well have an 
+enduring impact, that fundamentally would not be possible to 
+accomplish without the contributions of an astoundingly diverse array of
+unpaid volunteer contributors...
+
+[[!tag tags/books]]