Camerata: The Origins of Opera and the Future of Programming (2018)

The notion of a "camerata" (organized serendipitous space of people working towards a similar idea) is especially relevant right now, when everyone is contemplating how to work effectively in an online environment.

I've always longed for that energized environment described in renaissance salons or, more recently in tech, Xerox Parc or Bell Labs (see, for instance, "The Idea Factory"). Even the old 80s-90s Usenet groups or forums seemed to have some of this enthusiasm for innovation and new creative worlds.

There are all sorts of problems with trying to deliberately create such a space (lag, lag, lag), and there have been any number of HN posts on people working on tools for digital serendipitous collaboration.

I'm not sure what the solution will look like, but I think it will have a very convenient and responsive UI, and consist of people really invested and passionate in what they're creating.