Community Interaction - Single (Accurate) Source of Information Spectrum

Basics

• An issue that Arrises in Documentation wherein:
  • On one end of the “scale” you have:
    • People posting information on ANY website
    • Also there is no Single Source of Truth (So no “go to THIS page, and that information will be accurate, up to date, and moderated etc)
    • This is VERY accessible (The person doesn’t necessarily need to know how to code/format things etc, and also don’t need Access Control / An Account etc
    • HOWEVER this can also lead to Redundancy Waste / Misleading Information etc
      • Also in the case of Wikipedia, early on lack of access control led to “vandalism”
        • HOPEFULLY OSE et all are less prone to this than some kid editing Obama’s page etc
  • On the OTHER END of the spectrum, you have:
    • Information is either mostly or ONLY posted to one place
    • There is formal Version Control
    • There is heavy moderation / access control
    • Information is easily searchable + strictly formatted
    • HOWEVER there may be less community interaction/forks due to the barrier to entry etc

External Links

• Episode 5 of the Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast was largely on this subject