[FM Discuss] why writing in collaboration is better

[adam hyde]

hey,

I'm just getting together some material for the FLOSS Manuals
presentation at Wikimania next month...

The topic for the presentation/discussion is 'open publishing' and I was
pondering a few issues on this, so I thought maybe it would be good to
try and gather some opinions and thoughts from the FM Community on a few
things....

First up...what are peoples thoughts about collaborative writing and the
life of a text? I have noted that in the few examples of FM manuals
which are the result of (predominantly) one author, the manuals have
less (much less) activity than manuals that started their life as
collaborative exercises.

The reasons for this are a little fuzzy, but I would say it has to do
with :
1. communities are more likely to have someone that wants to continue
the project whereas if a sole author gives up then there is no one ready
to take the wheel (very true for open source code communities, and it
appears this might have some truth for collaborative text too)
2. there is simply more potential energy coming from many people (a
community) than one person
3. communities have more porous boundaries, meaning that 'anyone' could
self-associate and start work on the manual...whereas potential
contributors may not feel they have the mandate to change sole author
works...

For me, this is really underlines the need for comprehensive text
materials, such as the manuals we develop, to start life in the hands of
a community rather than a sole author. 

I think this need is especially true of education materials because they
need to stay alive and continue to be updated/extended etc...

anyone have any thoughts on this?

adam


-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
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Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
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