[okfn-discuss] Collaborative Development of Data

Mon Feb 26 23:05:41 UTC 2007

Benj. Mako Hill wrote:
> Well... Wikis have only been successful with versioning. I've worked on
> wikis without versioning (or with partial version). The community found
> them unworkable and eventually switched to something else. 
>   
I'd guess (and this theory ought to be testable) that versioning gives 
people the confidence they need to delete stuff.  Otherwise they leave 
it all at the old stuff bottom of the page until everyone forgets that 
no one wants it.  According to this, the effect of having versioning 
goes far beyond the amount that it is actually used (if ever).  So it's 
kind of like a climbing rope: it allows you to take risks even though 
you might never use it by falling on it. 

Julian T.