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(I have commented similarly on Stephen's Web) As "Deepthroat" said, "Follow the money". Blackboard's major shareholders include Federated Investors, the Carlyle Group and Oak Hill Capital Partners. These firms are very close to the Whitehouse and are among the biggest corporate and individual donors to the Republican Party and the Bush family. Although I usually favour cock-up to conspiracy, the Bb patent skirmish is, maybe, an important little battle in the hearts-and-minds war. Read here. And, that "rural East Texas Jurisdiction" in which the suit against D2L was filed is, possibly, part of the game.

I think that the way Wikipedia is currently being developed, the general principle of your argument is pretty sound. And of course the idea of wikis as development tools -- almost like dynamic research notebooks -- is irresistible. Two issues. I'm with you on topics that are useful to (some) folk, or are important public interest topics (eg Bb prior art). There is of course a line to be drawn between public statement and private drafting for private audiences: the problem for a writer is often when to go public with one's addition to a stub or entry.

The other issue is raised by your helpful outline of what would have happened 'pre-social-computing days'. The most time-consuming stage is undoubtedly 'struggled to make sense of what they'd been sent', precisely because the communications pattern at this point is many drafts converging on one person. Whereas the social software version is many persons converging on one draft: much more efficient, and more focused on the text as object. One of the reasons why f2f drafting sessions can be inefficient is that the meeting itself (through social chat, intentions of writers ill thought-through, or clashing personalities) can be too person-focused rather than object-oriented.

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