| The open source movement has established over the last decade a new collaborative approach, uniquely adapted to the Internet, to develop high-quality informational products. Initially, its exclusive application was the development of software (Linux is among its most prominent projects). Increasingly, we can observe this collaborative approach being applied to areas beyond the coding of software.;In this technique, knowledge has to be established through the tentative process of consensus building. The core of this process was reviewed. The specifics of the reviewing process are variable, the basic principle is universal. Consensus cannot be imposed---it has to be reached. Of course, everything is not really equal, not all voices carry the same weight. The opinions of those people with earned reputations carry more weight. Since reputations must be accumulated over time, those authoritative voices tend to come from established members of the group. |
