In the comments added to my previous post on giving an incomplete, David Harper said...
nice synthesis! Let me add one more example: O'Reilly publishes "Rough Cuts" of books while the authors are still writing them (e.g., I'm a few chapters into a book that will be published in April 2007). They aren't done. Plus the author gets feedback (in effect, the audience becomes editors). The "expert" is not production foreman, he does not need to be perfect and i don't need to wait for his perfect arrival.
Doc Searles wrote a post last year titled Ten Ideas About Ideas where he favors the participation that accompanies incompletes:
- Ideas won't change the world unless others can improve on them.
- Ideas grow by participation, not isolation.
- Ideas change as they grow. Their core remains the same, but their scope enlarges with successful use.
- Ideas have unexpected results. No one person can begin to imagine all the results of a good idea. That's another reason to welcome participation.
I suspect all of us bloggers have experienced Doc Searles' bullet points as we post, comment and get comments on our posts. As I read more of Jay's Informal Learning, I found another example of "giving an incomplete".
The offsite workshop began with two days of PowerPoint presentations in a poorly lit cavernous room. Then when the senior executives were on a coffee break, Sibbet and Wheeler taped the vision mural to the side wall .... As the executives began trickling back, they were immediately attracted to the spotlit cartoon and began congregating around it ...The energy level of the room shot up and the group became alive as they began suggesting changes and improvements. (p.124)
It occurs to me that every blog is incomplete. Nothing is the definitive final say. Many of our voices are authoritative and far from tentative, Yet everything is offered as a dress rehearsal or continual beta release. In conclusion, this post is incomplete.
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