Work In Progress

From Collaboratory

Richard Gabriel first mentioned this pattern to me over dinner with the Blue Oxen advisory board on April 8, 2003. The problem is that people sometimes feel reluctant to critique an individual's writing, or contribute to what is supposed to be a group-written piece. The solution is to write, "Work-In-Progress" on the top of each page.

I think this pattern is highly applicable to Wikis. Having "Edit This Page" on every page won't encourage the timid to actually do so. Writing "Work-In-Progress" on every page might help. Or, how about, "Please Edit This Page!"

Richard talks more generally about Work In Progress as a force in his book, Writer's Workshops and the Work of Making Things.