Any Cell, Any Time

Small contributions are welcome contributions.

Context

A site written collectively and organized as a table, with threads as rows and guides, governance, and theory as columns. Contributors have limited time.

Problem

If the unit of contribution is large, such as a full set of theory, guide, and governance for one topic, only people with a lot of time can contribute. Finished work sits unpublished until the whole set is done, and the few people who can finish a set end up setting the direction for everyone.

Forces

• Good places grow piecemeal, through many small acts of building and repair (The Timeless Way of Building).
• Much of open source depends on casual contributors who make one small change and move on (Working in Public).
• What counts as a contribution, and who may make one, is a boundary and choice rule set at the collective-choice level (Understanding Institutional Diversity).

Solution

Therefore, accept a contribution to any single cell of the table at any time, without waiting for the rest of its row.

Actions

• One guide, governance piece, theory essay, or pattern counts as a contribution.
• Anyone may propose a new thread. It’s added through the project’s collective-choice rules.
• Mark empty cells as open in the table.

Consequences

• Positive: more people can contribute, and work is published sooner.
• Negative: rows fill unevenly, with three guides and no governance. The table makes that visible.