Nothing is ever finished. Define and reach milestones

Houses are an oft used metaphor when describing achievement. Using the traditional metaphoric qualities of house construction, doing the last work on a building so that it is ready to occupy is hailed as completion. But this doesn't describe our world accurately. If we regard the act of moving into a new house as a milestone we can breathe new life into the metaphor and use it to describe the world around us more accurately. What happens when we move into a new house is countless modifications that makes living in it a better experience, until circumstances or ambitions change and a more fundamental remodeling is undertaken.

That software is never finished is an accepted truth; software version numbering schemes have become a meme in and of itself and made category jumps to other areas where major and minor version numbers proliferate.

Products are never finished. Milestone versions of products are launched on the market but product development continues, both in the lab and amongst end users.

Documents are never finished. Milestone versions become books, product specs or legal contracts. Sooner or later new editions replace old, specs are updated and improved, contracts are renegotiated.

This is a world that wikis model well. The platform allows both for gradual evolution or complete rewrites. It is easy to see what has changed and it allows multiple participants to contribute.

Will the wiki concept itself become a future metaphor for human achievement? The world is but a draft with multiple authors.

Tags: wiki draft evolution version numbers