release early release often

release early release often _as a publication method_

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Release early, release often (also: time-based releases, sometimes abbreviated RERO) is a software development philosophy that emphasizes the importance of early and frequent releases in creating a tight feedback loop between developers and testers or users, contrary to a feature-based release strategy. Advocates argue that this allows the software development to progress faster, enables the user to help define what the software will become, better conforms to the users' requirements for the software,^[1] and ultimately results in higher quality software.^[2] The development philosophy attempts to eliminate the risk of creating software that no one will use.^[3]

This philosophy was popularized by Eric S. Raymond in his 1997 essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar, where Raymond stated "Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers".^[4]

This philosophy was originally applied to the development of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, but has also been applied to closed source, commercial software development.

The alternative to the release early, release often philosophy is aiming to provide only polished, bug-free releases.^[5] Advocates of RERO question that this would in fact result in higher-quality releases.^[4]

The aim of publication is to get accurate, reliable information out into the working community as quickly as is possible so it can change work methods and approaches. The current methods of peer review that are based in the old print journal tradition are not really useful in the digital age. The publishing houses are trying to consolidate their grip on digital content so you have to access the most up to date content from behind a “pay wall”. For those of us in the heritage community this leads to the dumbing down of our practice as we loose access to the latest data and discussions. We and up with “Haves" and "Have-nots”. Those with access to data and those who have no access.
If we look at the software industry we can see it is divided into the propriety software that exists behind a “paywall” of propriety secrets  and the open source which is often free ($) and to which you have access to the source code under a GPL licence.
Heritage information should be like this. Free and Open.
Ok so why "release early release often _as a publication method_” ?
Well if you are “publishing” on a public platform such as a wiki or a semi public blog that requires membership you can publish several versions and ask for peer comment between each version. This way you can get the information out in a timely way and also have some review method. Yes most will take your publication at face value or just mutter polite nothings behind your back. But also you will get some real useful critiques. Oh and a bit of daft spam!
I will be adopting this method with my recent Oxides work. Enjoy and please critique. Oh you will have to sign in - reduces spam :-)