2008/11/15 Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86(a)comcast.net>et>:
Most often a project or organization does not fail due
to some catastrophic
happening from without; these they are prepared for and can defend against.
What does prove to be its final undoing is a corrosion of its product &
culture from within. To put it plainly: The product this Project is putting
out has become incredibly sloppy, both in content and presentation. There
are clear symptoms, and if detected and corrected soon enough, such a
collapse can be prevented. I sense a hubris regarding the Project that is
disturbing; and can ultimately prove to be its undoing.
A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (Clay Shirky):
http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html
Note that Wikipedia is given as an example of a group that had evaded
this. Oh well.
In open source software, forking usually remedies the problem, with
possible remerging. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(software_development) .
- d.