Clone your own

Anil Dash argues that forking is a feature, and I whole-heartedly agree. Wikis are great tool for online collaboration when the goal is to arrive at a shared understanding or common resource, but it’s important to remember that not all collaborations have this goal of converging on the One True Version. Especially with creative endeavors. The musician who refines their own version of a Bob Dylan song, the chef who “reinvents” the common cheeseburger, and the DIYer who builds an electric shoebox guitar just a little bit differently – each of them knows the joy of taking something that’s already out there, and making it their own. For me, this has been half the fun of building Studio Sketchpad: I started with Etherpad, cloned my own copy, and took it in an entirely new direction.