openediting

Open editing is a collaborative content model in which most or all users can propose edits to articles, documents, or other material. Edits are saved as revisions and are typically visible in a public history, with changes evaluated against site rules or community guidelines.

The concept is closely associated with wiki platforms that emerged in the 1990s and became widely known through projects such as Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Wikiversity. Many organizations also deploy open-edit wikis for documentation, knowledge bases, or collaborative projects, sometimes with varying levels of access control on specific pages.

How open editing works varies by platform but generally involves users submitting changes, editors reviewing proposed edits, and editors or automated systems confirming or reverting alterations. Common policies emphasize verifiability, neutrality, and respect for copyright. To reduce abuse, sites may implement measures such as page protection, requiring registration, or automated vandalism filters.

Governance in open editing communities relies on talk pages, guidelines, and dispute-resolution processes. Experienced editors and designated administrators enforce standards, while the revision history provides transparency about how content evolved and who contributed.

Strengths of open editing include rapid content growth, broad input, and self-correcting mechanisms as communities monitor changes. Challenges include vandalism, bias, uneven quality, and the need for ongoing moderation and governance to balance openness with reliability.

Licensing for open-edited content is typically free and reusable under open licenses, which require attribution and, often, share-alike terms. This facilitates redistribution and adaptation across platforms while maintaining author credit.

Overall, open editing has shaped how collaborative knowledge is created online, enabling large, diverse contributions while requiring thoughtful moderation and clear governance to maintain quality.