Nobody will disagree, the Wikis, Weblogs and Mailing Lists are all very effective communication methods to make a loose group of people to work on a common topic. It‘s just pretty difficult to choose the right tool for the right operation as all have strength and weaknesses.

In a talk a ETCON 2004, Sam Ruby has given a review of lessons learned in the open development process of Atom and makes some very helpful comments and statements. I generally agree with his conclusions, like these:

• Use Wikis as common workspaces.  Polls, and any discussions where there is a desire to „sign“ ones name should be done on mailing lists.
• Mailing lists should be used for new discussions.  Revisiting and revising should be done on a wiki.
• Weblogs for summaries, progress reports, and to highlight areas of current focus