Documentation

Content produced to pass on data, information, knowledge and know how about a process or a thing. This activity may require harvesting (a capturing mechanism), a support (digital of physical), formatting (or structuring), storage (ex. database) with an associated file format.

Documentation can also be seen as an accumulation mechanism, and is considered as a form of wealth.

Documentation is also related to the concept of adjacent possible, which is a thing that can be created by combining already existing things and perhaps adding a new ingredient to it. In the open source world this is also called remixing. The wealth of adjacent possibles is related to innovation capacity. This is one of the economic advantages of open networks that relay on open collaboration and open innovation (open source development) when compared with traditional firms or other of traditional and bureaucratic institutions. See also about the 4th Sector.

Documentation can be construed as digital assets and requires discoverability (see transparency), accessibility (see openness), portability and interactivity.

The documentation process requires methods, norms (see governance) and tools.