J.W. Verret Starts Open-Source Article Writing Project on SEC Rulemaking

Here's how Verret describes open-source article writing:

By that I mean blogging about an article idea and updating it as I progress.  Some say it’s a bad plan…people might steal your ideas, or maybe you expose yourself to the possibility of being wrong.  I don’t think it’s an issue, particularly if readers take my musings in the rough-and-tumble blogging spirit.  If you think I have interpreted a provision incorrectly, great. Email me and tell me why.  Better that you send me a case I missed than I learn about it after the article is published.

He then goes on to outline a project to define what he describes as the four guiding principles of securities regulation as set forth in the National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996: (1) investor protection, (2) efficiency, (3) competition, and (4) capital formation.  You can read the full post here.

I agree with Joan Heminway (as she states in a comment to the post) that the project is certainly a worthy one.  However, I am even more excited to watch the open-source article writing process itself, since I think there could be all sorts of interesting offshoots from that project that could improve collaboration, interdisciplinary work, and the overall utility of our scholarly works.

SJP