intertwingly

Tim Bray: the Net is the greatest listening engine ever devised. These days anyone can choose, with its help, to be well-informed

Yehuda Katz: It’s easy to spit out “lmgtfy.com” or RTFM, but in truth, these beginners barely know where to look. All too often, we (open source leaders) assume that if someone couldn’t figure out the right search term on Google, they can never become a viable community member.

I claim that there is a third ingredient that makes this all work.  That ingredient is participating.  Asking smart questions is just a starting point.  Actually trying something plausible, showing intermediate results (including both successes and failures), is the best way I have found to get attract the attention of someone who can help you solve your problem.

There are a number of areas that I am an (at least local) expert on the topic.  And in each case, I started by simply trying to make something work.