10stripe's purpose
by Alex Freeman
Very often I am asked what 10stripe does. There is no obvious answer to that question. 10stripe does a great variety of things, yet I have realized that they are really permutations on the same three things. And those three things are 10stripe's purpose.
Gather. Blend. Share.
10stripes gathers information on computing topics, blends it into new and easier to understand forms, and then shares it in a variety of formats.
Gather
10stripe collects information from dozens of sources, many of them Internet-based. It seeks out the best information available from these sources, culling the most valuable bits.
The focus of 10stripe is not on the generation of original ideas. We might call that "hunting", by contrast and to draw on the classic hunter/gatherer dichotomy. Rather, 10stripe's main purpose is to draw upon the best of what others have created, collecting those things into its own cache of information.
Blend
These piles of information often arrive in hard-to-understand, conflicting forms. More often than one would hope, they strongly disagree with one another. The classic example comes from when I was assembling the original version of the Big Processor Guide. One source would indicate that a particular processor was made at 3 different clock speeds; another would indicate that the part had never existed.
The most challenging task for 10stripe is to resolve these discrepancies and to combine potentially-conflicting information to build a complete picture of the truth. This is the genesis of our quasi-official slogan, "More signal. Less noise." 10stripe takes in volumes of data, then distills it down to the most important, most accurate information possible.
Share
It is this aspect of our process that may make it appear that we do a great variety of things. We share information in a variety of forms. In our articles, in various sorts of guides, in images, in Flash, and soon in entirely new and different formats. Yet these all serve the same overriding pupose. They are vehicles to share knowledge with others.
The desire to share knowledge as effectively as possible has led to a tremendous number of changes to the site in the last year, and it will lead to many more. 10stripe is quietly taking steps to move into new venues that will make it easier for our visitors to share information with others.
Closing
I hope this page has been helpful to you.
Faithfully yours,
Alex Freeman