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Issue 252: AI's tragedy of the commons

Welcome to ISSUE #252 of The Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams. This week: Why documentation is vital software infrastructure, making it easier for subject matter experts to contribute to your knowledge base, and tips for safely walking a dog while riding a bicycle (hint: maybe don’t).

From the blog

Tragedy of the (data) commons

Ben chats with Shayne Longpre and Robert Mahari of the Data Provenance Initiative about what GenAI means for the data commons. They discuss the decline of public datasets, the complexities of fair use in AI training, the challenges researchers face in accessing data, potential applications for synthetic data, and the evolving legal landscape surrounding AI and copyright.

Enterprise 2024.7: Empower your subject matter experts to contribute

This release introduces Subject Matter Expert (SME) Auto-Assign to the Stack Overflow for Teams experience so expert knowledge is automatically captured, verified, and distributed to users.

CEO Update: Building trust in AI is key to a thriving knowledge ecosystem

The internet and its business models are changing. Stack Overflow has been at the forefront, helping to shape the future of the web.

Agents in Production: Prosus AI Marketplace 2024 event

How are cutting-edge AI technologies – like AI Agents – solving real-world problems? We've gathered experts from Stack Overflow, Hugging Face, OpenAI, Google’s Vertex AI, Carnegie Mellon University and Sequoia Capital to discuss. On November 13, join us for this year’s Prosus Group x MLOps Community AI Marketplace 2024 virtual event to find out.

How to improve the developer experience in today’s ecommerce world

We walk through the process of designing an SDK that makes it easy for developers to integrate new technology into their e-commerce stack and is flexible enough to serve the needs of small businesses and large enterprises.

Interesting questions

PhD program but no funding?

“Run, run, run.”

Is there a safe way to walk a dog while riding a bicycle?

The question is really whether there’s a safe way to walk your dog while riding a bicycle.

When might it *not* be a good idea to reset your password immediately?

If an attacker is capable of changing your site’s code, your passwords are pretty much moot.

What is this mysterious bar in my hotel shower?

The game is a foot.

Links from around the web

Smarter than 'Ctrl+F': Linking directly to web page content

Learn how to link to specific text within a web page.

What docs as code really means

Documentation is vital software infrastructure and should be treated that way.

Where Web Components shine

Web Components have a lot of pros and cons as browser-native components, and it's good to be aware of their current state for your projects.

Engineering managers' guide to effective annual feedback

'Tis the season for performance reviews. Managers can make a huge difference for their teams if they provide feedback in a good way!


Onboard, organize, and bring your team up to speed in a jiffy. Try Stack Overflow for Teams.