| III. One solution: the guarantee of existence
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One solution is to enable authors to make reliable statements about the availability of information during the creation of texts. The point is to not only indicate author, copyright owner, publishing date in the metadata of a piece of information but also how long the information will be available at the very same address. It is a matter of commitment on the part of the publisher who guarantees not to delete the information until a certain deadline has expired. 
Two things are important for the concept in order to work properly: Firstly, the assigned guarantee needs to be clearly visible. Secondly, it needs to be obvious which information the guarantee belongs to. Furthermore, the guarantee needs to be trusted. Trust in a guarantee of existence is dependant on the credibility of the organisation or institution behind as well as reasonable, transparent systematics for assigning guarantees of existence.
If credibility and systematics are accepted by authors and readers, the precondition of reliable availability of information mentioned above is fulfilled. Combined with referencing, information can be reliably integrated in a developing environment in order to turn it into a long-lasting knowledge resource. The basis for efficient online collaboration is provided.
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