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| − | {{MWW}} | + | {{legacy}} |
| − | {{info
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| − | |This article is being merged with [[MediaWiki workshop]]
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| − | }} | |
| | ==Presentation== | | ==Presentation== |
| | ===Intro 2 min=== | | ===Intro 2 min=== |
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| | **Blog | | **Blog |
| | How many of you have heard about a Blog? (some of these terms sound like a 3 year old talking! Did you read my blog about google? Do you think google googled my blog yet? ) | | How many of you have heard about a Blog? (some of these terms sound like a 3 year old talking! Did you read my blog about google? Do you think google googled my blog yet? ) |
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| − | *optional: show blog vs. wiki video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4
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| | *Wiki | | *Wiki |
| | Examples | | Examples |
| | Wikipedia | | Wikipedia |
| | | | |
| − |
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| − | ===How to ===
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| − | *Register,
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| − | *Edit,
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| − | *Watch
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| − | *User Preferences
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| − | *Notification
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| | ===So, to recap… === | | ===So, to recap… === |
| | *Wiki takes you out of the arm chair and puts you in the pilots seat | | *Wiki takes you out of the arm chair and puts you in the pilots seat |
| − | *A wiki is the easiest way to add what you know to a place where other people care about what you care about. | + | *A wiki is the easiest way to add what you know to a place where other people care about what you care about. |
| − | *Wiki puts an “Edit” button on the intenet. | + | *Wiki puts an “Edit” button on the Internet. |
| | *Wikis put everyone on the same page. Literally. | | *Wikis put everyone on the same page. Literally. |
| | *Wikis are one of the many imperfect way to address communication issues. Blogs are another. | | *Wikis are one of the many imperfect way to address communication issues. Blogs are another. |
| − | which do you think is better?
| + | *Which do you think is better? Optional: Show blog vs. wiki video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4 |
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| | ===Open up for questions…=== | | ===Open up for questions…=== |
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| | we don’t know where this is headed… | | we don’t know where this is headed… |
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| | *A paradigm shift: | | *A paradigm shift: |
| − | **Open Source-anyone can make improvements. Example- | + | **Open Source - anyone can make improvements. Example- |
| | ***internet itself | | ***internet itself |
| | ***OpenOffice | | ***OpenOffice |
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| | *What might be any reason not to bother using it? | | *What might be any reason not to bother using it? |
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| − | === History ===
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| − | *[[w:Web 2.0|Web 2.0]] refers to the second generation of web services that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. It is the business revolution in the computer industry using the internet as a medium to harness the collective intelligence of users. As more people that use the network, the collective intelligence accordingly increases.
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| − | *[[w:Ward Cunningham|Ward Cunningham]] invented the first wiki in 1994. It was originally named ''[[w:wikiwikiweb|wikiwikiweb]]'' by Cunningham, who took a "Wiki Wiki" (fast taxi) [[w:Chance RT-52|Chance RT-52]] shuttle bus line that runs between Honolulu International airport's terminals. [[Image:Wikiwiki.jpg|200px|right]]
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| − |
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| − | In essence, a wiki is a simplification of the process of creating web content (articles) combined with a system that records each individual change that occurs over time, so that at any time, an article can be reverted to any of its previous states.
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| | === Why should I care? === | | === Why should I care? === |
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| | *Some big companies: Nokia, Yahoo, Michelin, etc. | | *Some big companies: Nokia, Yahoo, Michelin, etc. |
| | *heard of wikipedia? one of the highest trafficked sites on the internet. | | *heard of wikipedia? one of the highest trafficked sites on the internet. |
| − | **random page
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| | | | |
| | ==== Readers ==== | | ==== Readers ==== |
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| | *'''Web server:''' The web server paradigm doesn't fit with the new paradigm, it's inefficient on bandwidth and creates reliance on corporate sponsorship and donations rather than utilising the resources of the client-base. | | *'''Web server:''' The web server paradigm doesn't fit with the new paradigm, it's inefficient on bandwidth and creates reliance on corporate sponsorship and donations rather than utilising the resources of the client-base. |
| | In the future, we can expect to see the wiki methodology showing up in the [[w:p2p|peer to peer]] application arena which is currently still in its infancy and contains only static files rather than dynamic applicational content such as collaboration tools. | | In the future, we can expect to see the wiki methodology showing up in the [[w:p2p|peer to peer]] application arena which is currently still in its infancy and contains only static files rather than dynamic applicational content such as collaboration tools. |
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| − | == Basic wiki usage ==
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| − | General layout, personal tools, editing etc
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| − |
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| − | === Creating an account ===
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| − | *prefs
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| − | *policies: login-to-edit, login-to-view
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| − |
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| − | === Creating new pages ===
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| − | There are three main ways to create a new article:
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| − | *Type it into the search box, then if it doesn't already exist a "create this article" link is shown
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| − | *Type it in to your browser, eg. http://awg.energyalternatives.co.nz/my-new-article then click "edit" as usual
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| − | *If you create a link in another article which goes to a non-existent article, the link will show up red indicating that clicking on it will create it. eg. [[an example non-existent article]]
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| − |
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| − | === Editing ===
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| − | *General: edit and view, toolbar, quick keys and link to cheatsheet on edit page - opens in new window
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| − | *Preview
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| − | *Edit summary
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| − | **Use links in edit summaries
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| − | *Minor edit
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| − | *Reverting edits
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| − | *Edit conflicts
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| − |
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| − | ==== Headings & sections ====
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| − | *levels
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| − | *magic: NOTOC, NOEDITSECTION
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| − |
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| − | ==== Links ====
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| − | *'''Links'''
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| − | *URLs
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| − | *Piped links
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| − | *Interwiki linking
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| − | *Footnotes (References)
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| − |
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| − | ==== Common formatting ====
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| − | *Lists
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| − | *Tables
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| − | *Images & file uploads
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| − | *see [[cheatsheet]]
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| − |
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| − | == Collaboration ==
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| − | *general: good summaries with links to relevent articles
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| − | *For the most part we should just link to existing docs for these general concepts, but add our own points which are specific to wiki organisation and development.
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| − |
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| − | === Article History ===
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| − | As discussed in the introduction, every edit made to an article is stored in the database (as an item called a ''revision''). This means that one can view any article as it was at any point in time since it's original creation. If user's are in the habit of making good meaningful ''edit summaries'' then the history tells a detailed story of the articles creation and progress. The history of an article can be viewed from the "history" link at the top of the page when viewing an article. The link takes one to a ''special page'' which lists the last 50 (or 100, 250 or 500 depending on preferences etc) revisions of the article in question with the most recent at the top.
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| − | Diff
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| − | Historical items and differences between them all have specific URL's so they can be referred to from other documents
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| − | One useful feature of this is that articles which undergo a lot of change such as ongoing discussions or todo lists can be kept current without needing to archive any old content, out of date items can just be removed and then referred to from the history if needed.
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| − | When using a wiki for organisational purposes (i.e. not only for managing content, but also for [[workflow]] and [[collaboration]]), article history brings two extremely important aspects into the system. Firstly it provides an '''audit trail''' for all changes made to important documents such as contracts, job details, operating procedures etc.
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| − | Any articles which are ongoing works in progress can be difficult to get back in to after a long period of focussing on other work. If edit summaries have been maintained well, then the history provides an excellent means of re familiarising ones self with the most recent activity.
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| − |
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| − | === Changes ===
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| − | There are other special pages in the wiki which display the historical information for many articles instead of just the currently viewed one. These are similar in look to the history of a single article, except that there's also a "title" column in the table to indicate the article to which each revision in the applies.
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| − |
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| − | The ''recent changes'' special page displays the list of revisions which apply to any article in the wiki. The ''watchlist'' special page displays them only for the articles which the current user has added to their ''watch list'' (the user can manage their watch list by click "watch" or "unwatch" from the links at the top of the page). And the ''contributions'' special page is the same but only listing revisions made by a particular user.
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| − |
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| − | === Discussion ===
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| − | *Talk pages, user-talk pages
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| − |
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| − | == Organising content & work ==
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| − | *finding information: search, changes, contribs etc
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| − | *general organisation of content using navigation lists and trees
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| − |
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| − | === Redirects (move) ===
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| − |
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| − | === Categories ===
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| − | *also tagging
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| − | A '''category''' is a software feature of MediaWiki. Pages that have <tt>Category:</tt> at the beginning of their name (eg. <tt><nowiki></nowiki></tt> represent a so-called '''category''', a kind of grouping of related articles. When a page belongs to one or more categories, this information appears at the bottom of the page.
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| − |
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| − | The page of the category contains text that can be edited, like any other page, but when displaying the page, the last part of what is displayed is an automatically generated, alphabetical list of all pages in that category, in the form of links.
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| − | Any page that can be edited can be put in a category by adding a category link to the page (usually at the beginning or end so they can be seen easily), e.g.:
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| − | <nowiki>[[</nowiki>Category:''Category name'']]
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| − | This lists the page on the appropriate category page automatically and also provides a link at the bottom of the page to the category page, which is in the namespace "Category". Pages can be included in more than one category by adding multiple category links. These links do not appear at the location where you inserted the tag, but at the bottom of the page. Category links may be placed anywhere in the article, although they are typically added to the beginning or the end of the page to avoid undesirable text display side effects, and to make them easier to find and edit.
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| − | New categories can be created and edited in the same way as any other regular page, but when displayed, an automatically generated, alphabetical list of all pages in that category appears at the bottom.
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| − |
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| − | ==== See also ====
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| − | *[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Category Wikipedia's category help]
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| − | *For a complete list of categories, see [[Special:Categories]]
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| − |
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| − | === Namespaces ===
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| − |
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| − | === Workflow ===
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| − | *Roles
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| − | *Projects/job categories: proposed, authorised, current, complete
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| − |
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| − | == Advanced wiki concepts ==
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| − | === Security ===
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| − | The MediaWiki software was designed from the outset with openness in mind and for this reason not much consideration went into the design with respect to content restriction. The general problem with implementing a proper security solution is that although most of the actions one can perform on articles can be restricted easily, the ability to '''read''' content cannot be easily restricted on a per-title basis. The reason reading is difficult to restrict is because it's an operation which is not just performed via one action, but rather that many different actions, special-pages and extensions access article content and display it in diverse ways. To make matters worse, many of these diverse means of article access are done by querying the database directly rather than going via the Article class.
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| − | To allow restrictions on the reading of article content requires a hook at a very low-level in the programming which is common to all the kinds of operations involved in the retrieving of article content. We use the [[MW:Extension:SimpleSecurity|SimpleSecurity extension]] which adds these low-level hooks into the code dynamically and uses them to extend the native MediaWiki permissions system to include a "read" action in the restrictions list. Following is a description of the specific functionalities which are added or extended and how to use them.
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| − | ==== "Read" restriction added to protect tab ====
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| − | It seems that the main code-base development won't have a solution to the read problem for some time, but the current method of article protection already allows for restricting edit, create and move actions by group, and allows for the possibility of other actions to be handled, so the approach that Simple Security 4 has taken is to add a new restriction to the existing protection page called ''read'' which you can see in the images below which show the protection page with and without Simple Security installed.
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| − |
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| − | {|
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| − | !Protection form without SimpleSecurity
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| − | !
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| − | !Protection form with SimpleSecurity
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| − | |-
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| − | |[[Image:Protection form without Simple Security.png|400px]]
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| − | |
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| − | |[[Image:Protection form with Simple Security.png|400px]]
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| − | |}
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| − |
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| − | The image on the right shows the additional '''read''' restriction has become available. Also the tick-box which is used to allow adjustment of the restrictions individually is changed to be more general so it will be appropriate for any number of additional restrictions.
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| − |
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| − | ==== Extra groups added to protection tab ====
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| − | To have extra groups available in the select box for each action (like "Security test group" in the picture above), add them to the ''$wgSecurityExtraGroups'' array in your LocalSettings.php file, for example:
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| − | <source lang=php>
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| − | $wgSecurityExtraGroups = array(
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| − | 'foo' => 'Foo group',
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| − | 'bar' => 'Bar group'
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| − | );
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| − | </source>
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| − | The index should be the internal name of a group (as seen in the user rights special page etc), and the value is a more friendly name shown in the protection form. There should not be any actions specified in that array it's just for adding groups into the protection form.
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| − |
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| − | In Mediwaiki 1.13.x you can only assign extra groups that you belong to. Extra groups that you do not belong to will show up as blanks in the group selection boxes. ([[Extension talk:SimpleSecurity#$wgSecurityExtraGroups in MW 1.13|disc]])
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| − |
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| − | ==== Restriction by category & namespace ====
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| − | Category-based permissions are now be handled from [[Manual:LocalSettings.php|LocalSettings.php]] for efficiency reasons and will not inherit more than a single level. Namespace permissions are now also be supported, both will be defined in the ''$wgPageRestrictions'' array which uses a format as follows:
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| − | <source lang=php>
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| − | $wgPageRestrictions['Category:Foo']['action1'] = array('group1', 'group2');
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| − | $wgPageRestrictions['Namespace:Bar']['action2'] = 'group3';
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| − | </source>
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| − | This example restricts article in [[:Category:Foo]] such that only members of groups ''group1'' and ''group2'' can perform "action1". And "action2" can only be performed by ''group3'' for all articles in the "Bar" namespace.
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| − |
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| − | Restrictions set in ''$wgPageRestrictions'' can be overridden by those in the article's ''protect'' tab.
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| − |
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| − | ==== Security-based conditions ====
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| − | SimpleSecurity adds two parser-functions for rendering content conditionally based on security permissions or group membership. Here's a couple of examples,
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| − | <pre>
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| − | {{#ifusercan:edit|Main page|Check the homepage editing [[todo list]]!|check the [[latest news]]!}}
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| − | </pre>
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| − | This example renders a link to a todo list if the user has permission to edit the main page, otherwise a link to the news is rendered instead.
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| − | <pre>
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| − | {{#ifgroup:sysop|Check the homepage editing [[todo list]]!|check the [[latest news]]!}}
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| − | </pre>
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| − | Here's the same example again, but this time the conditions is whether or not the user belongs to the ''sysop'' group. A comma separated list of groups can be used for the group parameter in which case the condition will evaluate to true if the current user belongs to any of the groups in the list.
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| − | ;Notes
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| − | *The last parameter is optional and defaults to an empty string if not supplied
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| − | *The [[MW:Extension:TreeAndMenu|TreeAndMenu extension]] can be used with these options since it doesn't render nodes with no content
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| − |
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| − | ==== Security information ====
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| − | Articles which exhibit restrictions either from the ''protect'' tab or from ''$wgPageRestrictions'' can optionally have the information displayed by setting the ''$wgSecurityRenderInfo'' global variable to ''true''. A link will be rendered entitled ''Security information'' which when clicked will reveal (or hide) the list of restrictions exhibited by the article. The show/hiding link is of the CSS id ''security-info-toggle'', and the list of restrictions is contained in a ''div'' of id ''security-info'', so a custom style can easily be applied by adding some CSS rules to your [[MediaWiki:Common.css]] article. For example the following rule gives a border and background to the listed rules when they are visible.
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| − | <source lang=css>
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| − | #security-info-toggle {
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| − | background: transparent url(/wiki/skins/monobook/lock_icon.gif) no-repeat scroll left center;
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| − | padding-left: 16px;
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| − | }
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| − | #security-info {
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| − | border: 1px solid #ccc;
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| − | background: #eee;
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| − | }
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| − | </source>
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| − |
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| − | ==== Unreadable links ====
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| − | ''Still has some bugs to iron out''
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| − | If the <tt>$wgSecurityAllowUnreadableLinks</tt> global is set to ''false'' (default), then links to local articles which the current user does not have permission to read are rendered as plain text rather than a hyperlink.<div class=visualClear></div>
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| − | [[Image:Unreadable links.png]]<div class=visualClear></div>
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| − | The image above shows a small fragment of a recent changes list. Notice that the ''Sandbox'' article title and its ''diff'' and ''hist'' show up grey and are not links, their style can be set in CSS by addressing the ''unreadable'' class attribute.
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| − |
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| − | === Using HTML and CSS in articles ===
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| − | *and other non-wiki content like SWF and Media
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| − |
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| − | === Dynamic variables & functions ===
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| − | *magic words
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| − | *parser functions
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| − | *parameters, named and numeric
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| − |
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| − | === Templates & transclusion ===
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| − | *syntax, default namespace
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| − | *using parameters with templates
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| − | *named parameters (and the affect on parameters with "=" in the value)
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| − |
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| − | === Skinning ===
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| − | *User wiki skins
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| − | *Web skins
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| − | *Skinning methods, incl. [[wikitext skin]]
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| − | *OD template skins to work from in flouzo site - we should make these into a proper portfolio of options along with robs skins
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| − |
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| − | === Notes ===
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| − | *Characters
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| − | *Sandbox
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| − | *Legal issues for editors (copyright)
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| − |
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| − | === What is the strength of wiki ===
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| − | *Collaborative writing using easily accessible protocols such as [[wikipedia:Hypertext Transfer Protocol|http]], and [[Wikipedia:https|https]]
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| − | *History and change control through a simple interface
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| − | *Articles link to each other analogous to a neural network
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| − | *[[Wiki workflow|Workflow]] organisation of articles in a [[Wikipedia:Tuple space|tuple space]] using templates and categorization (see also [[Wikipedia:Set|set theory]])
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| − | *"Google Search"...find relevant information instantly
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| − | *A wiki's functionality is only limited by the programming skills and financial/time resources of the person who implements it.
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| − | *Simple compact backup via database backend
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| − |
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| − | === Limits of wiki ===
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| − | *Currently http protocol corrupted post requests can cause loss of upoaded data -use client side editors
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| − | *Doesn't handle numerical information particularly well - partial solution [[Wikipedia:Help:Table|Help:Table]]
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| − | *GIGO
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| − | *only as good as the structure that you set up
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| − | **you have to actively participate. Wiki will become bigger and better the more you feed it and pet it.
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| − | **if you find a mistake, FIX IT! (bonus/incentives? they are all tracked)
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| − | *you have to use it for it to be useful.
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| − | *only as good as the search engine behind it (ours is good, see below)
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| − | *The number one complaint I hear is "I can't find it" on the wiki.
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| − | **If you can't find it, its not there,
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| − | **If it is not there, do something about it.
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| − | ***Don't expect it to get there by itself
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| − | ***Let somebody know, immediately. You spending a minute now will save an hour later.
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| − | **Use the following Search Tips to increase your skills
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| − | ***searching...must be >= 4 characters
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| − | *Currently Built for Writers, not Readers-How this Affects a Small Company
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| − | *spell check, formatting, producing documents, etc.
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| − | **not designed for that--''yet''.
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| − | **Can be called Naval Gazing
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| − | ***but things that are measured, improve.
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| − | *counter intuitive to write a sentence describing changing a simple spelling mistake.
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| − | *need to use "markup" (wiki or html) to create documents
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| − | **this will go away as programming continues to progress towards natural language.
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| − |
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| − | === How ===
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| − | *How would this look look explained as a diagram?
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| − | :: <font color="gray"> ''Visualize a neural network of key value pairs where key=Article name, value=content, and associations linking article content to other articles</font>
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| − |
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| − | === Other concepts ===
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| − | *Wiki space versus filesystem (hierarchical rooted tree)
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| − |
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| − | == Wiki Organisation ==
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| − | The modern concept of an organisational system is ideally suited to a wiki environment. For example a category-based workflow model like Wikipedia use is essentially a simple means of implementing the [[w:Blackboard system|blackboard system]]. Semantic MediaWiki in conjunction with Semantic Forms brings a new level of "web3" structure to the article environemnt. By combining this structural aspect with a spreadsheet-like way of selecting lists of structured articles and editing their proeprties, the wiki environment will be able to support a flexible system of organisation encompassing workflow, scheduling and automation and will be able to integrate more tightly with foreign applications.
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| − |
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| − | The specific structure we have in mind is to structure the workflow categories as a tree of organisational activity which covers the whole organisation for example
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| − |
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| − | :''organisation → departments → roles → procedures''
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| − |
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| − | This is the tree of active working components from highest to lowest scale. Each of these components is represented by an article which acts as its "home page" and contains dynamic lists of their current work, research, messages and other specific resources. Instead of being viewed in the style of a category page, workspaces are more appropriately rendered as a list like a spreadsheet or email inbox, the items of which can be sorted, filtered, queried and properties edited in-place, including mass-updates.
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| − |
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| − | === Ontology ===
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| − | The basic structure of the generic wiki organisation system is an '''ontology''' representing the organisation as a whole. The organisation is divided up according to its departments/divisions and/or roles and maybe into various branch offices etc. We then have a number of '''classes''' which are the aspects such as ''resources'', ''people'', ''places'', ''procedures'' and ''best practices'' which appear in various places throughout that tree. The individual items contained within the occurrences of the classes throughout the tree may change dynamically as work flows through the system and are made accessible through department/role '''portals''' which have specific information as well as creating a dynamically queried '''portlet''' for each of the classes within its context. The ontology is shown in the wiki's sidebar tree and goes down to the level of the classes within the departments/roles, the dynamic items within those are only shown in the portals which are linked to from the department/role nodes in the tree.
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| − |
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| − | === Workflow ===
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| − | {{:wiki workflow summary}}
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| − |
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| − | === Scheduling and time management ===
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| − |
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| − | === Reports ===
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Legacy: This article describes a concept that has been superseded in the course of ongoing development on the Organic Design wiki. Please do not develop this any further or base work on this concept, this is only useful for a historic record of work done. You may find a link to the currently used concept or function in this article, if not you can contact the author to find out what has taken the place of this legacy item.
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Presentation
Intro 2 min
- Why are you here?
- What are some of the jargon terms you have heard?
- Establish wiki's context in terms of internet technology. Eg web 2.0, blog, wiki semantic, google, social network.
Why should you care? 2 min
How this intro to wikis will help you:
- a primer on a better way to communicate (in your office, with your customers, you customers with you)
- new skills
- contribute to something you are interested in
Wiki Quotes
- Wiki puts an “Edit” button on the intenet.
- Putting up a wiki page is like tossing a ball of yarn into a basket of kittens. -- Peter Merel
- Wiki takes you out of the arm chair and puts you in the pilots seat
What are some issues you are interested in ? 5-10 min
Wikipedia….then
- might want to have some local "hook" for the audience. I also asked the audience what they cared about, did a sample search on google to show how "high" wikipedia scored in the results for their subject of interest, and then showed them how to "edit the internet" in an area that they care about most. examples were:
- watercolor
- skiing
- renewable energy
A wiki is the easiest way to add what you know to a place where other people care about what you care about.
Problem: 4 min
Communication is where everything starts. And stops.
Problem: communication is the #1 problem in business. Just this morning I was waiting at the doctor’s office, and the lady sitting next to me showed me some paperwork her doctor had sent her, complete with an address, social security number, and a detailed description of the health problem…of a person that she didn’t even know!
Wiki’s don’t fix that kind of problem, but it illustrates the types of problems we have in business with communiation.
Email is a solution that everyone uses to communicate. Why? Because it is so easy. But have you ever sent a message that you wish you hadn’t? Email is easy, but think of all the problems it can cause. I worked for the University Of Colorado Health Science Center. Mr. Anschutz, the former CEO of Qwest and Denver Billionaire, had just donated a huge sum of money to the university, and they were going to name the new campus after him. So a press release was sent out via email. Usually, spell check is a good thing. But this time, everyone got word that Mr. Auschwitz had donated a large amount of money, and the new campus would bear that name. (OOPS!)
Wiki’s don’t fix that kind of problem, but it illustrates the types of problems we have.
Wikis put everyone on the same page. Literally. Here is a good example…
Show youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
Types of communication.
(have them give examples)
- One to many
- Many to one: election process/democracy.
- (Many to many
How many of you have heard about a Blog? (some of these terms sound like a 3 year old talking! Did you read my blog about google? Do you think google googled my blog yet? )
Examples
Wikipedia
So, to recap…
- Wiki takes you out of the arm chair and puts you in the pilots seat
- A wiki is the easiest way to add what you know to a place where other people care about what you care about.
- Wiki puts an “Edit” button on the Internet.
- Wikis put everyone on the same page. Literally.
- Wikis are one of the many imperfect way to address communication issues. Blogs are another.
- Which do you think is better? Optional: Show blog vs. wiki video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4
Open up for questions…
we don’t know where this is headed…
History of Internet in 2 Minutes
Communication is the key term. Break the word apart:
Community. Communion. Togetherness. Understanding.
Technology just gets us to the bottleneck quicker.
- 1.0 (90-2000) The Techy People could write, everyone could read. Email is lowest common denominator, the "killer app" One to many communication in the form of the web browser.
- 2.0 (2000-2005) Wikis, blogs, facebook etc anyone can contribute. many to many communication
- 3.0 (2005-?) The "semantic web". Data will start to organize itself intelligently, beginning of a new era in data. There is no "killer app"! web3 is the ability for the many diverse applications to dynamically "mash-up" in response to demand.
Everyone is talking about how to represent massive amounts of data that we have collected. The new internet will probably be more like a video game than the flat static web pages we are used to. Look how quickly youtube has taken over. I watch LOST on the internet now! You can watch a ball game on your PHONE!
- 4.0 (P2P) the decentralising of the web using open source grid and distributed computing technology.
How a Wiki works
- A wiki engine is hosted on a computer server and uses the internet protocol http to allow many people to collaborate online using a web browser on their own computer.
- Web browser
- currently, least common denominator in computer technology
- Makes it easy to change the "recipe" for process or update information.
- Tracks changes
- Makes it easy to correct mistakes
- A paradigm shift:
- Open Source - anyone can make improvements. Example-
- internet itself
- OpenOffice
- wiki has caused the concept of a "file" be replaced. The "file" now has all this
historical information intertwined with it and it is never "final" (now called "nodes", metadata)
- People have access to specific information
*Wiki is a "killer app" for the internet, like Lotus 123(Excel) was back in the 80's
- effectively combines social networking, forums, email, blogging, and information (?)
- What might be any reason not to bother using it?
Why should I care?
- To enjoy life and your job more
- To familiarize yourself with new technology
A better way to do things
Who would use it?
- Anyone who has access to the wiki website that wants to collaborate with other people from anywhere
Who is using it?
- cutting edge companies
- mostly small business < 25M in revenues
- Some big companies: Nokia, Yahoo, Michelin, etc.
- heard of wikipedia? one of the highest trafficked sites on the internet.
Readers
There are many ways to use a wiki. The most common is to just use it to find information you are looking for. People who use it on this level are referred to as readers. You typically do not need a user account to access content at this level.
Contributors
Readers often become contributers.
- Recommended Resource: Help
The big picture: Web2.0
This big pitcure view is emerging from a number of technologies and generally refers to the newly emerging collaborative internet which is being dubbed Web2.0. Wiki's have become a major aspect of this new arena with MediaWiki leading the way due to the huge popularity Wikipedia and its sister projects.
- replace email
- replace word
- replace excel
- replace quickbooks
- or at minimum will be an integral component of the above.
- may change how meetings are run.
- use it the same way that you would a social network site such as myspace.
The Future
The problems with the current wiki paradigm will be the main driving force of its evolution. The main problems that wiki users experience are:
- Thin client: Currently nearly all processing is handled by the server, so most operations involve communications with the server which makes the environment sluggish compared to normal applications.
- Wikitext: Users would rather have an applicational means of handling layout of objects and their properties than having to remember syntax. This is currently impractical since for true WYSIWYG the renderer must be tightly integrated with the parser, not an external addon.
- might want to mention the fckeditor extension --Phalseid 14:04, 28 December 2007 (NZDT)
- Web server: The web server paradigm doesn't fit with the new paradigm, it's inefficient on bandwidth and creates reliance on corporate sponsorship and donations rather than utilising the resources of the client-base.
In the future, we can expect to see the wiki methodology showing up in the peer to peer application arena which is currently still in its infancy and contains only static files rather than dynamic applicational content such as collaboration tools.
