The ability to allow many people to contribute to its content makes it a valuable tool where a repository of information is required
John Joyce, Ph.D.
Wiki wiki means quick or super-fast in Hawaiian. It is also the name given to a hypertext document collection or Web site that allows content to be added and/or edited by anybody. The first wiki was developed in Perl by
Ward Cunningham in 1995 for the Portland Pattern Repository. By tradition, only this site is referred to as Wiki or WikiWikiWeb in upper case. All other sites are therefore referred to as wikis in lower case. While the English colloquial pronunciation is generally ‘wicky’ or ‘weekee’, the correct Hawaiian pronunciation is closer to ‘veekee’.
Since the creation of the original Wiki software, there have been many implementations of wiki engines. In addition to the original Perl, you can currently find implementations in a wide variety of languages. These range from Awk through Bash, C++, Lisp, Java, PHP, Ruby, Tcl, to VisualBasic, as well as active server page implementations. While the features included in a particular implementation will vary, the number and variety of language implementations mean that, no matter the hardware or operating system you are using, you should be able to find a package allowing you to implement a functioning wiki. Some of these are commercial packages, but many are released under a variety of open source licenses.
While you can download and install this software on your own server, there are also a variety of both free and commercial wiki hosts available. These include ProjectForum, Leg Joints and Team-Notepad. There are currently around a thousand public wiki projects, which are listed at SwitchWiki. No one knows how many non-public implementations have been launched.
The ability of a wiki to allow many people to contribute to its content makes it a valuable tool for many purposes where a repository of information is required. Online activities have included the production of encyclopedias, dictionaries and books. They have even been successfully used to document software projects on RubyForge.
One of the most visible proponents of wikis has been the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Founded by Jimbo Wales in 2003, the objective of the foundation has been to nurture wikibased projects and to provide free public access to their contents. Active projects include Wiktionary, a multilingual dictionary; Wikibooks, a collection of royalty-free text books; and Wikiquote, a repository of famous quotes. However, their most wellknown project is undoubtedly Wikipedia, launched in 2001. It is one of the 500 most-visited Web sites and one of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world. These projects currently run on the
MediaWiki engine developed on SourceForge.
Wikipedia is a multi-language encyclopedia. The Wikipedia community has professed an intention to work with any interested parties to include as many of the World’s 6,500 languages as possible. The general reference to access a particular language in the encyclopedia is xx.wikipedia.org with the xx representing the ISO 639 two letter language code. For example, to access the English version of the Wikipedia, you would use the URL en.wikipedia.org. Alternate three-letter language codes are used for those languages not listed in the ISO 639 standard. The Wikipedia Web site lists 89 languages for which there has been at least some active development, ranging from Afrikaans to Yiddish with everything in between from Anglo-Saxon to Interlingua, Irish, Sanskrit, Welsh and Klingon! The system not only allows links between articles in the same language, but also allows interlinks between articles in different languages.
Participating in a wiki project, such as Wikipedia, is generally fairly straightforward. In most cases, once you have a wiki page displayed, you simply have to click on the “Edit This Page” button, or something similar. In many cases, you don’t even need to create a user account in the wiki community. Generally, it is advantageous to create an account, even when not required, as this gives you additional system privileges and allows you to more easily track your edits. For wikis in general, and Wikipedia specifically, the essential policies appear to be:
1. using a neutral point of view;
2. not submitting copyrighted material without the holder’s permission;
3. civility.
If you follow these guides, you will likely find other users delighted to help you correct any errors in your submissions.
The markup of a wiki article is simple, but generally follows its own specialized format. With few exceptions, HTML code is not allowed within the actual wiki article. For example, a section heading can be indicated by typing in the text of the section heading, bracketing it with a double equals sign (‘==’). A subsection is similarly indicated by bracketing the heading with a triple equals sign (‘===’) and a sub-sub section by bracketing with a quadruple equals sign (‘====’). Lists can be indicated by starting a line with an asterisk and a numbered list can be indicated by starting the line with a pound symbol (‘#’). The number of asterisks or pound symbols indicates the appropriate sublevel that it is assigned to. You can mark text to display as bold by bracketing it with three apostrophes, or mark it to display as italic by bracketing it with two apostrophes. It you bracket it with five apostrophes, it will display as both bold and italic.
A link to another wiki article is indicated by placing a double square bracket (‘[[‘ & ‘]]’) around the link (such as ‘[[public transport]]’). A link to an external URL is indicated by using a pair of single square brackets. For example, to display a link to SC&I’s Web site, I might code it as [http://www.scimag.com/ ‘’’’’Scientific Computing & Instrumentation’’’’’]. A good introduction to wiki formatting and editing can be found in the Wikipedia help file. However, remember that there will be some variation in allowed formatting between different wiki engines.
The one downside of wikis is that they are by intention open systems.
This makes it easy for those with nothing creative to do to vandalize pages. Different wikis handle this in different ways. Some limit editing to users with logins, others may set limits on the number of pages you can edit in one day. Fortunately, this appears to only be a sporadic problem. In any case, as all versions of a wiki page are generally backed up, it is easy to restore the vandalized pages.
Overall, wikis appear to be an excellent way to generate a composite base of information involving multiple users. For those intrigued with the concept, try submitting to Wikipedia or one of the other public projects. This allows you to get a feel for the system without having to go through the effort of setting up a server or arranging for a wiki provider. Just take the time to read through their help files to get a good feel for both the format and the types of articles they need. We’d love to know the kinds of projects for which you have found wikis to be suitable.
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| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:08 am Post subject: WIKI Resources
And at Post Carbon Institute, we have:
http://www.postcarbon.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page _________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
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Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 6:57 pm Post subject: I know who:
I think we're looking for a Mr. Bytesmiths at this time. _________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
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Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 633 Location: Salt Spring Island, Cascadia
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:36 pm Post subject: Re: I know who:
EnviroEngr wrote:
I think we're looking for a Mr. Bytesmiths at this time.
Uh, what the... sorry, I was dozing off there... :-)
I worked with Ward Cunningham in the '80's at Tektronix Laboratories, although I can't claim to have helped him develop the WikiWiki concept.
I'll be happy to do some Wiki stuff if someone with database access will add the SEEDS ecovillage to your InterWiki table. And my REAL motivation would be to have people contribute to the SEEDS Wiki.
The InterWiki table makes it simple for different wikis to link to each other. For example, I have to do http://www.IslandSeeds.org/wiki/Energy here to link to our Energy page, but only need do [[SEEDS:energy|]] if InterWiki is set up.
To add this to your InterWiki table, someone with DBA access needs to do something like "INSERT INTO mw_interwiki SET iw_prefix=`SEEDS`, iw_url=`http://www.IslandSeeds.org/wiki/$1`"
I just tried a few InterWiki links, and it looks like you really should load the entire InterWiki table from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interwiki_map (that's the wiki page with text, there's also a link to the SQL download there).
Many people who frequent bulletin boards aren't comfortable with wikis, because it has a fundamentally different paradigm. Bulletin boards are organized chronologically, which makes it hard to revise and improve information content. Many threads end up rehashing earlier stuff by the time they get to page 10 or so!
Conversely, wikis are organized topically, with each contributor actually editing (or adding to) what previous folks wrote. There is also a chronological component in that each page has history. The end result is that wikis tend to be more civil than bulletin boards.
The best known and most successful wiki is perhaps http://www.WikiPedia.com and I see that this site is running the same software (MediaWiki), as I am, too.
I'm working on MediaWiki extensions that will support many bulletin-board-like things, like polls, blogs, and database access.
I'm not sure what John had in mind when he called me out, but I'd be happy to frequent the wiki or even admin it if needed. _________________ :::: Jan Steinman, Communication Steward, EcoReality, a forming sustainable community. Be the change! ::::
Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 10:07 pm Post subject: onward
Admin,
Agreeable?
I'll see what kind support this effort needs and what it'll take to provide it. _________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
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Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 633 Location: Salt Spring Island, Cascadia
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:11 pm Post subject: Let's get the wiki going!
I've grown bored of the flaming and re-hashing on the forums. How about getting the wiki REALLY going?
The only reason to delay might be to wait for 1.4, which is imminent. (Although 1.4rc1 is supposedly pretty good.) 1.4 adds table prefixes, which is pretty much required for any site that needs to share a database.
I did offer to admin it.
If anyone is going to admin it, it would be GREAT if it had diagrams. Can someone install Graphviz, please? It goes in /wiki/extensions. I have a version that is (IMHO) much nicer than the Graphviz installed on Wikipedia, in that it allows non-hierarchical layout engines, and text wrapping.
I've put a simple Graphviz diagram on the Peak Oil wiki: http://www.PeakOil.com/wiki/index.php/Graphviz , but it ain't gonna work until the extension gets installed. Whomever installs the extension can use that page as a test. The result should look like this:
Also, it would be nice to fix your apache httpd.conf (or included file) so that nicer URLs can be used -- it gets rid of the "index.html" in the middle of the URL. (Seed the IslandSeeds.org wiki URL above.)
Finally, it needs to have Thomas Gries ENotif extension, which causes watched pages to conditionally send the user email when they change. Without this extension, it's impossible to control vandalism and spamming.
BTW: what happened to Peakoil Jane? She looks like a Nick Nolte mug shot! _________________ :::: Jan Steinman, Communication Steward, EcoReality, a forming sustainable community. Be the change! ::::
Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:20 pm Post subject: Skiing
Has Admin been on the slopes again?
Sorry about that Bytesmiths. I'll try to get an answer for ya. _________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
____________________________
Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 633 Location: Salt Spring Island, Cascadia
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:26 pm Post subject: Re: Let's get the wiki going!
Bytesmiths wrote:
Also, it would be nice to fix your apache httpd.conf (or included file) so that nicer URLs can be used -- it gets rid of the "index.html" in the middle of the URL. (Seed the IslandSeeds.org wiki URL above.)
This is what needs to go into httpd.conf (or equivalent included file)
Code:
#
# MediaWiki pretty URLs
#
# Using Aliases
<Directory "/full/path/to/wiki">
Alias /wiki/stylesheets /full/path/to/wiki/stylesheets
Alias /wiki/style /full/path/to/wiki/style
Alias /wiki/images /full/path/to/wiki/images
Alias /wiki/skins /full/path/to/wiki/skins
Alias /wiki/redirect.php /full/path/to/wiki/redirect.php
Alias /wiki/textvc.php /full/path/to/wiki/textvc.php
Alias /wiki/index.php /full/path/to/wiki/index.php
Alias /wiki /full/path/to/wiki/index.php
</Directory>
_________________ :::: Jan Steinman, Communication Steward, EcoReality, a forming sustainable community. Be the change! ::::
Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:28 pm Post subject: WIKI Go ahead
Bytesmiths,
The answer is: Let me know what you need to start with this project and I will get it to you.
For this:
Quote:
I'll be happy to do some Wiki stuff if someone with database access will add the SEEDS ecovillage to your InterWiki table. And my REAL motivation would be to have people contribute to the SEEDS Wiki.
If you cannot do this yourself as admin, PM Aaron and he can help you get it set up.
You will be the administrator of the WIKI.
Also, don't hesitate to contact Dave Room at Post Carbon Inst. to tie into the effort being made there... could save time.
Any questions, let me know.
Tag. You're it. _________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
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Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:51 am Post subject: WIKI Setup
As always, let me know if you need assistance.
This is a worthy project and it should be of great use and benefit.
Thanks in advance for all your work. _________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
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(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
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Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 1932 Location: Richland Center, Wisconsin
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2005 5:17 pm Post subject: WIKI MI
I finally set up my account.
Is this still an issue? ---->
Quote:
Well, tried to send this off to my user page on SEEDS (http://www.IslandSeeds.org/wiki/User:Jan_Steinman), but you don't have an up-to-date InterWiki map installed.
_________________ --------------------------------
| Whose reality is this anyway!? |
--------------------------------
(-------< Temet Nosce >-------)
____________________________
My dark hope has been fufilled. A peak oil wiki without me having to do the setup. Time to get down and start mining the good stuff from the forums and reformat it into a wiki.
Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 633 Location: Salt Spring Island, Cascadia
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:11 pm Post subject: Re: WIKI MI
EnviroEngr wrote:
I finally set up my account.
Is this still an issue? ---->
Quote:
Well, tried to send this off to my user page on SEEDS (http://www.IslandSeeds.org/wiki/User:Jan_Steinman), but you don't have an up-to-date InterWiki map installed.
Yes, I sent PM to Aaron, explaining what I need to do what I'd like to do with the wiki, and got no response.
People can still use the wiki, but it's just another wiki, whereas I'd like to to be a way cool wiki!
I know I'm not going to feel like putting much content in until it has at least Graphviz and EasyTimeline. I also have a Ploticus extension I'd like to install, which would allow collaborative editing of of arbitrary value-based graphs, whereas Graphviz is entity-relationship graphing. EasyTimeline is a front-end to Ploticus that takes some of the rough edges off the syntax for those who primarily want to make time lines.
John, do you want me to copy you on what I sent Aaron? _________________ :::: Jan Steinman, Communication Steward, EcoReality, a forming sustainable community. Be the change! ::::
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