From: Patrick Salsbury (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 10/22/01
Message-Id: <200110220716.f9M7GSW17382@bootstrap.sculptors.com> Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 00:16:27 -0700 From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com> Subject: Reality Sculptors Wiki - Online group-collaboration web resource
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To: salsbury
Subject: Reality Sculptors Wiki - Online group-collaboration web resource
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 00:16:27 -0700
From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com>
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Hi, all!
This message is going out to a bunch of different Reality Sculptors
project-related lists, so if you're on more than one list, you may see
duplicates of this message.
I've mentioned this to one or two lists, and in various private emails
and conversations with folks, but hadn't made an "official" announcement about
a new resource on the website, so I figured I'd finally do so.
Skeeter Murphy helped me set up a program called "Wiki" on the website
which allows people to go in and add to web pages, build links, correct typos,
ask questions, etc. It's incredibly cool software, and we've built a skeleton
of starter pages, but now we need your help in expanding it.
If you look at http://reality.sculptors.com/cgi-bin/wiki you'll find
the main page, which describes a bit about what Wiki is, and how to log in,
edit pages, etc.
This is actually similar to the FAQ-o-matic
(http://reality.sculptors.com/cgi-bin/fom) that we're running, in that it
allows you to add things to the website, but it's a bit more free-form,
whereas the FAQ-o-matic is much more structured in a question & answer sort of
way.
In the Wiki, you'll find a variety of areas, and are encouraged to add
more. Build a page for yourself in the Users area
(http://reality.sculptors.com/cgi-bin/wiki?Users), check out and add to the
online edition of The Kids' Whole Future Catalog, or strike off in a
completely new direction.
About a month ago, I went to the east coast and was a guest-lecturer
for John Belt's design classes at Oswego State University in Oswego, NY.
While there, I used wiki to prepare my online class notes, build links to
topics I wanted to cover, and make on-the-fly updates and corrections while
working with the classes. I also gave a hearty plug for a lot of the projects
we focus on with these various Reality Sculptors mailing lists. (Some of those
students have joined some of the lists and are starting to learn more about
what we're up to.) It was actually quite fun to present to them, and I had a
great time. :-)
The class notes are here, if you'd like to review them:
http://reality.sculptors.com/cgi-bin/wiki?DesignScience
Wiki is incredibly cool, and I think it can create a very nice
resource that falls somewhere between static web pages (which require someone
with permissions to edit them on the web server - aka me - and time to edit
them - which is a scarce commodity) and the mailing lists, which allow anyone
on the list to post and ask/tell something to the rest of the group.
With Wiki, anyone can add to a web page, either asking or telling
something, and unlike email, (which can tend to flood your mailbox, and which
often has lots of repetitious quoting) you can have a structured conversation
that gets added to and refined over time, but the whole thread can be in one
place, on one page, without having to read through 10-20-50 messages in an
email archive.
Another thing that's nice is that it keeps a revision history of
edits. So you can see changes that were made over time, and compare the
current version with an older version, see who edited what, etc. It really
is a powerful tool for groups to work with. (You can see what changes have
been made recently by clicking on the "RecentChanges" link on the top or
bottom of every page. Thus, even if someone posts a question on a page that
hasn't been touched in years, it's easy to spot and then someone can post the
answer. Or just to see where the interesting new stuff is showing up.
Go check out the pages, and give it a spin. I really think you'll like
it once you learn what it can do. There are also more wiki pages out there.
You can find links to them on the HomePage of our wiki, at the above URL. One
really cool one is the WikiPedia, which is an online encyclopedia that started
in January of 2001, and already has over 14,000 articles! (I hope we can rival
that, but we've got to get to work. :-) ) When I looked at it about 3 weeks
ago, it was at 11,000 articles, so it's growing quickly.
- - --
Pat
PS - Yes, this is another desperate attempt to build tools that allow
others to contribute to the website. I realize I can't do it all myself, and
am trying to find creative ways to trick all of you into helping me build this
thing into a viable entity so we can all become self-sufficient and not have
to worry about jobs & survival, but instead devote our time to creative
pursuits like solving world problems. Please help me out! Go in and add your
own special bit somewhere in the Wiki! This is your chance at stardom! :-)
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