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Talk:Wiki science/Introduction

Edit history

 * 13:40, 20 September 2010 Adrignola (3,355 bytes) (cleanup) (rollback(AJAX) | undo) [checked by Thenub314]
 * 00:12, 14 July 2007 24.22.122.180 (3,865 bytes) (→Talk page: correct name of tab for talk pages)
 * 22:29, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (3,872 bytes) (correction)
 * 22:28, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (3,872 bytes) (topnav)
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (3,837 bytes) (Wiki Science:Introduction moved to Wiki Science/Introduction)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (3,837 bytes)
 * 02:11, 9 December 2005 Lazyquasar m (3,810 bytes) (add TQM to list of major disciplines applicable to large free wikis)
 * 15:06, 11 October 2005 80.126.114.182 (3,752 bytes) (→Portland Pattern Repository)
 * 01:52, 3 September 2005 Geocachernemesis m (3,711 bytes) (Reverted edit of 81.213.168.19, changed back to last version by 129.55.200.20)
 * 22:24, 2 September 2005 81.213.168.19 (28,143 bytes)
 * 12:45, 10 June 2005 129.55.200.20 (3,711 bytes) (→What ideas feed into the science of wikis)
 * 12:26, 1 June 2005 213.252.29.22 (3,725 bytes) (→What ideas feed into the science of wikis)
 * 03:05, 25 May 2005 DavidCary (3,711 bytes) (revert to 03:35, 28 Apr 2005)
 * 23:37, 24 May 2005 85.100.29.124 (45,480 bytes) (→User page)
 * 03:35, 28 April 2005 68.202.80.141 (3,711 bytes) (→Wikibooks)
 * 03:33, 28 April 2005 68.202.80.141 (3,731 bytes) (→Wikibooks)
 * 00:10, 29 October 2004 66.183.127.150 (3,711 bytes) (→Wikibooks)
 * 00:10, 29 October 2004 66.183.127.150 (3,705 bytes) (→Wikipedia)
 * 00:08, 29 October 2004 66.183.127.150 (3,664 bytes) (→Wikibooks)
 * 00:06, 29 October 2004 66.183.127.150 (3,625 bytes) (→Wikipedia)
 * 00:05, 29 October 2004 66.183.127.150 (3,620 bytes) (→Wikipedia)
 * 03:27, 26 June 2004 67.176.87.83 (3,553 bytes) (+cognitive neuroscience)
 * 00:09, 16 May 2004 Akagu m (3,550 bytes) (moved spirits back to self healing)
 * 02:14, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (4,800 bytes)
 * 02:11, 15 May 2004 Akagu (4,220 bytes)
 * 02:00, 15 May 2004 Akagu (3,003 bytes) (merging with why a ..)
 * 01:19, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,963 bytes)
 * 01:19, 15 May 2004 Akagu (1,941 bytes) (start, copied largest part from Self Healing)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Introduction


text:
Wiki science/Budding Effect

The budding effect is the phenomenon whereby one wiki produces another wiki, in analogy to a plant producing a bud. A large parent wiki can 'bud' several smaller child wikis, creating a kind of wiki family tree.

Issues involved are license(s) and wiki sociology.

Wiki can bud off slowly, or quickly. They can erupt from a battle on a parent wiki, or they may gradually form as the members of the parent wiki devote themselves to both parent and child. There are many technologies that can support the budding process, from the near link, to the page cluster to name spaces.

Wikimedia sister projects
Wikipedia is a wiki encyclopedia. It has a clearly defined purpose: creating a free encyclopedia. Entries that provide dictionary definitions are disapproved of. Because of this, some of the Wikipedia users founded Wiktionary. In this way, Wikipedia can be seen as the parent of Wiktionary.

Similarly, Wikibooks itself 'budded' off of Wikipedia, out of the need to provide more textbook-like content, where there is more room to leave the encyclopedic path: not as much need for NPOV; original research...

Languages
The budding effect becomes very clear when looking at the many languages that have their own Wikipedia. Existing articles from, mostly pivotal larger (on Wikipedia) languages like English, French and German are translated into other language Wikipedias. Also, many articles about topics that are more prevalent in less common languages have been translated into English.

Licences
Just like copylefted software that is forked, the use of a copyleft license for a wiki assures that the content can be fed back into the parent wiki.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wiki science/Budding Effect


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Budding Effect

Edit history

 * 18:59, 14 October 2010 Adrignola m (2,531 bytes) (fixed navigation) (rollback(AJAX) | undo) [automatically checked]
 * 13:33, 20 September 2010 Adrignola m (2,560 bytes) (fixed link) [checked by Thenub314]
 * 22:28, 4 June 2009 DavidCary (2,587 bytes) (→External links: +Starting and Running a Wiki Website)
 * 04:14, 27 January 2009 Swift m (2,471 bytes) (→External links: Rm : It goes without saying.)
 * 00:51, 2 October 2007 76.28.67.224 (2,487 bytes) (→External links: fix links evo wikis domain is no longer evowiki.org .)
 * 22:34, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (2,495 bytes) (→Licences: )
 * 22:32, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (2,492 bytes) (TopNav)
 * 06:01, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (2,434 bytes) (Wiki Science:Budding Effect moved to Wiki Science/Budding Effect)
 * 05:59, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (2,434 bytes)
 * 15:17, 3 February 2006 Chris Mason (2,407 bytes) (Broken links, if someone could find the anticipated target, please do)
 * 19:00, 16 October 2005 68.194.251.65 (2,334 bytes) (→Wikimedia sister projects)
 * 01:13, 2 September 2004 213.107.224.5 (2,343 bytes) (remove pointless example of a wiki that doesn't exist)
 * 02:20, 26 August 2004 68.1.94.231 (2,889 bytes) (Updated Links to Wikipedia & Wictionary)
 * 20:53, 28 May 2004 216.254.10.130 (2,873 bytes) (Some notes on the technologies assisting budding.)
 * 20:43, 28 May 2004 216.254.10.130 (2,375 bytes) (→External links: Linked CommunityWiki:WikiBudding)
 * 00:05, 16 May 2004 Akagu (2,227 bytes)
 * 00:03, 16 May 2004 Akagu (2,015 bytes) (=Wikimedia sister projects=)
 * 00:31, 15 May 2004 Akagu (1,916 bytes)
 * 00:27, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,922 bytes)
 * 23:51, 14 May 2004 Akagu m (1,916 bytes)
 * 23:44, 14 May 2004 Akagu m (1,895 bytes) (recyclopedia is not assessible anymore)
 * 17:56, 1 April 2004 Rs2 m (1,837 bytes) (changed location of Wiki Family Tree)
 * 12:34, 1 April 2004 Akagu (1,794 bytes)
 * 15:04, 20 March 2004 JWSchmidt (873 bytes) (external link added) 13:48, 22 January 2004 81.101.8.93 (724 bytes)
 * 13:46, 22 January 2004 81.101.8.93 (720 bytes)

Topic
" Wikibooks itself 'budded' off of WikiPedia, out of the need to provide more in-depth information in various topics"

I'm not sure that "the need to provide in-depth information" is the right way to describe the situation. In Wikipedia I have seen the suggestion that, "Education material should go to Wikibooks. Reference material should stay here."

"Reference material" in fields like mathematics and biology can be meaningless to anyone who is not an expert. I hate the idea that someone would go to Wikipedia and find nothing but jargon-laced articles about science and mathematics that can only be understood by experts.

How do we define the correct balance between serving experts and serving non-experts who are interested in a topic? Is it enough to simply make links between Wikipedia and Wikibooks? JWSchmidt 15:05, 15 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * I agree :) Wikipedia articles should be understandable by someone who is not an expert in the field - or explicitly point to another Wikipedia article that gives an introduction. For instance, the Galois group article does not need to explain a novice what a group is, but it would be very useful to make it clear that the novice should first try to understand what is written in the group article. Anyway, be bolder! :) You could have changed this line 2 months ago - I have overlooked it many times. Akagu 23:59, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

Multilingual budding effect
A poorly understood phenomenon is the difference with which wikipedias in different languages grow. As a null hypothesis, one would expect some fixed rate between size of speaker community and size of wikipedia (eventually corrected for size of online speakers...). But this is not what we get. Why? Trondtr 06:34, 15 October 2006 (UTC).

title: Talk:Wiki science/Budding Effect


text:
Wiki science/Budding Effect/Wiki Family Tree

''How do you present a tree in html? With tables perhaps?''

Tree
Portland Pattern Repository - first Wiki ever ↓                       ↓       Wikipedia       WikiWikiWeb ↓              Wiktionary, WikiBooks, WikiQuote, Stockepedia, Internet Encyclopedia

WikiWikiWeb -> MuMuWiki WikiWikiWeb -> MeatballWiki -> CommunityWiki -> TaoRiver Wiki

''Really, we probably need to RDF encode the data into our wiki in a standard way, telling what our lineage is. Then, we'll be able to turn the whole thing on with a nice browser; It'll all light up like a christmas tree..!''

Basically, a social networking software for wiki. -- LionKimbro

Further Research
Wiki - investigate heritage of wikis listed in "Wiki communities" section


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Budding Effect/Wiki Family Tree

Edit history

 * 04:21, 27 January 2009 Swift m (1,125 bytes) (rm : Obviously. Please place some more information on the module inadequacies if you don't intend to work on this.)
 * 06:01, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,157 bytes) (Wiki Science:Budding Effect:Wiki Family Tree moved to Wiki Science/Budding Effect/Wiki Family Tree)
 * 05:59, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,157 bytes)
 * 00:28, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,157 bytes)
 * 20:25, 28 April 2004 216.254.10.130 (1,143 bytes) (Basically, a social networking software for wiki.)
 * 20:21, 28 April 2004 216.254.10.130 (1,086 bytes) (RDF encoding the data into our wiki.)
 * 18:59, 1 April 2004 Rs2 (753 bytes) (rough draft)


text:
Wiki science/Vibrant User Base

It's nice to welcome new users (the "Welcome Ritual" or "Welcome Wagon"); see Welcome, and Wiki science/Children and the Wikimedia Projects.

Sometimes a link to a short page of "tips for new users" is included in the initial welcome. (Please don't require new users to read and understand hundreds of pages of arbitrary "This is How We Do Things Here" text before they are allowed to write anything.)

Encourage new users to be bold.

In many cultures, there is a tradition of "This Is How We Do Things" that stretches back so far that no one remembers the real reason they choose that particular way.

In wiki cultures, it's simple enough to document various decisions, leaving a place for further discussion, and making it easier to revisit that decision and perhaps choose to start doing things a different way (if a better way is discovered, or if situations change so that the original way is no longer the best).

title: Wiki science/Vibrant User Base


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Vibrant User Base

Edit history

 * 19:01, 14 October 2010 Adrignola (1,245 bytes) (use wiki-internal links)
 * 19:00, 14 October 2010 Adrignola m (1,299 bytes) (fixed navigation)
 * 04:37, 27 January 2009 Swift m (1,581 bytes) (→Further reading: Rm )
 * 08:45, 15 September 2008 Dan Polansky m (1,598 bytes) (Wiki Science/Vibrant user base moved to Wiki Science/Vibrant User Base: Naming conventions)
 * 19:33, 19 July 2007 DavidCary (1,598 bytes) ("getting your wiki adopted")
 * 09:21, 20 December 2006 202.67.5.18 (1,494 bytes)
 * 13:05, 9 November 2006 70.189.77.59 (1,493 bytes) (+Building a community)
 * 22:41, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (1,218 bytes) (layout)
 * 22:41, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (1,216 bytes) (topnav)
 * 06:04, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,153 bytes) (Wiki Science:Vibrant user base moved to Wiki Science/Vibrant user base)
 * 06:03, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,153 bytes)
 * 19:11, 20 June 2004 Akagu (1,127 bytes) (-seed post :)
 * 02:38, 15 June 2004 68.229.240.25 (1,143 bytes) (+seed post)
 * 00:04, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,079 bytes)
 * 00:03, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,102 bytes)
 * 00:02, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,080 bytes)
 * 14:35, 8 May 2004 DavidCary (1,061 bytes) (moved text from How to maintain a Wiki)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Vibrant User Base


text:
Wiki science/Article Evolution

Article evolution is the phenomenon whereby an article evolves from a stub - or just a place holder for a future article with little or no information or value. Such a stub is entered by someone who identifies a need for an article, but does not have the time or knowledge to create a full article. With time, people add to, and expand upon that article until it is an actual article. If the original stub was never created then others may not have been inspired or motivated to create the final article. This is similar to the story of "stone soup" - cooperation among scarcity - where, although a "stone soup" would probably not make a good soup, the small start causes everyone else to pitch in and end up creating a delicious soup for all even though no one had all the ingredients.

An example of article evolution
The Jack Paar article at Wikipedia is now quite complete. It highlights his life, career, personality and even has a picture. Not to say the article is complete now - are any articles really ever complete? Visiting the history page you can travel back in time through the edits of the article. Viewing the first entry for you will find simply the single line:

 * "Jack Harold PaAar (born May 1, 1918) is a U.S. talk show host. He hosted the Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962."

Pretty humble beginnings. Visiting each entry from the history in chronological order provides a evolutionary view of the growth of this article. A paragraph here, a sentence there. Someone adds a photo. Someone else corrects a typographical error. Eventually there is an article that is more than any single contributor could have created.

title: Wiki science/Article Evolution


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Article Evolution

Edit history

 * 04:16, 27 January 2009 Swift m (2,572 bytes) (→External links: Rm )
 * 20:02, 18 November 2006 89.34.200.135 (2,588 bytes)
 * 22:43, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (2,587 bytes) (correction)
 * 22:43, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (2,592 bytes) (topnav)
 * 06:01, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (2,531 bytes) (Wiki Science:Article Evolution moved to Wiki Science/Article Evolution)
 * 05:59, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (2,531 bytes)
 * 19:15, 6 June 2006 130.207.218.196 (2,504 bytes) (Split links into internal and external sections)
 * 12:20, 5 April 2006 148.87.1.172 (2,382 bytes) (→Network model of wiki)
 * 12:19, 5 April 2006 148.87.1.172 (1,727 bytes) (→An example of article evolution)
 * 19:37, 24 December 2005 65.24.67.109 (2,766 bytes) (→An example of article evolution)
 * 21:57, 13 September 2005 Geocachernemesis m (2,765 bytes) (Reverted edit of 70.88.192.101, changed back to last version by 65.64.77.176)
 * 16:55, 13 September 2005 70.88.192.101 (2,808 bytes) (→Network model of wiki)
 * 16:48, 13 September 2005 70.88.192.101 (2,793 bytes) (→An example of article evolution)
 * 05:46, 22 August 2005 65.64.77.176 (2,765 bytes) (→An example of article evolution: spelling)
 * 08:36, 29 June 2005 Geocachernemesis m (2,765 bytes) (rv link spam by 205.209.184.231)
 * 05:24, 29 June 2005 205.209.184.231 (5,039 bytes)
 * 02:09, 29 May 2005 Geocachernemesis m (2,765 bytes) (rv link spam by 67.173.164.154)
 * 23:58, 28 May 2005 67.173.164.154 (3,044 bytes)
 * 09:01, 29 November 2004 Dysprosia m (2,765 bytes) (Reverted edit of 61.232.113.104, changed back to last version by 217.43.30.79)
 * 02:40, 29 November 2004 61.232.113.104 (3,399 bytes)
 * 20:56, 29 May 2004 217.43.30.79 (2,765 bytes) (→Network model of wiki)
 * 20:53, 29 May 2004 217.43.30.79 (2,765 bytes) (→An example of article evolution)
 * 09:34, 21 May 2004 Akagu m (2,786 bytes) (wlink)
 * 01:28, 21 May 2004 KirbyMeister (2,779 bytes)
 * 00:08, 16 May 2004 Akagu (2,497 bytes)
 * 01:04, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (2,370 bytes)
 * 00:37, 15 May 2004 Akagu (2,348 bytes)
 * 23:52, 14 May 2004 Akagu m (2,003 bytes)
 * 11:40, 28 April 2004 212.219.92.52 (2,006 bytes)
 * 12:58, 16 April 2004 Akagu m (2,006 bytes)
 * 09:44, 15 April 2004 Benjaminong (1,998 bytes)
 * 12:49, 1 April 2004 Akagu m (1,946 bytes) (Wiki Science )
 * 12:48, 1 April 2004 Akagu m (1,922 bytes) (=External links= +*Stone soup)
 * 12:37, 1 April 2004 Akagu m (1,867 bytes)
 * 06:50, 28 March 2004 Jim Mckeeth (1,861 bytes) (The birth of Article Evolution - edit without mercey)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Article Evolution


text:
Wiki science/Self Healing

Self healing is the ability of a Wiki to heal quickly after vandalism or other damage.

For a wiki to be successful, it must have a vibrant user base. Assuming this, then the users will be able to repair any damage done to the Wiki.

Vandals
A "Vandal" (Also called a "WikiTroll" (Not to be confused with a straight up troll)) is a malicious user who deliberately attempts to ruin a wiki. The "malicious" part is important: vandals are deliberate attackers, whereas newbies who don't know the site but mean well may also inadvertently cause damage.

Common vandalisms are:
 * Blanking or removing text from pages
 * Replacement of articles with something they know is less desirable.

Good spirits
A good spirit is a contributor to a Wiki who goes out of their way to make the Wiki a better place. This would include maintaining a large watch list, which they monitor closely, and checking the recent changed articles as well. They look for any article they can help with, keeping an eye for typographical errors, formatting issues and especially for any signs of vandalism.

They are constantly on a the lookout for their opposite, the Evil Spirit. It is a shame that a good spirt must spend so much of their time cleaning up after evil spirits when they could be contributing in so many other productive ways.

A good spirit should not be confused with a typical user who just reads or makes contributions with little concern for the actions of others.

Damage
If an Evil Spirit causes damage to the Wiki in some way, then a Good Spirit can repair the damage. Wikis are self healing if the good spirits outweigh the bad. Wikipedia has many Good Spirits.

A good way of defining how well a Wiki can self-heal is the ratio between users that are good and those who are evil. The ratio of Evil Spirits to Good Spirits can be defined as

$$\frac {U_{good}} {U_{evil}}$$

where $$U_{good}$$ is the number of good users, and $$U_{evil}$$ is the number of bad users. $$P_{useful}$$ is the amount of useful pages, that is, subtracting all Talk Pages, User Pages, etc.

An optimal self-healing Wiki is one where

$$\left( U_{evil}A_{Pdamaged} \right) \le \left( U_{good}A_{Pcontrib} \right)$$

$$A_{Pdamaged}$$ and $$A_{Pcontrib}$$ are the average pages damaged and average pages contributed, respectively.

If the above formula does not hold true, your Wiki is overrun with bad pages and Evil Spirits.

Evil Spirit users should be dealt with as swiftly as possible.

One way to deal with Evil Spirits is to ban them. This requires a conscious human being who has admin powers to ban them, which can take hours. Some methods of dealing with vandalism could be restricting the amount of edits that a user can do for a while, possibly augmented with a trust system: having a review on the quality of an edit, which functions as a 'karma' rating where high-rated edits allow the user to be less restricted.

title: Wiki science/Self Healing


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Self Healing

Edit history

 * 07:19, 11 October 2007 Heuler06 m (3,212 bytes) (unifying)
 * 19:46, 30 March 2007 208.138.31.145 (3,212 bytes) (→Terms)
 * 19:45, 30 March 2007 208.138.31.145 (3,211 bytes) (→Terms)
 * 19:45, 30 March 2007 208.138.31.145 (3,212 bytes) (→Terms)
 * 06:40, 23 October 2006 209.89.237.231 (3,212 bytes) (→Vandals: corrected typo: attempst-> attempts)
 * 12:59, 2 October 2006 66.134.185.238 (3,212 bytes) (→Vandals)
 * 12:59, 2 October 2006 66.134.185.238 (3,212 bytes) (→Vandals)
 * 11:19, 30 September 2006 Yossi.glass m (3,214 bytes) (Change 'test' to 'text' in "Blanking or removing test from pages")
 * 23:51, 9 September 2006 68.39.174.238 (3,214 bytes) (Use more common (?) term)
 * 22:45, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (3,155 bytes) (topnav)
 * 22:44, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (3,089 bytes) (→Terms: cleanup)
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (3,098 bytes) (Wiki Science:Self Healing moved to Wiki Science/Self Healing)
 * 06:01, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (3,098 bytes)
 * 20:42, 27 September 2005 68.224.232.17 (3,071 bytes) (→Evil spirits: - removed 'blahs')
 * 12:33, 16 September 2005 70.88.192.101 (3,123 bytes) (→Evil spirits)
 * 22:39, 17 April 2005 Zach Alexander m (3,072 bytes) (→Evil spirits: wikify sandbox)
 * 12:17, 14 September 2004 128.88.255.34 (3,068 bytes) (→Good spirits)
 * 12:17, 14 September 2004 128.88.255.34 (3,083 bytes) (→Good spirits)
 * 20:42, 15 June 2004 134.164.40.230 (3,068 bytes) (→Damage)
 * 02:40, 21 May 2004 KirbyMeister (3,108 bytes)
 * 00:09, 16 May 2004 Akagu (2,732 bytes) (moved spirits back from introductio)
 * 01:19, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,465 bytes)
 * 01:19, 15 May 2004 Akagu (1,461 bytes) (moving terms to introduction)
 * 01:05, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (3,182 bytes)
 * 00:53, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (3,162 bytes)
 * 00:49, 15 May 2004 Akagu (3,218 bytes)
 * 00:48, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (2,778 bytes)
 * 00:47, 15 May 2004 Akagu (2,802 bytes) (good and evil moved here)
 * 23:52, 14 May 2004 Akagu (1,547 bytes)
 * 17:20, 13 May 2004 DavidCary m (1,526 bytes)
 * 14:21, 24 April 2004 DavidCary (1,526 bytes) (Some ways to deal with Evil Spirit users are ...)
 * 06:52, 3 April 2004 168.122.204.195 (1,474 bytes) (standardizing capitalization, spelling, corrected self-healing equation)
 * 07:36, 28 March 2004 Jim Mckeeth (1,473 bytes) (Wiki Science:)
 * 07:24, 28 March 2004 Jim Mckeeth (1,363 bytes) (What is it?)
 * 22:44, 23 March 2004 R3m0t m (1,266 bytes)
 * 02:10, 23 March 2004 KirbyMeister (1,266 bytes)
 * 21:33, 27 February 2004 Guaka (358 bytes)
 * 13:54, 22 January 2004 81.101.8.93 (321 bytes)

Topic
I don't like the links to very small pages that are very hard to extend... It's better to have them fit in this article itself. Comments? Akagu 00:44, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

Ummm, your discussion of Good and Evil Spirits is very two-dimensional as is the concept itself. Accordingly, applying mathematical formulas or ratio determinations seems a bit hackneyed. Perhaps the central question should be to what extent is the normative purpose of the site maintained, protected, or expanded in a way consistent with the original purpose. This determination appears far too subjective to be subject to any rigid mathematical formula. Moreover, it is intuitively obvious that a wiki-creator would desire that 'positive contributions', or those consistent with his intended purpose for the wiki, outweigh 'negative contributions'. But the determination of what is consistent and what is not with the original normative values is far more complex and not easily arrived at, especially when abiding by the notion that a wiki is a communal enterprise. Hence a simple determination by the wiki-creator that the "evil" contained within his site outweighs the "good", or vice versa, may be inconsistent or only partially in sync with the determinations of the site's contributing members or readers.

title: Talk:Wiki science/Self Healing


text:
Wiki science/How to Maintain a Wiki

People are the most important thing. So maintain a vibrant user base.

Some wikis have one or more pages specifically dedicated to listing actions to take (rather than just discussing some topic). Some things only the wiki maintainer can do: While other things could be done by anyone:
 * http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiBugs
 * http://wiki.taoriver.net/moin.cgi/WorkOrders
 * http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RefactorByMerging

Sometimes the list isn't maintained on the page itself, but on the BackLinks to that page (using the category system)
 * http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PleaseComment

In particular, FAQs work well on Wiki because there is collaboration between people who add questions to the FAQ and people who add answers to the FAQ.

title: Wiki science/How to Maintain a Wiki


text:
Talk:Wiki science/How to Maintain a Wiki

Edit history

 * 04:22, 27 January 2009 Swift m (852 bytes) (Rm .)
 * 08:46, 15 September 2008 Dan Polansky m (868 bytes) (Wiki Science/How to maintain a Wiki moved to Wiki Science/How to Maintain a Wiki: Naming conventions.)
 * 07:19, 11 October 2007 Heuler06 m (868 bytes) (unifying)
 * 04:12, 7 March 2007 67.172.181.138 (868 bytes)
 * 04:10, 7 March 2007 67.172.181.138 (896 bytes)
 * 04:10, 7 March 2007 67.172.181.138 (868 bytes)
 * 04:10, 7 March 2007 67.172.181.138 (885 bytes)
 * 22:46, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (868 bytes) (topnav)
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (818 bytes) (Wiki Science:How to maintain a Wiki moved to Wiki Science/How to maintain a Wiki)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (818 bytes)
 * 01:52, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (807 bytes)
 * 00:04, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (788 bytes)
 * 00:02, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (766 bytes)
 * 14:35, 8 May 2004 DavidCary (745 bytes) (moved some text to vibrant user base)
 * 13:37, 8 May 2004 68.229.240.25 (1,726 bytes) (BeBold)
 * 18:56, 6 May 2004 DavidCary (1,630 bytes) ("stuff to do" pages)
 * 14:13, 6 May 2004 DavidCary (953 bytes) (DocumentingSocialNorms)
 * 21:30, 28 April 2004 68.0.118.102 (126 bytes) (the "Welcome Ritual")


text:
Wiki science/Source Code

Many wikis discuss programming topics, such as learning a particular programming language, drawing fractals or adding plug-ins to utility software. Specific tips and recommendations ...

 * Most wikis already support formatting source code in a special way

 * A few wikis support executing code on the browser's computer (probably only possible with JavaScript or Java).

 * A few wikis support executing code on the server (so the code can be just about any language): http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWithProgrammableContent

Licenses
What sort of license governs the source code displayed by your wiki? For example, if you're writing a language tutorial with lots of "toy" programs, you could say "all source code is public domain".

(What sort of license governs the regular text displayed by your wiki?)

title: Wiki science/Source Code


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Source Code

Edit history

 * 22:48, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (1,039 bytes) (topnav )
 * 06:04, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,017 bytes) (Wiki Science:Source Code moved to Wiki Science/Source Code)
 * 06:03, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,017 bytes)
 * 09:15, 7 May 2006 220.238.95.38 (990 bytes)
 * 15:36, 3 February 2006 200.171.245.234 (992 bytes)
 * 15:36, 3 February 2006 200.171.245.234 (991 bytes)
 * 15:33, 3 February 2006 200.171.245.234 (996 bytes)
 * 15:32, 3 February 2006 200.158.89.225 (997 bytes) (→Licenses)
 * 15:32, 3 February 2006 200.158.89.225 (995 bytes) (→Licenses)
 * 00:05, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,005 bytes)
 * 00:02, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,007 bytes)
 * 11:59, 27 April 2004 Akagu m (986 bytes)
 * 11:57, 27 April 2004 Akagu m (960 bytes)
 * 06:31, 26 April 2004 DavidCary m (915 bytes)
 * 05:48, 26 April 2004 DavidCary (858 bytes)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Source Code


text:
Wiki science/Trolls

Trolls are anonymous users of internet services characterized by inflammatory messages and criticism. While some users find trolls to be extremely annoying, others view them as an essentially part of the process that leads towards good content being produced. They are particularly useful for challenging widely-held, but untested beliefs, as anonymous trolls are free to say what others cannot.

Calling them as such
Trolling is rarely done accidentally. As such, telling someone they're trolling or are a troll is not likely to make them reform. Also, if by chance they weren't deliberately trolling, accusing them of trolling could very easily offend them and could make them lose their interest in contributing to Wikimedia. It will also make you look bad as well.

How to deal with trolls
Trolling is usually responded to two different ways: Preventing access by the troll, and ignoring them.

Engaging with trolls
While the manner of trolls can be infuriating at times, they obviously do still contribute valid points of view and facts at times. Engaging with trolls, particularly on controversial topics, can expose your ideas to harsh criticism. This kind of 'trial by fire' puts your beliefs to the test and only the valid ones will survive it.

Banning/blocking trolls
A 'ban trolls' policy on your wiki is very controversial. While it is thought to control 'bad trolling', it also harms 'good trolling'. Some points to consider:

 * It may discourage some trolling.
 * It may help the community to respond to trolling by knowing that it is officially frowned upon.
 * It may lead to group think - the phenomenon whereby a prevailing consensus view is not open to challenge by other users

The usual penalties for trolling are removing trollish edits, reverting all edits by the troll to a certain area (Such as discussion) or outright blocking the account/IP(s) used in the trolling.

One downside is that an overly strict policy on trolling may result in someone with a slightly abrasive manner being deemed a troll without any better cause.

Ignoring trolls
Some people favor a policy of just not responding to trollish comments, sometimes not even to remove them.

title: Wiki science/Trolls


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Trolls

Edit history

 * 12:40, 25 March 2009 91.85.191.141 (2,383 bytes) (removing a clearly false bit of prejudice)
 * 12:36, 25 March 2009 91.85.191.141 (2,711 bytes)
 * 12:32, 25 March 2009 91.85.191.141 (2,530 bytes) (→How to deal with trolls)
 * 02:51, 28 December 2007 Mattb112885 m (2,167 bytes) (Reverted edit of 70.80.155.147, changed back to last version by 68.39.174.238)
 * 02:26, 28 December 2007 70.80.155.147 (1,513 bytes) (→What not to do with trolls)
 * 19:02, 2 December 2007 68.39.174.238 (2,167 bytes) (That edit seemed questionable; also remove that one point per talk page.)
 * 11:06, 3 May 2007 81.153.193.104 (2,112 bytes) (trying to balance out what seemed to be a bit of a rant)
 * 23:29, 17 January 2007 192.195.66.44 (2,358 bytes) (→Banning\blocking trolls)
 * 23:28, 17 January 2007 192.195.66.44 (2,358 bytes)
 * 08:34, 11 December 2006 148.100.208.254 (2,358 bytes) (→Banning\blocking trolls)
 * 01:43, 3 November 2006 68.39.174.238 (2,359 bytes) (Oops)
 * 01:43, 3 November 2006 68.39.174.238 (2,358 bytes) (Fix format)
 * 23:47, 9 September 2006 68.39.174.238 (2,384 bytes) (I don't know enough about that ideology)
 * 22:56, 9 September 2006 68.39.174.238 (1,684 bytes) (Add some to this section)
 * 22:55, 9 September 2006 68.39.174.238 (1,391 bytes) (Add to section)
 * 15:01, 2 September 2006 72.83.74.49 (1,141 bytes)
 * 23:12, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (1,224 bytes) (→= Ignoring trolls: correction)
 * 23:11, 24 August 2006 A3 nm (1,223 bytes) (creation)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Trolls


text:
Wiki science/Future of Wiki

The first wiki, the WikiWikiWeb, was created in 1995 and wiki is thus a relatively young concept. Since 1995 the concept has evolved a lot. Wikipedia, where the concern for both layout and content can said to be a major breakthrough of the wiki concept to a larger public - as well as concerning media attention as the great number people cooperating.

The future of wiki is likely to be increasingly intertwined with the future of the internet. Here are some things that might benefit the future of wikis:

Blog and wiki
A weblog or blog is a website which contains periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage.

Weblogs have some similarities with wikis, in that they may stimulate community interaction, and some allow reader feedback. Weblogs do not generally permit readers to modify existing text, though some exist that do (see blikis, chat rooms).

A merging of blog and wiki technologies can be seen at Bloki.com.

.wiki
A .wiki domain name ..

.. Some dispute this since .net for internet provider companies and .edu are falling out of favor in favor of .com and .org. ..

.. However both .net and .edu are intended to provide information about the provider of information rather than a characteristic of the information itself. Thus arguably the .wiki/.wik Top Level Domain would provide information of far more value to a searcher. Another example might be a .pub TLD for public domain information or the .NFP (not for profit ad free)

A wiki of wiki
http://wikiindex.com

Topical interconnection between wikis
At the present time (October 2004) there is little but stylistic emphasis between different MediaWiki projects. However in the future as the need to present XML stored information in a variety of search and display styles become important, information will become static data and the means of presentation will vary.

Wikitext standard
Development and successful implementation of a wikitext standard including an interwiki link standard and an interwiki identity standard.

Mature software
More mature software environment allowing administrators to easily start a wiki

WYSIWYG?
Standard editing conventions or a more reliable WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)editing environment.

WikiCurricula?
Not to be confused with Wikiversity, a compendium of lesson plans, lesson resources and possibly audio and video collections of lectures, speeches, books, etc. Not limited to traditional academics (as Wikiversity implies), the WikiCurricula could include all schooling from pre-Kindergarten through elementary, secondary, college, technical school, special education, language education, adult education, etc.

Curricula could be searched by age/grade group, language of delivery, subject, additional media (audio, video, slideshow, etc) and other criteria. An exemplary model for consideration might be MIT's Open Courseware Initiative.

The name might not be WikiCurricula (WikiLessonPlans? WikiEducation?), but it is recommended not to be abbreviated to wikicula, which sounds dirty or like a gynecological instrument.

Wiki Life Cycle
An individual wiki may experience something akin to a biological life span or life cycle as suggested in this article on Meatball Wiki:

http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WikiLifeCycle

Future wiki features
The original wiki was a relatively quick hack, close to "the simplest thing that could possibly work". Well-meaning people have pointed out a huge number of things that are lacking. There is an entire wiki dedicated to listing new features for wiki.

Some of these proposed new features are likely to be implemented and tried out. However, some of these features will turn out to be counter-productive, and backed out of the wiki. It's quite possible that future websites may discover that removing even more features may make things easier to use or better in some other way.

title: Wiki science/Future of Wiki


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Future of Wiki

Edit history

 * 15:27, 17 September 2006 Swift (3,742 bytes) (Changed links to naming convention
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (3,742 bytes) (Wiki Science:Future of Wiki moved to Wiki Science/Future of Wiki)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (3,742 bytes)
 * 15:56, 9 June 2006 203.214.85.83 (3,715 bytes) (→WYSIWYG?: rm vandalism)
 * 07:04, 15 April 2006 Hagindaz m (3,726 bytes) (Link corrections)
 * 07:01, 4 March 2006 68.40.13.127 (3,657 bytes) (→A wiki of wiki)
 * 06:25, 25 January 2006 70.26.157.174 (3,710 bytes) (→Wikitext standard)
 * 13:26, 11 January 2006 72.131.47.249 (3,709 bytes) (→WYSIWYG?)
 * 17:42, 27 November 2005 71.141.129.133 (3,698 bytes) (Removed extra =)
 * 21:54, 6 October 2005 64.40.57.121 (3,699 bytes)
 * 02:47, 5 September 2005 201.1.150.199 (3,490 bytes) (→WYSIWYG?)
 * 23:11, 4 September 2005 2004-12-29T22:45Z (3,460 bytes)
 * 11:40, 11 July 2005 Geocachernemesis m (3,493 bytes) (rv link spam by 207.248.240.118)
 * 10:14, 11 July 2005 207.248.240.118 (11,800 bytes)
 * 03:43, 31 May 2005 203.94.87.115 (3,493 bytes) (→Topical interconnection between wikis: typo)
 * 22:14, 5 May 2005 66.181.4.66 (3,493 bytes) (→Topical interconnection between wikis)
 * 22:54, 4 February 2005 Paranoid (3,492 bytes) (→Blog and wiki: URLify)
 * 08:42, 30 November 2004 Gentgeen (3,472 bytes) (removed reference to ASQ book, as it's been deleted)
 * 12:52, 5 October 2004 Dysprosia m (3,545 bytes) (Reverted edit of 221.196.142.68, changed back to last version by Lobster)
 * 08:49, 5 October 2004 221.196.142.68 (22,551 bytes)
 * 06:38, 5 October 2004 Lobster m (3,545 bytes)
 * 12:30, 30 September 2004 195.157.146.246 (3,403 bytes) (→.wiki)
 * 12:27, 30 September 2004 195.157.146.246 (3,317 bytes) (→.wiki)
 * 12:24, 30 September 2004 195.157.146.246 (3,304 bytes) (→.wiki)
 * 12:24, 30 September 2004 195.157.146.246 (3,291 bytes) (→.wiki)
 * 15:04, 25 July 2004 207.189.252.44 (3,053 bytes)
 * 00:10, 16 May 2004 Akagu (2,154 bytes)
 * 01:51, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (2,055 bytes)
 * 01:50, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (2,053 bytes) (=Directory of wikis=)
 * 01:49, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (2,051 bytes)
 * 01:49, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (2,059 bytes)
 * 01:48, 15 May 2004 Akagu (2,061 bytes)
 * 01:29, 15 May 2004 Akagu (1,248 bytes)
 * 00:02, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (1,051 bytes) (incomplete)
 * 00:00, 15 May 2004 Akagu (1,028 bytes)
 * 00:51, 12 April 2004 216.254.10.130 (813 bytes) (+Topical Interconnection Between Wiki)
 * 15:58, 10 April 2004 146.101.66.159 (770 bytes)
 * 12:40, 1 April 2004 Akagu m (647 bytes)
 * 12:38, 1 April 2004 Akagu m (648 bytes) (and .org)
 * 07:56, 17 March 2004 68.228.250.130 (639 bytes) (link to Semantic prosthetic page)
 * 20:05, 6 March 2004 200.42.213.33 (554 bytes)
 * 20:02, 6 March 2004 200.42.213.33 (394 bytes)
 * 14:07, 22 January 2004 81.101.8.93 (267 bytes)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Future of Wiki


text:
Wiki science/Wikiresearch

Wikipedia was started beginning 2001 and can be considered highly successful. It is however not the proper place for original research. Hence the idea of Wikiresearch, a project to do wiki-style scientific research: collaborative and under a free license.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia being written collaboratively by voluntary contributors from all over the world. The site is a wiki, meaning that anyone with an internet connection can edit any article except for a few protected pages Wikipedia:About. Since 2001 over 260.000 English language articles have been written and over 410.000 articles in other languages. Wikipedia's parent organization is the Wikimedia Foundation Inc., a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of Florida.

All the articles are licensed under the GFDL and the MediaWiki software that the project runs on is released under the GPL. This makes sure the encyclopedia remains free. Anyone could start a mirror or a fork.

Serious and less serious information about the sociology of Wikipedia can be found on the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki.

MediaWiki
Mediawiki has quite some advantages over other Wiki systems . It makes no use of UpperCaseLinks or little icons to indicate the existence of a link; the colors of the links indicate whether it's an external link or an existing or still non-existing article. The edit history has an adequate diff function, which facilitates maintenance and makes eradicating wiki vandalism a snap.

The modular WikiTeX system adds the capability to incorporate rendered TeX objects inside MediaWiki output. GetWiki, which is used by Recyclopedia, is a fork of MediaWiki and adds XML import functionality. The problem is that the modified parts are licensed under a Creative Commons license and cannot be reintegrated into MediaWiki, since the project people want to keep it GPL only.

Some more free collaborative projects
The Mediawiki software is also used for several other collaborative projects with the goal to create free and open information:
 * Wikimedia projects, all using the GFDL:
 * Wikibooks, a collection of textbooks
 * Wiktionary, a multi-lingual dictionary
 * Wikisource, a collection of source texts and their translations
 * Wikiquote, a collection of proverbs and quotes of famous persons
 * Wikivoyage, a travel guide
 * projects not from Wikimedia:
 * Wikitravel, a travel guide.
 * SourceWatch, a collection of information about "public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests." Using the GFDL.
 * Consumerium, a project that develops free software and infrastructure for "storage, transport and display of product information to consumers and feedback to the producers to enhance the consumer experience, advance product development and to keep this planet as hospitable as possible in the future". This project decided to do most of its research directly on Wikipedia.
 * CorpKnowPedia, a project that charts the corporate landscape.
 * designbreak.org, a wiki for creating and collaborating on research and engineering projects
 * MetaCollab.net, an open research, meta collaboration (a collaboration on collaboration) with the aim to explore the similarities and differences in the nature, methods and motivations of collaboration across any and every field of human endeavour. Hosted by Wikia.com.
 * Wikiresearch, a synthesis of knowledge through collaboration
 * Citizendium, an encyclopedia that seeks to create credible articles

No original research
Wikipedia is not the place for original research such as "new" theories.

Wikipedia is not a primary source. Specific factual content is not the question. Wikipedia is a secondary source (one that analyzes, assimilates, evaluates, interprets, and/or synthesizes primary sources) or tertiary source (one that generalizes existing research or secondary sources of a specific subject under consideration). A Wikipedia entry is a report not an essay.

Free software and free information
In comparison to free software the threshold to join a free information project is much lower. There is not a lot of unnatural syntax to learn. Typos and spelling errors won't crash anyone's computer and won't cause loss of valuable data.

It's not important to be an expert to add information to a wiki. Almost any part of human knowledge are welcome in the Wikipedia project - as long as it's written down in an encyclopedic manner. Information about travelling will feel more at home in the Wikitravel project. Course books are warmly welcomed at Wikibooks. Nearly anyone with good will, the ability to type, and Internet access can add some of his or her knowledge.

Projects like Wikipedia share the spirit of free software yet have the advantage of being much more accessible. There are many more people that can correct a spelling error than there are programmers that can fix a bug in even the tiniest software project.

Generally most wiki projects evolve like stone soup. At first there is hardly anything interesting to be seen. Then people come by and think "Ah, I can add some lines here". The Wikipedia project attracted thousands of people thinking like this in only three years' time. Many of these people became regular contributors. Contributors can roughly be divided into three groups: correctors of spelling mistakes and typos, people who add some lines now and then, and content adders.

Already Wikipedia is the biggest freely available encyclopedia on the internet. Considering the exponential growth of the project, it should surpass all other existing encyclopedias within the next decade - both in quantity (100 million articles in 100 languages?) and in quality - already Wikipedia is linked to by many news web sites in the world.

Scientific institutes and the market
Currently there is a trend to move financing of science from the government towards the marketplace. According to the accompanying neoliberal view scientific institutes such as universities or more specialized research institutes are to find more of their financing in the market place, which according to the neoliberal theory would lead to more useful knowledge and products.

Private funding may bias the resulting findings, since members of the institute might lose their income when the results aren't to the funder's liking. Another consequence is that more and more results will only be available to the funders, or to parties willing to pay and use the results under restricted conditions. Results can be in the form of:
 * software
 * patents, for example on software,
 * file formats (such as MP3)
 * knowledge about organisms, medicine

Since science is built on existing results, institutions that act on the marketplace are often less eager to quickly share results, which thus results in less cooperation. In this regard there are huge differences between different scientific cultures. At one end of the spectrum one can find abstract mathematics, that initially have very few direct applications and at the other end there are applied sciences such as robotics and genetics, where results are of utmost commercial interest.

In mathematics it is normal to publish results with the greatest care for detail. In applied sciences, where institutes tend to be much more competitive, less room is left for cooperation. This often leads to publications that reveal certain aspects of the results, but not a detailed implementation.

Free software
Developers in the 1970s already shared their software in conformity with the principles of free software. In the 1980s companies started imposing restrictions on users with the use of license agreements. In 1983 Richard Stallman started working on the GNU project and introduced the concepts of "free software" and "copyleft", which are specifically devised to give users freedom and to restrain the possibilities for privatization.

These days nearly every scientific institute makes use of free software of some kind. Although typically a free/propriety software combination is used instead of all free software, such as running MATLAB on a GNU/Linux OS. Often there is no urge to move away from the proprietary model to a more collaborative model.

A lot of free software is created by scientists. Sometimes this is paid for the institute they work for, but more often this is done in their spare time.

Publications
For a scientist it is important to publish results. Most renowned journals are owned by large publishers.

Many scientific articles are by publishers who place restrictions on their use. Some articles can be freely accessed online (like on the U.S. National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central); in many physics disciplines, especially in astrophysics, cosmology and high energy, theoretical physics, nearly all articles are made freely available on the arXiv preprint server. But often online access is restricted to paid users. Redistribution is hardly ever possible. Modification or reuse beyond simple quoting is out of the question.

Often publications discuss results obtained with software that is not freely available. In many fields this causes problems with falsifiability of the results. If the software is only roughly described in an article, it is very hard for a reader to repeat the obtained results.

Even inside institutions there is sometimes limited cooperation and mostly competition.

Peer-reviewed publishing in wiki format
There is now a wikicity for peer-reviewed wiki journals.

Wikiresearch - practical
A first experiment of Wikiresearch has already been started in the form of Wiki science. This is a study of the way Wikis are growing, changing and adapting.

Putting finished articles in Wikiresearch is to be encouraged. Published as well as unfinished articles. Also articles rejected by journals and conferences are interesting; they might contain research slightly too original and if the quality isn't yet what is expected from scientific articles they can be improved at Wikiresearch.

Maintainership and responsibility
The MediaWiki software allows to restore previous versions and see which user (or IP address) changed what. Until now the various Wikipedia projects have experienced relatively little vandalism. Regular users with a login often check what has been changed and by whom, where anonymous edits are regarded with a bit more suspicion.

Certain Wikipedia pages are attractive to vandals, but these pages are also checked very often by regular contributors. So on a busy Wikipedia such as the English version vandalised text tends to stay for at most a couple of minutes and the perpetrator will see that his or her action had only very little impact. This is also the reason it can be a good idea not to protect sensitive pages like Bush at the Wikipedia (see also this article's changelog for an indication of how much vandalism occurs at articles about sensitive topics).

For original research things could be a bit more tricky. Only time and a functional system can tell how much of a problem vandalism will be on a research wiki. The Wiki science resource, though still a struggling project, is an interesting test case.

Modifiability, authority
One way to do Wikiresearch is to have several main authors or rather authorities. This however goes against the wiki principle and it probably wouldn't lead to the amount of participation that can be attained with a more anarchistic model, where anyone is allowed to edit and add.

The license
The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) would be a good choice since it ensures license compatibility with the existing GFDL text corpus. It would be possible to have one wiki with pages that have a different license than the encouraged license, though this should possibly be discouraged since it comes in the way of this compatibility.

If somehow another license is chosen, at least the attribution of the writers should be ensured. This is good for tracing back the original author and is a way to avoid legal plagiarism. For a Creative Commons license this would mean that the Attribution option needs to be picked. Extra options, like ShareAlike or NonCommercial would mean text can't be incorporated in GFDL projects like Wikipedia or Wikibooks. NonDerivative goes against the entire idea of working in wikistyle.

Note that the Debian project considers both the GFDL as well as the Creative Commons Attribution license to be non-free. There are some people (such as Sloyment) who prefer not to use a copylefted license in order to provide the most freedom that is possible. More discussion about licenses to use for wikis is going on on this wiki (FIXME: Host wikilegal.wiki.taoriver.net not found).

Extensions of WikiMedia software
Though the ratio of the feature list and the time spent on MediaWiki by developers is extremely high there are still some possible extensions that would be of great use for a scientific research wiki.

Being able to import and export Dia and OpenOffice.org diagrams or even a more direct way of drawing sketches would be a great way to communicate new ideas.

If there is a need for accompanying source code this code should definitely not be under the GFDL. It is better to use the GPL or any other free software license.

Sciences
Mathematics is the science most adequate for Wikiresearch. Except for conjectures and axioms it is entirely based on strict proofs, that leave little room for opposing viewpoints. Mathematical Wikiresearch could after a specific period simply be copied to Wikipedia, that is, when enough eyes have dimished the possibility of mistakes and errors.

Though experimental sciences shouldn't be excluded. A bit of biological research has already taken place at the article about color blindness (see also the talk page).

For sciences that require experiments with test persons it can be very interesting to use Wikiresearch. Questions, test pictures and test sounds can be placed on the wiki and there will be enough test persons if there is less need for a .. sample of the general population.

Sciences such as history that are usually about defending a specific point of view are less adequate. But for these Wikipedia can be a proper place if there is enough will to keep a neutral point of view.

Another interesting field for Wikiresearch is VLF-reception with the PC.

Language
Since the late 19th century English has become by far the most important language for both scientific and political affairs Latin. This gives people whose mother tongue is English or a related language (Germanic, Indo-European) a big headstart in their higher education.

The Wikipedia project has encyclopedias in over 80 languages Wikipedia:Multilingual coordination. Polyglots are free to translate information from one language into another and this way even very small language communities can work on extending a knowledge base in their own language. Many languages for which no publisher would ever see an opportunity to create an encyclopedia now have growing encyclopedias.

This freedom of translating texts can be fruitful for the extension of human knowledge. Research can be translated from English, or any smaller pivotal language, into other languages and research can be undertaken in any other language and translated into a pivotal language later.

People
Traditionally science and scientific texts state the names of the authors more or less prominently. Wiki projects tend to anonymize texts; on MediaWiki wikis authors are usually only mentioned in the page history. Anyone can make little improvements, although there are usually one or more core authors of a text or article.

Most established scientists probably won't be attracted to working on Wikiresearch. There are however people who will be attracted to doing Wikiresearch: people who haven't finished their studies (yet) - or haven't even started them; people who chose a different career path; or scientists that want to work on fields completely different from what they are known for.

If a research wiki can attract a sufficient number of qualified people the wiki can probably qualify as a system equal to peer review. The difference is that peers aren't chosen among a small group of highly respected people. This can lead to both more original research as well as more charlatanesque works. The expectation is that especially the starting period will be of utmost importance.

Related

 * A lot of work can be done on improving Wikipedia articles, that can also be used as a clear definition for general concepts.

 * Results could take the form of a Wikibook.

 * Wikiversity is a Wikimedia project which is geared towards learning. Wikiversity policies to support research and researchers is being developed at the multilingual Wikiversity hub.

 * Presentation given at Oekonux 3 conference

 * Research is also being done at the German Wikipedia. See Wikipedistik

 * Research on Meta-Wiki should serve as a master page for collecting all research projects.

Examples

 * The TrustLet project

title: Wiki science/Wikiresearch


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Wikiresearch

Edit history

 * 13:41, 20 September 2010 Adrignola m (21,838 bytes) (→Related: fixed link)
 * 03:31, 16 July 2008 Mietchen (21,863 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects)
 * 18:12, 12 November 2007 82.228.196.179 (21,758 bytes) (→Sources: wrong url)
 * 21:53, 25 October 2007 74.220.71.205 (21,754 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects)
 * 21:52, 25 October 2007 74.220.71.205 (21,755 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects)
 * 17:11, 25 October 2007 Greenrd (22,305 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects: Wikiresearch is NOT a Wikimedia project)
 * 15:41, 7 September 2007 Mike.lifeguard m (22,306 bytes) (Undo revision 960756 by 204.52.215.107 (Talk))
 * 15:09, 7 September 2007 204.52.215.107 (22,320 bytes) (→No original research: just reflecting the reality here, see stuff such as "Wikipedia", "Bogdanov affair", etc.)
 * 16:16, 31 July 2007 Guaka (22,306 bytes) (→Examples: * The TrustLet project :))
 * 19:53, 22 July 2007 82.44.53.45 (22,328 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects)
 * 19:49, 22 July 2007 82.44.53.45 (22,380 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects)
 * 10:27, 21 June 2007 Guaka (22,231 bytes) (==Examples==)
 * 00:19, 28 January 2007 172.190.137.94 (22,150 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects: remove *personal opinion*, certainly pov)
 * 07:29, 15 January 2007 207.38.222.155 (22,251 bytes) (→Sciences)
 * 12:38, 6 January 2007 60.224.29.32 (22,494 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects: added MetaCollab)
 * 09:54, 30 December 2006 59.176.107.113 (22,169 bytes) (→Sciences)
 * 22:50, 26 November 2006 Xania m (21,926 bytes) (remove vandalism)
 * 22:48, 26 November 2006 66.240.221.36 (21,939 bytes) (→Peer-reviewed publishing in wiki format)
 * 18:12, 22 November 2006 JWSchmidt (21,926 bytes) (→Related: update Wikiversity)
 * 17:08, 22 November 2006 Herbythyme (21,937 bytes) (Revert to revision 629806 dated 2006-10-30 02:47:21 by JWSchmidt using popups)
 * 17:06, 22 November 2006 81.177.14.26 (21,949 bytes) (→Free software)
 * 17:03, 22 November 2006 Herbythyme (21,937 bytes) (Revert to revision 629806 dated 2006-10-30 02:47:21 by JWSchmidt using popups)
 * 16:59, 22 November 2006 81.177.14.26 (21,949 bytes) (→Peer-reviewed publishing in wiki format)
 * 02:47, 30 October 2006 JWSchmidt (21,937 bytes) (→Peer-reviewed publishing in wiki format: remove "981678244262229161205")
 * 21:07, 29 October 2006 81.177.14.26 (21,959 bytes) (→Peer-reviewed publishing in wiki format)
 * 19:01, 29 October 2006 Herbythyme (21,937 bytes) (Revert to revision 547824 dated 2006-08-04 06:04:57 by Jguk using popups)
 * 18:57, 29 October 2006 81.177.14.26 (21,959 bytes) (→Free software)
 * 06:04, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (21,937 bytes) (Wiki Science:Wikiresearch moved to Wiki Science/Wikiresearch)
 * 06:04, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (21,937 bytes)
 * 09:30, 1 July 2006 Jguk m (21,910 bytes)
 * 16:37, 22 May 2006 71.146.150.45 (21,872 bytes) (→External links)
 * 16:37, 22 May 2006 71.146.150.45 (21,873 bytes) (→External links)
 * 01:38, 10 May 2006 203.46.185.166 (21,768 bytes) (→Maintainership and responsibility: idiom)
 * 01:36, 10 May 2006 203.46.185.166 (21,771 bytes) (idiom)
 * 06:45, 15 April 2006 Hagindaz m (21,770 bytes) (→Some more free collaborative projects: Changing link to go to Wikipedia)
 * 22:18, 19 January 2006 81.109.8.16 (21,743 bytes) (Correcting some historical errors based on first hand experience of the event)
 * 14:58, 11 November 2005 Williamlear (21,472 bytes) (→Related)
 * 14:55, 11 November 2005 70.17.159.135 (21,473 bytes) (→Free software and free information)
 * 21:12, 20 October 2005 85.75.44.218 (21,494 bytes) (→Sciences)
 * 19:14, 8 October 2005 80.109.8.164 (21,416 bytes) (→External links)
 * 19:10, 8 October 2005 80.109.8.164 (21,236 bytes) (→External links)
 * 00:01, 27 August 2005 JWSchmidt (21,417 bytes) (→Publications: peer-reviewed wiki journals)
 * 13:40, 6 July 2005 JWSchmidt (21,263 bytes) (→External links: academic publishing)
 * 08:37, 29 June 2005 Geocachernemesis m (21,164 bytes) (rv link spam by 205.209.184.231)
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 * 00:57, 13 May 2005 Boud m (21,164 bytes) (→Publications: discIplines)
 * 00:56, 13 May 2005 Boud (21,163 bytes) (→Publications: arXiv :))
 * 00:21, 13 April 2005 Dysprosia m (20,937 bytes) (you need to have your own project, it's being discussed on meta)
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 * 01:11, 30 December 2004 62.39.206.105 (21,067 bytes) (Corrected typo and changed wording to "Considering the exponential growth of the project...")
 * 17:03, 13 December 2004 Guaka m (21,061 bytes) (→Sources)
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 * 08:11, 3 September 2004 Lobster (20,500 bytes) (→Free software)
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 * 23:32, 14 May 2004 Akagu (14,328 bytes) (copy from en.wiki.oekonux.org.uk)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Wikiresearch


text:
Wiki science/Semantic Prosthetic

Sefmantic Networks and Personal Experience
Human conscious experience is normally dominated by memory. New sensory experiences are processed in ways that are heavily influenced by past experiences. When sensory stimuli are reduced (sensory deprivation), a human brain is able to continue generating chains of thoughts by making use of existing memories. The ways in which one thought leads to another thought reflects a semantic network that exists within the brain. The behavior of such a semantic network can be described as a content addressable memory system. A new sensory pattern or a thought will "resonate" with existing contents of the memory system leading to activation of relevant memories and the generation of adaptive thoughts and behavioral responses. The semantic memory network is modified by on-going thoughts resulting in new memories. With time, human semantic memory comes to contain an increasing complex representation of the world.

Theory-based Semantics, Language of the Brain
Theory-based semantics states that the binding element of human thought is "theory," which constrains the meaning of concepts, ideas and thought patterns stored within the brain, according to their associative relationships to other concepts and ideas. As a result, concept, idea and thought pattern meanings are declarative and language independent, experienced as a "language of thought."

According to Dr. Richard L. Ballard, theory represents more than 85% of knowledge, withe the who, what, when, where and how much facts of situations and circumstances representing only 15%. Theory is “a priori” (known before the fact). It is the element that gives meaning to concepts, ideas and thought patterns, and the conditional reasoning power required to answer our "How," "Why" and "What if" questions. Learned through enculturation, education, life experience and deep analytical thinking, theory shapes our behavior and the way we understand our world. Well-justified theories such as those proven most successful by science, engineering, business and law are most valuable. Theory is predictive and considers all possibilities. Once it is learned it is used for decades, centuries and millenniums. Most of the core theories that shape our communial social behavior, for example, were conceived 10,000 to 24,000 years ago, passed down through the generations. Much of our financial theories, such as "buy low, sell high," or "the principles of interest," were conceived and put into use by our ancestors millenniums ago. Circumstances and situations may change rapidly, but the underlying theory that gives them meaning, do not.

First proposed by Richard L. Ballard, Ph.D. between 1987-1993, theory-based semantics is the governing principle of theory-based semantic systems which allow semantic software-based machines to reason with the same theories that humans use. Reference Source: "Fundamental Definitions in Knowledge Science & Engineering" by Dr. Richard L. Ballard, 12/2004. Physical Theory of Knowledge and Computation (2006).

Human Language as a Semantic Prosthetic Device
We all live in the same world and we all share a common genetic heritage which determines the basic structure and function of the brain. Humans have evolved in a social environment where there is a high level of reward for knowing what other people are thinking. It has been suggested that this need to know what others know is the major reason for our unique human cognitive strengths. If so, it may be that human languages evolve so as to best serve as tools for allowing people to come to know what other people are thinking. We can think of human language as a cultural artifact, a prosthetic device or a tool that assists humans to survive by enhancing their ability to come to know what other people know. We can describe human language as the original semantic prosthetic.

Wiki as a prosthetic device
Written language is a relatively new invention. Books and other written documents have become useful aids for the cultural transmission of knowledge and they certainly qualify as useful semantic prosthetics. However, traditional books and printed documents have severe limitations as semantic prosthetics: they are limited in perspective, expensive, rare, hard to access, and they easily become out-dated. Electronic forms of communication and knowledge exchange can avoid some of the limitations of printed books. When distributed by the world wide web, electronic documents such as HTML pages can become cheap, easy to copy, and easy to access. A single individual can keep conventional HTML pages up to date, but a quick look at the World Wide Web (WWW) reveals a common problem: too many HTML pages that are abandoned by their single authors and which quickly become irrelevant fossils.

Wiki HTML pages can escape the limitations of narrow perspective imposed by a limited number (usually just one) of authors and also make it easier to keep pages up to date by sharing the work load involved in the update process. While conventional HTML pages can be cheap, another all too common feature of the WWW is the sale of information. Open and free modes of information exchange (like wikis using a free license) can place reasonable limits on the cost of obtaining information. It remains to be seen just how dramatically human communication will be affected by new semantic prostheses like wikis. Empirical observations will be required as part of the scientific study of Wikis as semantic prostheses.

Semantic prosthetic theory and the future of Wiki
Can we make fruitful guesses about the future of wikis as semantic prosthetic devices? I suggest that a theoretical foundation for the science of wiki can be established by formalizing the idea of a semantic network. We can start by thinking about the set of all things that people have known, now know, and will know in the future. We can conceptualize this set of human knowledge as a high-dimensional space, but project all of the high-dimensional structure into a simple 2-dimensional map for "back of the envelop" evaluation of basic ideas.

One important 2-dimensional projection results from mapping each person's total knowledge as a point on a 2D "everything I know" map (or, for short, "knowledge map"). We imagine that at any given time, each individual is located at some point (A) on this map. A prosthetic device like a wiki can speed the rate at which a person moves across the map towards a new desired state of knowledge (B). In building our wikis, we can seek ways to maximize their ability to increase the speed at which people can move around on the "everything I know" map. The formation of new useful semantic memory (movement across the "everything I know" map) depends on a fruitful matching (path 2 in the diagram) between what a person already knows and the format of the information provided by the semantic prosthetic device that is guiding that person to a new state of knowledge (a new location on the knowledge map). For each person the topography of the knowledge map might be different and for most efficient movement to a new state of knowledge there is an optimal path. Without good matching between the learner and the topic to be learned, the learning process is more difficult (path 1 in the diagram).

How can a wiki evolve so as to be able to provide optimal paths? I think there are two basic ways to promote the utility of a wiki as a semantic prosthetic device. First, the people who make the wiki pages have to be thinking about how to most efficiently move a person from point A to point B. This requires an understanding of what it means for a person to be at point A or point B and an understanding of the cognitive landscape around this region of the knowledge map. Second, the people making the wiki pages have to be able to abandon the idea of "one page fits all". Different people are going to arrive at point B from different starting points. Diversity, a multiplicity of approaches to point B need to be made available. This is the positive approach and algorithm for wiki success.

Pulling our ladders up behind us
I think the major problem for optimization of a wiki is that once people reach a certain knowledge state, they tend to forget what it was like before they got there. This problem can be addressed by collaboration between people who are at point A and point B on a knowledge map. Users of a wiki who are using the wiki to get from A to B have to be able to provide feedback to those people who are already at B. By way of this feedback learners can make known the places on a wiki page where they fail to make rapid progress towards their learning goal. At the very least, there needs to be a way for people to mark places on a wiki page where they get confused and need more help. Theoretically, such feedback could take place on "talk" pages that are associated with each content page. However, current wiki talk pages tend to be dominated by arguments between people who are already at point B.

Actual users (those who are learning from the content of the page) need a simple and quick way to mark difficult locations in a page. The standard for ease of use is "point and click." I propose that wiki engineers should develop a system by which wiki readers can be provided with a small pallet of "feedback markups" where they can simply click on an icon and "stick" it on the page where they have a problem or want to make a comment. Ideally, each page could have a transparent "markup" overlay that would display the user feedback icons and could be used to quickly visually identify problem locations on a page.

The "stop", "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" icons would just be dragged onto the page and dropped. When the "add a comment" icon is dropped, a comment window would open allowing the user to add a comment for that particular location in the page. An example of a wiki page with this user markup overlay is shown below.

title: Wiki science/Semantic Prosthetic


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Semantic Prosthetic

Edit history

 * 13:34, 20 September 2010 Adrignola m (10,659 bytes) (→Semantic prosthetic theory and the future of Wiki: fixed link)
 * 14:43, 2 March 2010 JWSchmidt (10,669 bytes) (remove old "OR" tag: either delete the page or get over it)
 * 23:38, 24 December 2009 Adrignola m (10,676 bytes) (→Pulling our ladders up behind us: fixed file link)
 * 17:52, 30 April 2009 Swift (10,671 bytes) (rm blatant original research, left since there are still instances of this ("I suggest", "I think"))
 * 09:18, 15 September 2008 Dan Polansky (11,751 bytes) (+Editor note: original research.)
 * 08:46, 15 September 2008 Dan Polansky m (11,664 bytes) (Wiki Science/Semantic prosthetic moved to Wiki Science/Semantic Prosthetic: Naming conventions.)
 * 16:32, 10 June 2007 D L Thomas (11,664 bytes)
 * 19:41, 11 October 2006 4.235.99.139 (9,557 bytes) (→Degenerotes, Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes, Semantotes)
 * 09:45, 10 October 2006 4.235.99.221 (9,640 bytes) (→Degenerotes, Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes, Semantotes)
 * 09:44, 10 October 2006 4.235.99.221 (9,634 bytes) (→Degenerotes, Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes, Semantotes)
 * 23:11, 24 August 2006 A3 nm m (9,556 bytes) (-inline title)
 * 06:03, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (9,601 bytes) (Wiki Science:Semantic prosthetic moved to Wiki Science/Semantic prosthetic)
 * 06:01, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (9,601 bytes)
 * 06:56, 15 April 2006 Hagindaz m (9,574 bytes) (en: => w:)
 * 18:16, 1 April 2006 69.142.214.184 (9,573 bytes) (→Semantic prosthetic theory and the future of Wiki)
 * 00:11, 27 March 2006 JWSchmidt (9,570 bytes) (→Pulling our ladders up behind us: ipage to page)
 * 14:27, 10 September 2005 69.162.17.100 (9,571 bytes)
 * 14:26, 10 September 2005 69.162.17.100 (9,562 bytes)
 * 13:57, 6 July 2005 JWSchmidt (9,353 bytes) (→Degenerotes, Prokaryotes, Eukaryotes, Semantotes)
 * 11:32, 3 April 2005 202.82.65.98 (9,348 bytes) (→Pulling our ladders up behind us)
 * 02:24, 26 August 2004 68.1.94.231 (9,347 bytes) (typo)
 * 00:02, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (9,382 bytes)
 * 00:54, 2 April 2004 Akagu (9,387 bytes) (=Wiki as a prosthetic device= OpenSource and FDL -> Open and free)
 * 20:07, 1 April 2004 JWSchmidt (9,394 bytes) (=Wiki as a prosthetic device= fix typo)
 * 12:46, 1 April 2004 Akagu m (9,395 bytes) (link back)
 * 07:13, 28 March 2004 Jim Mckeeth m (9,361 bytes) (Wiki Science:)
 * 15:52, 27 March 2004 JWSchmidt (9,348 bytes) (=Semantic prosthetic theory and the future of Wiki= fix typo)
 * 15:27, 27 March 2004 JWSchmidt (9,348 bytes) (=Pulling our ladders up behind us=)
 * 05:19, 27 March 2004 Delta G m (9,170 bytes) (=Wiki as a prosthetic device=)
 * 21:49, 23 March 2004 JWSchmidt (9,171 bytes) (=Pulling our ladders up behind us= clarity)
 * 21:45, 23 March 2004 JWSchmidt m (9,117 bytes) (clarity)
 * 21:41, 23 March 2004 JWSchmidt (9,113 bytes) (=Semantic Networks and Personal Experience= add link to sensory deprivation)
 * 18:20, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (9,005 bytes) (add some links)
 * 08:42, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (8,879 bytes) (make link singular: Semantote)
 * 08:39, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (8,879 bytes) (add some links)
 * 08:33, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (8,746 bytes) (add some links)
 * 08:28, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (8,677 bytes) (add link to Future_of_Wiki)
 * 08:25, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (8,658 bytes) (add some links)
 * 08:13, 17 March 2004 JWSchmidt (8,426 bytes) (an article about wikis as semantic prosthetics)

Topic
This Stone soup is getting a bit spicier! A beauty, this article! It persuaded me to start editing on other pages. At first I wasn't very convinced of the possibilities of Wiki Science, or rather, the existing information I found here. Akagu 12:45, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I found an example of something like "pulling up the ladders behind us." You can put questions about a straight text right into the text. Then the keepers of the page could work the answers into the text, I would think. Or, they could just leave the questions "hanging out" on the side, or stached away in an icon that pops out into a full explanation. LionKimbro
 * Haha, that website was hilarious.

. . . This may be the most complete section of this book, but I didn't understand a word. Perhaps some clarification/links to definitions/etc would be in order? UnDeadGoat 22:59, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

What is that smell? Recursion? We need a learner's page markup system in order to improve an article about the need for a learner's page markup system. Maybe UnDeadGoat could start a list of what terms need clarification. --JWSurf 00:16, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

6/10/2007 D L Thomas: According to Carl Sagan, "Cosmos," Episode XI: "The Persistence of Memory," human DNA is a biological memory function composed of 5 Billion Neural Bits of decision-making capacity. 1 bit might make the decisions, for example, is it dark, Yes/No. Is it light, Yes/No. Nature created the human brain to because DNA could no longer support the memory requirements necessary for higher life forms beyond the jelly fish to evolve. The jelly fish has all the organs of humans with the exception of brains, kidneys and lungs. When the brain came into being, it provided the means for amphibians, reptiles, mammals and human species to evolve. The human brain is estimated to have a neural bit capacity of 10 to the power of 14: 100,000,000,000,000 bits. Given this, it should be noted that brains in addition to DNA provide "consciousness."

title: Talk:Wiki science/Semantic Prosthetic


text:
Wiki science/Case Study 1

The following report details the beginnings of the Book of Metal wiki—a wiki dedicated to documenting the metal music genre. This report and wiki began as a computer-mediated project at university. The wiki is not currently live, but it is the author’s hope that the wiki will flourish when it goes live later this year.

An argument for a metal wiki
This wiki grew out of a computer-mediated communication class where students were tasked with using a computer technology to facilitate or improve communication. Naturally, the author wished to combine his interest in metal with an innovative communication technology. A wiki appeared to be the logical information sharing solution for a worldwide community consisting of many diverse but related sub-genres.

Community Adoption

The Internet is home to many massive projects aimed at documenting, and reviewing metal music. Unfortunately, they all encounter the same problem—there is simply too much information to process, let alone organize. Nearly every country on the planet is home to at least one metal band and each month the metal community releases around fifty new albums. While the current attempts at centralizing information are admirable, the task is simply too big for a group of individuals.

A metal specific wiki has the potential to be rapidly and thoroughly embraced by the metal community. This adoption is likely for two reasons: elitism and enthusiasm. The metal community is simultaneously close-knit and very individualistic. The different metal genres vary drastically. Metal might be inspired by symphonies or folk music, or more basic primal genres that exemplify aggression. These differences lead to very specialized interests and preferences, and yet members of the metal community emphasize their similarities more often than their differences. These differences might impact an individual’s level of enthusiasm. The metal community’s diversity allows individuals to discover or start emotionally and audibly different bands that directly appeal to the individual. This connection often drives fans to extremes like flying to the band’s native country or tattooing the band’s label on their body. Much like other genres, the web hosts a multitude of fan-run websites. Many fans have even begun to document their favorite bands in Wikipedia articles.

These differences could be seen as a problem. In fact, a significant percentage of metal websites focus specifically on a sub-genre, suggesting that these differences are a problem for traditional websites. On the other hand, these differences might simply be a problem for traditional websites where the content decisions are in the hands of a small group of individuals. Instead, these differences might become a strength once the community is given a platform where the community can agree what constitutes metal and it’s multitude of distinct sub-genres.

The Theory

Wikis fail or prosper due to three theoretical considerations: hacker ethics, transaction costs, and reliability concerns.

HACKER ETHICS. Hacker ethics can be taken to mean many things, but for this article, I would like to focus on the belief that information should be free. This is one of the main reasons wikis have been successful. When considering starting a wiki, one needs to determine whether the community values the opinions of its members or if the community prefers to appeal to an authority. Communities that value individual opinions will be more likely to embrace a system where people collaboratively construct knowledge. Communities that look to experts instead of their peers may find trusting a wiki more difficult.

TRANSACTION COSTS. Transaction costs play a huge role in the success or failure of a wiki. Transaction costs refer to the amount of effort required to contribute to a wiki. Logically, the more difficult it is to contribute, the less likely people are to participate. While some people worry that wikis might make it too easy to contribute, most wikis err in this direction. (You mean they make it too easy?) The ease of contributing is one of the major reasons people have reliability concerns.

RELIABILITY CONCERNS. Most wikis address reliability concerns through tracking functionality and the hope that members of the community will clean up after troublemakers. This is an ongoing problem which can best be solved by providing the tools to reverse destructive changes quickly and conveniently. The Wikipedia community has developed an ethic which seems to work well for that project.

Important Considerations & Challenges
The following considerations and challenges summarize my key concerns for the project.

Encyclopedic vs. Information Resource

The wiki community still debates the best application of the concept and perhaps more prominently, whether the most well known wiki, Wikipedia, is truly an encyclopedia or just a very successful information resource. Early on, I decided that the wiki should not be restrained by artificial constraints. I would prefer for the wiki to become a vast informational resource that contains many encyclopedic entries but also more useful articles and content like biographies. This decision needed to be made early on because it sets the tone for the wiki and has the potential to sink the project. Some communities might be more receptive to an encyclopedia, others might welcome a less formal resource that gives the readers/contributors the opportunity to organize the information as they see fit.

Technical Hurdles

Founding a wiki involves several important technical decisions. First, wiki software must be selected. Wiki software differs in two key ways: functionality and server requirements.

Some wiki software simply allows contributors to create, edit, and track changes to pages. Others combine each article with a discussion page where future or past changes can be discussed. Other popular features are the ability tie changes to contributor’s names and WYSIWYG editing.

Once wiki software is selected, a server must be found to host the wiki. This can be a challenging task if you are not familiar with web hosting and database software. Fortunately, many of the simpler wiki programs only require a web server with PHP running. The files simply need to be uploaded to the web server with a couple of changes to file permissions. Other more complicated wiki programs like Wikimedia require MySQL, a database program that can be intimidating to setup.

Once a new wiki is setup and running, it is vital that a backup plan is in place. The smaller and younger the community, the more damaging any downtime will be. The bigger the wiki, the more damaging any data loss will be.

Rear View Mirror
In retrospect, I would have done a couple of things differently for the school portion of this project. First, I would have focused on hosting the wiki earlier on because I was unable to get MySQL properly running on my university account. Switching between wiki software is not a pleasant experience, especially when the platforms do not share the same features. Second, I would have enlisted the help of friends once the wiki was available. A wiki containing real contributions would have made this project more interesting.

Looking forward, I plan to do two things: recruit help and focus on formats and social norms.

First, I will enlist the help of friends who will help create content, establish formats, and establish social norms. Bringing more contributors in will be important if the wiki is ever to reach critical mass. As Larry Sanger has often noted, the likelihood of success increases as the number of participants increases.

Second, we will establish article formats and social guidelines as we generate content. In my opinion, a wiki needs a certain level of structure in order to succeed with an audience who is unfamiliar with the concept. This structure will make it easier for readers to understand the content and to see where they could contribute. I also believe that the social guidelines will be more effective if they are established as a small group actually interacts on the wiki. The guidelines will be more likely to match actual behavior if they are created based on real experiences.

I will be updating this article with additional findings once the wiki goes live.

title: Wiki science/Case Study 1


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Case Study 1

Edit history

 * 08:51, 15 September 2008 Dan Polansky m (10,798 bytes) (Wiki Science/Case studies 1 moved to Wiki Science/Case Study 1: Naming convention. Actually one study.)
 * 18:22, 12 November 2007 82.228.196.179 (10,798 bytes) (→Sources: wrong url)
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (10,799 bytes) (Wiki Science:Case studies1 moved to Wiki Science/Case studies 1)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (10,799 bytes)
 * 23:41, 27 January 2006 Karpinski (10,772 bytes) (→An argument for a metal wiki: rewording for better understanding)
 * 21:02, 8 June 2005 67.183.17.72 (10,635 bytes)

title: Talk:Wiki science/Case Study 1


text:
Wiki science/References

Some pages with useful information about wikis:

 * Starting and Running a Wiki Website
 * Wikipedia sociology at the Meta Wikipedia
 * Help Users Understand Wiki
 * CommunityWiki members work aggressively towards understanding, developing, and promoting wiki.
 * Wiki Research Bibliography a Bibliography of scientific publications and sources about wikis in general and Wikipedia in particular.
 * We-Think wikia: discusses the rise of mass, collaborative creativity, including but not limited to Wikipedia and other wiki.
 * open politics: wiki best practices
 * "How Wikipedia Works: And how you can be a part of it" book by Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates
 * the Meatball project discusses wiki and other online communities.
 * WikiPapers, a wiki research literature compilation (conference papers, journal articles, theses, datasets and tools)

title: Wiki science/References


text:
Talk:Wiki science/References

Edit history

 * 04:19, 31 May 2009 DavidCary (968 bytes) ("How Wikipedia Works")
 * 18:47, 14 February 2008 DavidCary (825 bytes) ("wiki best practices")
 * 04:49, 30 December 2007 DavidCary (743 bytes) (another related wiki)
 * 09:38, 20 October 2006 59.92.43.38 (588 bytes)
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (453 bytes) (Wiki Science:References moved to Wiki Science/References)
 * 06:01, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (453 bytes)
 * 17:07, 12 April 2005 217.231.148.151 (426 bytes) (+Wiki_Research_Bibliography)
 * 18:48, 10 February 2005 168.103.146.113 (366 bytes) (CommunityWiki)
 * 02:04, 15 May 2004 Akagu (247 bytes)

title: Talk:Wiki science/References


text:
Wiki science/History

The WikiScience resource was created on the 22nd January 2004 by Chris Anderson because he believes that wikis represent a major advancement in the advancement of human communication. For more information, read the introduction.

title: Wiki science/History


text:
Talk:Wiki science/History

Edit history

 * 13:35, 20 September 2010 Adrignola (322 bytes) (cleanup)
 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (479 bytes) (Wiki Science:History moved to Wiki Science/History)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (479 bytes)
 * 08:39, 9 January 2005 Alsocal m (452 bytes) (added back links)
 * 06:32, 30 May 2004 DavidCary (433 bytes) (the history of wiki)
 * 02:01, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (321 bytes)
 * 01:58, 15 May 2004 Akagu (349 bytes) (+date from why)
 * 00:14, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (313 bytes)
 * 00:14, 15 May 2004 Akagu m (313 bytes)
 * 00:24, 11 April 2004 Akagu (313 bytes)

title: Talk:Wiki science/History


text:
Wiki science/Interwiki identity standard

See en:Wikinfo:interwiki identity standard for a proposal for GetWiki recognition of one ID, preferably jabber.org ID, for all of GetWiki space.

If GetWiki also monitors the whole GFDL text corpus at the standard wiki URIs, and the wikitext standard supports the RecentChanges and DeletedPages log's conventions, it would be easy to have some common address other than simple IP numbers across many large public wikis.

This would simplify identity disputes for those who used such a voluntary common ID. For clashing allegations of identity, only a faction system can possibly work. See en:Wikinfo:faction for a proposal for this that would suit pan-GFDL editing.

''Anything that would help carry a person's identity across multiple wiki would be useful beyond much more than just wiki. It would be useful in community bulletin boards, in instant messaging, in online games, in IRC, in pretty much any domain online. Thus, I think we should look at pan-communications technology systems, rather than just confining ourselves to wiki. -- LionKimbro''


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Talk:Wiki science/Interwiki identity standard

Edit history

 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,271 bytes) (Wiki Science:Interwiki identity standard moved to Wiki Science/Interwiki identity standard)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (1,271 bytes)
 * 07:02, 15 April 2006 Hagindaz m (1,250 bytes) (Interwiki identity standard moved to Wiki Science:Interwiki identity standard)
 * 00:38, 12 April 2004 216.254.10.130 (1,250 bytes) (Anything that would help carry identity across multiple wiki would be useful beyond just wiki.)
 * 16:01, 10 April 2004 146.101.66.159 (855 bytes) (GFDL'd from Consumerium)

Topic
This article should go into a community discussion page.

? I don't understand? Community discussion page? Can you explain?

 * I was thinking of something like this page. JWSurf 02:43, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

This article makes no sense and it links to wikinfo articles that dont exist. Perl 01:03, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * The articles exist. They were however jammed into en: Wikinfo: GetWiki:Interwiki by someone who thinks only GetWiki should or can meet this standard, and has sysop powers on Wikinfo which he abuses:  deleting redirects to make discussions like this hard to find.


text:
Wiki science/Interwiki link standard

In a wikitext standard, an interwiki link standard refers to articles in wiki form stored in another service. Protocol and editing functions are assumed to be similar, so the interwiki link standard is a bit simpler than the standard wiki URI for linking into a wiki from non-wiki space. It consists only of:

[ [ language:service:namespace_within_service:page/subpage#section ] ]

 * This contrasts with the current GetWiki and MediaWiki usage:

 *  [ [ service:language:namespace_within_service:page/subpage#section ] ]

 * This usage is clearly wrong since languages is above service in any corpus organizing scheme. The present scheme is Wikipedia-centric:

 * For example Commerce équitable or Commerce équitable map incorrectly to what should be at . It is not up to the service to decide what languages to serve in, nor is it up to the service to decide how to carve up space within that language.  Not only that, but the name of the service is itself expressed in a language.

Regardless of the current incorrect or proper standard usage, should map to http://fr.consumerium.org/ if this domain existed and would be enabled in the interwiki maps stored in the database.

Note that, as wiki linking relies on HTTP almost by definition, it omits the "http://" protocol and "/wiki/" subprotocol designations as redundant.

Supporting the proper "language:service:" prefix radically simplifies wiki linking. Among other things, the language prefix can often be omitted or assumed, if it is the same as the language the current page is in.

Because of various uses of abbreviations for services, assumptions about services, etc., it is presently quite confusing. Mediawiki supports a deliberately Wikipedia-centric scheme in which for instance "[ [ en: ] ]" means not "in English" but "in the English Wikipedia". As a result, a reference to "[ [ en: Metaweb: phyle ] ]" will be interpreted incorrectly as a reference to English Wikipedia where there is no article, instead of correctly to English Metaweb 'phyle' where there is one. Mediawiki is likely to continue to resist and retard the development of such a standard for the usual reasons (typically software imperialism - see Wikimedia for discussion of this.) Prove us wrong?

A single standard for at least the GFDL text corpus is highly desirable, and hopefully will be supported in GetWiki_2.0, which will then hopefully displace MediaWiki entirely.

See Wikinfo:interwiki link standard for more on this and integration into GetWiki.

See Wiki linking for practical information how similar linking is done right now.

Commerce équitable

title: Wiki science/Interwiki link standard


text:
Talk:Wiki science/Interwiki link standard

Edit history

 * 06:02, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (2,953 bytes) (Wiki Science:Interwiki link standard moved to Wiki Science/Interwiki link standard)
 * 06:00, 4 August 2006 Jguk m (2,953 bytes)
 * 07:02, 15 April 2006 Hagindaz m (2,926 bytes) (Interwiki link standard moved to Wiki Science:Interwiki link standard)
 * 06:04, 20 November 2004 Mkn m (2,926 bytes) (Reverted edit by 202.74.184.202, changed back to last version by Dysprosia)
 * 05:57, 20 November 2004 202.74.184.202 (3,970 bytes)
 * 09:25, 9 November 2004 Dysprosia (2,926 bytes) (rvt here)
 * 09:20, 9 November 2004 193.230.197.6 (8,408 bytes)
 * 09:19, 9 November 2004 193.230.197.6 (213 bytes)
 * 12:01, 4 November 2004 213.91.217.118 (8,408 bytes)
 * 11:04, 31 October 2004 Dysprosia (2,926 bytes) (rv to first though this smells bad POV wise)
 * 10:57, 31 October 2004 Dysprosia m (2,246 bytes) (Reverted edit of 193.41.249.111, changed back to last version by Micutzu)
 * 06:19, 27 October 2004 193.41.249.111 (904 bytes)
 * 06:18, 27 October 2004 193.41.249.111 (1,449 bytes)
 * 00:57, 9 October 2004 Micutzu (2,246 bytes) (find the best pills on web)
 * 16:00, 10 April 2004 146.101.66.159 (2,950 bytes) (GFDL'd from Consumerium)