discuss: To or not to Wiki, a summary [Was Re: small demo page]
Subject:
To or not to Wiki, a summary [Was Re: small demo page]
From:
Pradeep Padala ####@####.####
Date:
21 Aug 2005 16:45:42 -0000
Message-Id: <4308AF95.6030709@eecs.umich.edu>
I want to contribute to improving tldp, but I don't clearly understand
where it is heading. So as a first attempt, I have tried to summarize
this long fruitful(?) thread, I am just going to write down my
understanding of what people are thinking. I may have misunderstood
something, please correct me, if so.
Problem: Many HOWTOs are out-of-date and authors seem to have forgotten
about them. Updates are slow and (tldp) world is coming to an end. (Is it?)
There are many ways to tackle this, and a few are listed on TARPL[1] (I
like the Ticket Tracker that's how I want my HOWTO to be extended).
Some people think that a full-fledged Wiki (not simple commenting
mechanism) is more useful, as that allows other people to directly
change the HOWTO. This is certainly useful for 'bringing some howtos
back from dead' as mentioned by Yaroslav [2].
jdd put up a demo page with editable and non-editable pages at [3]. The
idea is to allow readers to change the editable page at will and later
autor/tldp maintainers can see the differences and merge with a stable
non-editable one. Perhaps, we can convert the stable version to docbook.
Wiki advantages:
*) Quick updates - anybody can improve as they are reading the HOWTO and
find mistakes. It also doesn't have to go through the slow/length
TLDP review process.
*) Easier updates - It's much easier to edit a Wiki page than an .sgml
file. The learning curve with sgml tools is sttep. For begineers
there's HOWTO generator [4], but later updates have to be in SGML.
*) Easier management - Once setup it can work on its own depending on
the readers interest.
Wiki disadvantages
*) Connecting Wiki with docbook as a backend is difficult. If this is
not possible, we have to find a better way to convert to print
formats etc.
*) Vandalism problems - Do we simply throw the HOWTO on a Wiki and hope
that it turns into a master piece? or let the author tightly control
the content by allowing only comments?
*) What happens to the flow of a long document if it is edited by a lot
of people? I am quite uneasy with this, as all the hardwork put in by
the original author for the HOWTO organization etc. goes waste.
There are some general issues like
*) Copyright issues. Who owns the content once it is on the Wiki?
*) How do you wikify existing content? There was some work on this by
Blake [5]. I am not sure about the current status.
Ok, that's all I can think of right now.
1. http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/tarpl.html
2. http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:9567:200508:pedejonpkemjljkegodm
3. http://dodin.org/mediawiki/index.php/Tldp_demo_page
4. http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/The_LDP_HOWTO_Generator_ng.html
5. http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:9116
--
Pradeep Padala
http://ppadala.blogspot.com
