Difference between revisions of "Wiki Introduction"

From Beyond Social
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This is an introduction to the wiki as a (social) platform, a historical piece of software and its position within the Social Practices. For a tutorial about how to get an account and practically work with the wiki, read the [[Wiki_tutorial|Wiki Tutorial]].
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= introduction =
  
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For Beyond Social, we choose to work with Mediawiki software as a publishing experiment.
  
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=Beyond Social's wiki Introduction=
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== What is it? ==
  
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For Beyond Social we use a specific type of wiki software, called ''Mediawiki''. The Beyond Social wiki is the central work- and publishing space for Beyond Social. By using the wiki as a backend (working) and a frontend (publishing) at the same time, it brings the act of reading & writing together. As Beyond Social is a project that aims to create a discourse for social practices, we hope that the wiki can serve as a tool to create and document the developments, reformulations and discussions of student projects, reflections and external initiatives.
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=== MediaWiki software===
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikipedia]
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* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki Mediawiki Foundation] + [https://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Home national Wikimedia communities]
  
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= short wiki history =
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=== Wiki Wiki Web===  
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== the first ==
 
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The first wiki was create in 1995 by Ward Cunningham, and it was called Wiki Wiki Web (Wiki in Hawaii means quick!).
 
  
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[http://wiki.c2.com/?WikiHistory short wiki history, on Cunningham's first wiki platform]
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''"You're browsing a database with a program called Wiki Wiki Web. And the program has an attitude. The program wants everyone to be an author. So, the program slants in favor of authors at some inconvenience to readers."''  
  
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[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Ward_Cunningham%2C_Inventor_of_the_Wiki.webm Interview with Ward Cunningham]
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[http://wiki.c2.com/?WikiWikiWeb WikiWikiWeb], first wiki, launched in 1995 by Ward Cunningham
  
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Wikis are about '''speed and easiness of writing and publishing on the Web'''.
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=== Free Software===
  
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Also about '''collaboration'''. According to Ward Cunningham ‘People discovered that they can create something with other people, that they don't even know. But they come to trust and they make something that surprises them in terms of its value’.
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Four freedoms:
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* run
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* study
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* share
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* modify
  
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== example wiki's==
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The source code is open, documented and published under a free and open license, as an alternative for the everlasting strength of copyright.
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Consequently wikis have been used extensively as environments for online collaboration. Examples of this are:
 
  
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* [http://wikipedia.com/ Wikipedia]
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Which in the basis is meant to form decentralized and non-proprietory projects.
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* [http://www.wiktionary.org/ Wiktionary]
 
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* [http://opensource.wdka.nl/wiki/Main_Page Digital Craft wiki]
 
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* [http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Lostpedia] - about TV show Lost
 
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* [http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Uncyclopedia] - the content-free encyclopedia
 
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* [https://monoskop.org/Monoskop Monoskop, an archive wiki for collaborative studies of the arts, media and humanities.]
 
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* [http://www.mondotheque.be/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Mondoteque, a project by art organisation Constant, Brussels]
 
  
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education:
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A preference that influences many more design choices that are made to create software. In Mediawiki software, there is not one editor, not one login to the system, not even one writing style. It creates the need for a common rule-set, created by the community.
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* [http://publicationstation.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Publication Studio WdKA]
 
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* [https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Main_Page MMD&C - PZI wiki]
 
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* [http://art.yale.edu/ Yale University School of Arts]
 
  
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===Mediawiki & Beyond Social===
  
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= Wiki Characteristics =
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The choice for Mediawiki software is to make a '''shared collection of references''', '''documentation of events''' and '''student projects'''. The shared aspect was crucial for me to choose for the software. Mediawiki software is written and made to create and maintain a '''community driven resource'''.
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== working / documenting / publishing ==
 
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The wiki could become a central platform where different functions come together: the wiki as work platform, as documenting platform and as publishing platform. These are examples that work with a wiki in the different ways:
 
  
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* working > [https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Main_Page MMD&C PZI Media Design] / [http://art.yale.edu/ YALE]
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As everything that is uploaded to the wiki is hosted on the same server, it is also a way to create an '''archive''' for a community of Social Art & Design.
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* documenting > [http://www.mondotheque.be/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Mondoteque Monoskop] / [http://wikipedia.com/ Wikipedia]
 
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* publishing > [http://www.mondotheque.be/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Mondoteque]
 
  
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==typical wiki features==
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== What does a wiki enable? ==
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* everything is a page
 
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* the wiki can host many pages easily (it's built for that)
 
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* everyone can be both a reader and a writer
 
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* single authorship is not promoted (which means that an article doesn't have a single author, and the name of an author is not prominently displayed next to an article)
 
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* every article saves its editing history (and you can look back in time to compare versions)
 
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* the wiki stimulates internal linking as a way to create connections between articles
 
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* links to non-existing pages can be made, which can be interpreted as an invite to someone else to write the page
 
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* every page has a Discussion page where users can discuss the content of the article
 
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* wiki software comes with many features that offer various entrances into the content (recent changes, categories, random page)
 
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* this wiki comes with a set of Special Pages, for which special pieces of software is written to display various wiki activities, such as an overview of all pages, the least revised article, the most active user, the latest uploaded files, the most used Categories, etc. See: [[Special:SpecialPages]]
 
  
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an important one:
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* Everyone (with an account) can create a page
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* this wiki software (called MediaWiki) is free software
 
  
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==other useful features==
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* Stimulates to write, reading & writing in the same interface
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* for this wiki counts: once you have an account, you can create and edit as many pages as you like (note: every created page is saved!)
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** Quick articles that are not finished (as invitation to write) - [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Articles for example]
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* there are several user groups in the wiki: there are ''Administrators'', ''Bureaucrats'', ''Bots'', ''Widget Editors'', and ''(all)'', which is the default user group where every user is part of. Every user group has specific rights.
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** Red links (as invitation to write) - [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page for example]
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* There is no traditional division between editor, proof Reader and writer in the sense that every user can fullfill each role.
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** Talk Pages, as a 'backside' of an article to discuss ... - [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Talk:Say_What!%3F for example]
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* Everyone can make a User page, and leave some information about him/herself.
 
  
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* Saves editing history - [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php?title=Social_Design_Examples&action=history for example], which is both
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** a layer of 'security' to not loose editing work
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** possibility of inspection of how a page came about
  
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= Beyond Social wiki developments =
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* Produces many many layers of sociality meta data ([http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:SpecialPages SpecialPages])
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** [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&days=30&from=&limit=100 Recent Changes]
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** [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:NewFiles New Files]
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** [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:ShortPages Short Pages]
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** [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:ActiveUsers List of active users]
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** [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:WantedPages Wanted pages]
  
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== Beyond Social's wiki2web (2014 - 2016) ==
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* Include multiple voices (instead of one editing voice)
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=== the wiki as backend===
 
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In between 2014 & 2016, Beyond Social already used this wiki as part of their publishing workflow, where it had a backend function for a wiki2web workflow. The wiki was a workarea, where articles and images were collected and brought together to generate the online Beyond Social Issues. Andre worked together with design studio Template to create an external Beyond Social front-end, that functioned as the webzine of the project. More about the wiki2web workflow is described by André Castro in this article [[Making_Beyond_Social|Making Beyond Social]].
 
  
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The code of the wiki2web workflow is hosted [https://github.com/wdka-publicationSt/BeyondSocial on the Publication Station Github page here].
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== What does it not enable? ==
  
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=== Beyond Social Issues ===
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* There is a specific syntax, wiki mark up language, in which you need to write. This can be quite a threshold to learn. - [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Manual More information and help can be found in the manual]
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From 2014-2016 Beyond social was structured around the creation of Issues, which are best understood as editorial web magazines that reflect on a specific topic in the social practices discourse. Both students, teachers and external practitioners contributed to these issues. The following issues have been published:  
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* Intuitive WP-like inserting of images, this takes a few extra steps - [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:Upload Special:Upload], [http://beyond-social.org/wiki/index.php/Special:FormEdit/Article/test In the article form]
  
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* [http://beyond-social.org/issue-1.html '''Issue 1''': Redesigning Business] (Read/edit the articles of [[:Category:Issue_1]] here on the wiki)
 
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* [http://beyond-social.org/issue-2.html '''Issue 2''': Education] (Read/edit the articles of [[:Category:Issue_2]] here on the wiki)
 
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* [http://beyond-social.org/issue-3.html '''Issue 3''': Radical Reframing] (Read/edit the articles of [[:Category:Issue_3]] here on the wiki)
 
  
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== Beyond Social as a wiki platform (Nov 2016 - Feb. 2017)==
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==Design questions==
  
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=== wiki metamorfose ===
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* How can we experiment with those elements in the publishing proces?
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[[File:G5527.png|thumbnail|right|a first wiki interface draft for the Main Page (Dec. 2016)]]
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* How can we include the sociality layers that the software produces as a type of content?
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Between November 2016 and February 2017 the wiki will go through a visual and structural metamorfose. The main structural changes will be:
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* How does it change the way of writing?
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* The overall style and layout of the wiki will be changed.
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** Working on somebody else's article, to finish for example.
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* The frontpage will be an overview of various user activities that are main features of the mediawiki software.
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** Helping in the editing process ... (However, nobody dares to change eachother's articles atm ...)
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* There will be a moderated area in the sidebar, and a "suggestions" area on the frontpage where certain topics, articles, or projects can be highlighted. This section will be curated by a special to-be-decided moderator-team.
 
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* We will create a section on the wiki, where people can create ''Editorials'': a personal selection of wiki articles that is accompanied by a short introduction text. These curated set of articles will link different elements of the wiki together.
 
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* We want to work with a visual editor extension, and a visual category selection extension. Installing these extensions can be tricky, but we will try to implement them as they make working with the wiki more accessible.
 
  
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The code of the new Beyond Social wiki skin is hosted [https://github.com/wdka-publicationSt/BeyondSocial-wiki on the Publication Station Github page].
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= step-by-step =
  
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=== the wiki as central publishing platform ===
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== Create Account ==
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How can the wiki capture & create the discourse of the Social Practices?
 
  
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'''working'''
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* real name or pseudonym
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* sign the Privacy Statement
  
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* the wiki as platform for writing assignments?
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== Make User Page ==
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** students can read and see writing activities from others
 
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** making an "editorial" as a reflection excercise?
 
  
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* course instructions, links, planning?
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* Form:Profile
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** making public what happens insight the Social Practices programmes?
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* just blanco page
  
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'''documenting'''
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== Make project page ==
  
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* the wiki as a documentation platform for the Social Practices discourse?
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* Create Article, Form:Article
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** students/tutors can connect to external partners by writing a bio for them?
 
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** students & tutors & external partners can document/present their projects on the wiki
 
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** the same counts for events, or reviews
 
  
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'''publishing'''
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== Add project page to the WdKA Graduation Show 2018 event ==
  
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* external parties can be invited to write an editorial
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* Form:Event
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* student projects can be published to the outside world
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* WdKA Graduation Show 2018
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* teacher can publish about their own projects
 
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=== Beyond Social Event #4: 9 February 2017 ===
 
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On the 9th of February there will be a Beyond Social event in The New Institute, around the theme of Urban Agenda's.
 

Revision as of 11:41, 10 April 2018

introduction

For Beyond Social, we choose to work with Mediawiki software as a publishing experiment.

What is it?

MediaWiki software

Wiki Wiki Web

"You're browsing a database with a program called Wiki Wiki Web. And the program has an attitude. The program wants everyone to be an author. So, the program slants in favor of authors at some inconvenience to readers."

WikiWikiWeb, first wiki, launched in 1995 by Ward Cunningham

Free Software

Four freedoms:

  • run
  • study
  • share
  • modify

The source code is open, documented and published under a free and open license, as an alternative for the everlasting strength of copyright.

Which in the basis is meant to form decentralized and non-proprietory projects.

A preference that influences many more design choices that are made to create software. In Mediawiki software, there is not one editor, not one login to the system, not even one writing style. It creates the need for a common rule-set, created by the community.

Mediawiki & Beyond Social

The choice for Mediawiki software is to make a shared collection of references, documentation of events and student projects. The shared aspect was crucial for me to choose for the software. Mediawiki software is written and made to create and maintain a community driven resource.

As everything that is uploaded to the wiki is hosted on the same server, it is also a way to create an archive for a community of Social Art & Design.

What does a wiki enable?

  • Everyone (with an account) can create a page
  • Stimulates to write, reading & writing in the same interface
    • Quick articles that are not finished (as invitation to write) - for example
    • Red links (as invitation to write) - for example
    • Talk Pages, as a 'backside' of an article to discuss ... - for example
  • Saves editing history - for example, which is both
    • a layer of 'security' to not loose editing work
    • possibility of inspection of how a page came about
  • Include multiple voices (instead of one editing voice)

What does it not enable?


Design questions

  • How can we experiment with those elements in the publishing proces?
  • How can we include the sociality layers that the software produces as a type of content?
  • How does it change the way of writing?
    • Working on somebody else's article, to finish for example.
    • Helping in the editing process ... (However, nobody dares to change eachother's articles atm ...)

step-by-step

Create Account

  • real name or pseudonym
  • sign the Privacy Statement

Make User Page

  • Form:Profile
  • just blanco page

Make project page

  • Create Article, Form:Article

Add project page to the WdKA Graduation Show 2018 event

  • Form:Event
  • WdKA Graduation Show 2018