18.367 developer's wiki

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 367.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: Robert Cummings <rec_at_uga.edu> (91)
         Subject: Re: 18.363 developer's wiki

   [2] From: Paul Jones <pjones_at_metalab.unc.edu> (21)
         Subject: Re: 18.363 developer's wiki

   [3] From: "Daniel O'Donnell" <daniel.odonnell_at_uleth.ca> (23)
         Subject: Re: 18.363 developer's wiki

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:32:02 +0000
         From: Robert Cummings <rec_at_uga.edu>
         Subject: Re: 18.363 developer's wiki

List, Steve, et al.:

To what extent can a wiki even control its own content?

Sure, the site owner can specifically create controls, such as
contributor registration and limited editing, but is that
really a wiki? The ECHO wiki will have to face the same issues
of balance that any wiki does: growing the largest user base
with absolutely open access (i.e., the wikipedia model) versus
editing controls which seek to increase content quality at the
expense of quantity. Currently ECHO seems to be in the
wikipedia vein. But, this model does have its critics:

http://www.techcentralstation.com/111504A.html

The exciting aspect of a HC wiki is that it might get to have
it both ways -- it might be able to remain completely open and
suffer fools less than others. Its readers would be more
computing literate and more likely to contribute accurately,
responsibly, and perhaps even frequently to that topic. It
would seem to me that a topical wiki would have a better than
average chance of reaching critical mass in the HC community.

Bob Cummings
Ph.D. Student
Department of English
University of Georgia
rec_at_uga.edu

>
> From: "Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty
> <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>)"
<willard_at_LISTS.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU>
> Date: 2004/11/17 Wed AM 01:37:39 EST
> To: humanist_at_Princeton.EDU
> >
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 363.
> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's
College London
> www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
> www.princeton.edu/humanist/
> Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
>
>
>
> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 06:27:18 +0000
> From: sramsay_at_uga.edu
> Subject: Re: 18.358 developer's wiki
>
> On Mon, Nov 15, 2004 at 07:04:41AM +0000, Humanist
Discussion Group (by way
> of Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>) wrote:
> > ECHO TOOLS CENTER: The number of historians interested
in using digital
> > tools to facilitate their work has been rapidly
expanding, as has the
> > number of researchers developing online tools for the
humanities. In order
> > to facilitate contact between these two groups, Echo
would like to announce
> > the beta launch of its new Tools Center, an
experimental, comprehensive
> > resource for scholars interested in the nuts and bolts
of online history.
>
> First, let me say that this strikes me as a magnificent idea
-- one
> of those things that I have heard discussed off and on for years
> ("Wouldn't it be great if we had a wiki for humanities software
> developers . . .").
>
> But I must say that I cannot see why such a thing must bill
itself
> as a site for "historians interested in using digital
tools." It
> seems to me -- and certainly, the current entries bear this
out --
> that much of what is being discussed here is broadly
applicable to
> humanities computing as such. It is, of course, true that
literary
> critics or art historians will see the possibilities of,
say, Flash
> differently, but that difference doesn't seem so profound as to
> warrant defining the resource so narrowly.
>
> Why not open the field so we can all play?
>
> --
> Stephen Ramsay
> Assistant Professor
> Department of English
> University of Georgia
> email: sramsay_at_uga.edu
> web: http://cantor.english.uga.edu/
> PGP Public Key ID: 0xA38D7B11
>

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:32:55 +0000
         From: Paul Jones <pjones_at_metalab.unc.edu>
         Subject: Re: 18.363 developer's wiki

if you and the humanists would like, we can easily set up a wiki on
ibiblio for you. we would ask that someone from humanist take
responsibility for managing the content and behaviors etc but we would
install the software and the like. we currently like mediawiki as seen
running wikipedia.
and of course any area of study could create and use a section of the wiki
as you deem appropriate.
one other thought: wikis are not necessarily for software dev or even all
that good for software dev. if you are serious about software projects you
might want to consider developers' environments such as collab, savannah,
sourceforge, etc.
this last does not preclude setting up nd using a wiki for humanists to
use.
let me know if we can help out.
Paul

==========================================================================
                               Paul Jones
   "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair Gray
                  http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/blog/
    pjones_at_ibiblio.org voice: (919) 962-7600 fax: (919) 962-8071
===========================================================================

--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:33:46 +0000
         From: "Daniel O'Donnell" <daniel.odonnell_at_uleth.ca>
         Subject: Re: 18.363 developer's wiki

There is a wiki for developers--or at least medievalists: see
<www.digitalmedievalist.org>.

We're just getting started, but we hope to use it for
1) filing project reports (people will be able to look for others who are
working on similar types of technical issues and share expertise)
2) developing a best practice guide (we have just started writing wiki
chapters on things like fonts, tei, etc.)
3) a FAQ.

The question "why not let everybody play" is a very good one and one we
wrestled with through several grant applications. In actual practice little
that goes on on DM is really completely medieval: but we figured that is a
good coherent community for beginning.

-dan

--
Daniel Paul O'Donnell, PhD
Associate Professor of English
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge AB T1K 3M4
Tel. (403) 329-2377
Fax. (403) 382-7191
E-mail <daniel.odonnell_at_uleth.ca>
Home Page <http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/>
The Digital Medievalist Project: <http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/>