|
IMPORTANT TASK: Get familiar with wikipedia.org in preparation for PES' encyclopedia
From: Sterling
D. Allan
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 1:17 PM
Subject: IMPORTANT TASK: get familiar with wikipedia.org in preparation for PES'
encyclopedia
Preparing our publicly edited website on Free Energy.
Control Panel:
We are on the verge of having Wikipedia's source code plugged into www.pureenergysystems.com
for the free-for-all encyclopedia of alternative energy.
We will very soon be able to allow the world of volunteers to start
plugging in content on our public encyclopedia. We can begin creating the content now.
Thanks to our software/IT architect, Mark Wiseman, we have a server,
bandwidth, memory, and are now just waiting to plug in the open source code and work out any bugs
in the set-up. We also have a team of people in various areas of support for the project:
I would like to suggest that you all begin familiarizing yourself with
www.wikipedia.org.
We will be setting up our encyclopedia very similarly, and will follow very similar
guidelines: admin, layout, nomenclature, bylaws, etc. We are using the same software.
There will be three main differences between PES' encyclopedia and
Wikipedia's. (1) We are focusing on a particular field -- alternative energy -- though
we will allow entries covering any content that is of a "cutting edge" nature from any
field. (2) Our emphasis is not on what is well-established, or mainstream, but on the
"bleeding edge" of discovery. (3) Our entries will resemble more of a jointly
created website than an encyclopedia.
Wikipedia is the opposite. They stay away from the bleeding
edge, and focus on what is well-established. This is the most important defining
difference. That is what will distinguish our encyclopedia -- in the spirit of
"greater things." That is why we are starting something new rather than just
pointing people to Wikipedia. New wine cannot be put into old bottles. Those of the
traditional mindset say, "the old, it is better," and they spurn the new. We
thrive on the new, and know that there will always be a better way to do something.
So, let's start getting ready for this encyclopedia of our own by
familiarizing ourselves with how it works.
Go set up an account at Wikipedia.org (no prying questions asked;
it's just a matter of selecting a username and password), get familiar with the procedure, start
creating a personal contact page. Here's mine:
Learn how to use the basic coding for page formatting (very
easy/intuitive).
Become familiar with the process of editing an entry. Watch a
favorite page already in existence there, adding content, noting the changes made by others,
dialoguing with other uses regarding discrepancies of opinion of how a page should look.
Become familiar with how to create a new entry, and the nomenclature
protocol (naming new files), as we will probably do something quite similar. Generally, they
like to have all entries as stand-alone entries, rather than as a sub-section, of a sub-section,
of a sub-section. For example, rather than naming a file:
Energy/Alternative/Inventors/Tesla/Inventions/Coil you would name it Tesla_Coil. Then,
within the page you would link to the relevant parent topics, as well as the relevant daughter
topics. As a page grows large, it is then subdivided with relevant daughter pages; but named
as a stand-alone.
Wikipedia has what's call a "sandbox" where you can practice
posting. However, the "preview" feature does essentially the same thing: gives you
a view of what your edit will look like before you actually post it.
Also, become familiar with how to upload images to Wikipedia and then
retrieve those images in a relevant entry.
Start identifying which pages presently at Wikipedia can be copied
over to our encyclopedia to help us launch. Their "copyleft" policy allows
duplication so long as the source is properly acknowledged. (We will have the same
"copyleft" policy on our free-for-all encyclopedia; as required in the open source
license. Eventually, we will also have an edited, peer-review encyclopedia for which we will
maintain a regular copyright.)
Also, you can start composing pages to put on our encyclopedia, and
rather than risk their being whittled down or deleted at Wikipedia, you can post them as a
sub-section on your user section, or mine. Be sure to keep a copy of everything you do
on your computer.
When we are up and running in a few days, it will just be a matter of
cutting and pasting the contents over. Easy.
I do not mean any disrespect for Wikipedia. They are playing a
valuable role. Ours is somewhat different. I hope our relationship with them can
always be a synergistic one. They are free to import entries from our encyclopedia, even as
we are free to import entries from theirs, and each of us is free to improve upon the entries at
either location per our specialty of focus and mission.
One thing I've noticed about Wikipedia is that they rarely link
externally. I personally think that external links should be used whenever pertinent.
I would like to propose a standard that all outside links be prefaced with "(e)",
followed by no space. This holds only for text links that need to be distinguished from
internal Wikipedia links. URL links shown that contain ".com" etc. are obviously
external, so the preceding "(e)" is redundant.
We have a "control panel" as a home base to keep track of
operations, policies, priorities, administration, etc. as this project evolves and progresses.
For now, that page is located at
Being located under my user section, it will not have the same kind of
scrutiny as the main encyclopedia. Though it is in my user section, anyone may edit it --
though of course we will want such changes to be reflective of our shared vision.
Together we can create a website that will be the finest repository of
information available in the world on the subject of alternative energy.
Call it an encyclopedia, but let's not get all stuffy and rigid by
traditions of what an "encyclopedia" should look like.
I actually like to think of it more as a public website which everyone
in the world can participate in populating and monitoring, culling the best information available
on the planet because if someone comes to a page and knows of some relevant information that
should be added, they can do it, right there. Presto. You don't even have to be logged
in to make a change -- though it is preferable to do so. Once posted it is part of the
growing body of public knowledge for the edification of all mankind.
So here is the basic strategy for the next few days. We use
Wikipedia's "user" sections (one will be generated for you when you first log in) to
begin posting content that we will later move to our encyclopedia when it is set to go in a few
days. We will use the "control panel" to post a link to such entries as they are
created, using a logical directory tree to do so. Then, when our encyclopedia software is
plugged in and ready to go, we transfer the content over, and it becomes officially part of a
living, breathing website for the world to peruse and improve.
Meanwhile, we will have had the time to become conversant with
the process, and we thus speed up the process, learning from the experts at
Wikipedia. While there are some nincompoops (anyone can participate), as will be found
everywhere, I think overall you will be pleasantly impressed with the intelligence and cordiality
of those who are presently involved in the Wikipedia project. Last I checked they had 600
plus people actively contributing content to that encyclopedia. Very impressive.
We learn from them, and then we go and hone in on our particular area
of specialization.
Another advantage of launching from Wikipedia is that in the process
of creating a few pages there on their site, some of the key Wikipedia people will be watching,
and some of them may become enamored by our project and help us launch. That would be a
significant boon.
Their benefit is that the new users we bring along, who will mainly be
focusing on our project, will also have an interest in the Wikipedia project and can help them
build their content as well, which does not have a lot of overlap with ours, considering the
difference in focus and philosophy.
Ready . . . set . . . go!
Sterling D. Allan
Director of Administration
Posted Feb. 8, 2004 |
|
|
