Re: [linux-audio-user] Re: Wiki (Was: Attracting more Linux audio developers)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Brad Fuller wrote: [..] AFAIR the discussion got started due to requiring a valid email address for registration. username/password/privacy is a different issue. agreed. There are alternatives but no quick'N'easy(TM) solution in sight. I don't want to return to the auth-discussion. Can I sum it up as: We can manage to set up a simple but effective system to: - - restrict [media] upload and admin-capabilities to trusted users (editors, LAD, LAU members, sign off strategy, ..) - - limit anonymous edits to a minimal amount of SPAM while not annoying anon. users. this will be an ongoing battle and we can discuss, experiment and improve.. (CAPTCHA, timed IP locks, limit # of pages per user,...) exactly. but most of the wikipedia entries are rather patchy with details! A framework like arxiv.org is not really suitable for linuxaudio.org either. although it would be nice if doc.linuxaudio.org will provide SGML & docbook processing capabilities. IMO diversity is a good thing. and I'd be surprised it linuxaudio will only fragment to into 2 or 3 wiki installations worldwide! interwiki and perma-links are already quite common, and with feeds, data import/export plugins, etc information spreads. nevertheless linuxaudio.org should become the site of choice for linux sound collaboration and claim some authority! Let's focus on user interface and templates. democracy and taste won't match: I'll vote for a two column layout + a (static/fixed?) top bar. (similar to wikipedia). It would be nice if there were linuxaudio color & icon themes, but that's for later.. in the "menu column": list a handful of (constant) links + wiki-commands; and a generated list of "quick-links" related to the current page (category, tags,...) The "main column" displays either a custom wiki page (doc.linuxaudio.) or (for apps.linuxaudio.org) a fixed-layout, generated from Meta-data: ie: info-pages, category lists. IMO both doc.. and apps.. should make use of the same category system and maybe even share the page-source for the title+abstract page. - -> the apps.. will be a side product of doc.. here's a set of meta-tags that each doc. would need to provide on it's title page: 1 req: TXT: title / name 2 req: TXT: description / abstract 3 opt: TXT: Author 4 opt: URL: screenshot, icon, banner 5 opt: TXT: version_string, release_date 6 opt: URL: source_repository (cvs,svn,darcs,.. URI) 7 opt: URL: website 8 req: TAG: one or more category tag(s). discuss: 1. use wiki page name as title 3. also author email, license, etc. ? 4. allow multiple screenshots? screenshot_00, screenshot_01,..?? videos? 7. maybe use different URLs for: url_web, url_doc, url_src, url_other I vote for a minimal set of meta info: 1,2,4,8 (+7) - other key&values can get very specific and result in possibly inconsistent assignments -> use custom wiki pages. For properly marked up documentation there's docbook! a couple of ideas to generate the app listing: - - generate lists with and without screenshots/banners/logos/abstract - - each entry has at least a title and a link to doc.linuxaudio.org -> wiki-title-page - - optionally link directly to web-page, documentation or download ?? - - present a "related category" link list in the menu-column. - - merge (sub-)categories in view. - - browse or search * search for a keyword * selecting multiple tags from a tag-cloud. * pager: next/prev, related categories, history trace, breadcrumbs I suggest to use twiki, mediawiki or dokuwiki for the job. I don't think that wordpress will do as nice; it could. but in that case, it should become blog.linuxaudio.org. There are certainly many possible implementations: we should consider stability & robustness; long live @ low maintenance; flexibility & speed; KISS. personally I've had good experience with dokuwiki. OTOH. mediawiki will allow copy and paste to wikipedia, but we usually want inter-wiki links rather than dup entries. aaah and the above mentioned top-bar can connect the different *.linuxaudio.org sites, hold a title, banner, drop-down menu,... you name it! keep up the relentless flow of discussion and nourish the advocatus diaboli in you. if your anger is not yet focused, go and play your neighbors a series of tritoni for half an hour. I'm sure we can come up with with a clean layout and icons for visualizing meta-information after that. one could go as far as to assign symbols to major-categories or design a children's look&feel template for the title page(s). It'd be cool to have another prototype wiki by January, but the final product should aim for quality and it's yet too early to set a deadline. maybe the LAC2007 can provide a platform for discussion and promotion. #robin