{"id":415,"date":"2010-12-27T19:36:37","date_gmt":"2010-12-28T03:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/wikigarden\/?p=415"},"modified":"2017-06-20T14:31:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T22:31:40","slug":"reflections-on-organization-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/2010\/12\/27\/reflections-on-organization-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Organization and Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-416\" title=\"plant3\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/files\/2011\/01\/plant3-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/files\/2011\/01\/plant3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/files\/2011\/01\/plant3.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>So, it&#8217;s been about six months since I began working on the <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.ubc.ca\/UBC_Wiki:Wiki_Gardening\">wiki organization project<\/a>.  With the launch of the <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.ubc.ca\/UBC_Wiki:Updates\">updated interface<\/a>, I thought I&#8217;d take a quick moment to reflect.<\/p>\n<p>When I began working on the Wiki in July, my immediate priorities were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To build a complete <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.ubc.ca\/Help:Contents\">help section<\/a> for the wiki.  This step was essential for me as, at the time, I was new to MediaWiki software and creating help documentation enabled me to learn the software as I went along.  I&#8217;m not that unusual &#8211; most users have not encountered MediaWiki before so having well written help pages makes the learning process quicker and lowers the barriers to entry. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>To review the current <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.ubc.ca\/Help:Namespaces\">organizational strategies<\/a> and determine if anything could be improved or changed to make the wiki better.  One thing I focused on was to better define and communicate the purposes of each individual namespace.  As users began to understand the purpose of a namespace, they began to use them more. I still think the <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.ubc.ca\/Main_Space\">main space<\/a> needs to be better defined.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>To dive into the content, add categories to pages, cross-link articles, and move content to fit the organizational strategy. One of the strategies that I believe has worked well is dropping users a note anytime I touch their content.  Direct communication changes the idea the wiki is just a website but rather a place that other people are using.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ward_Cunningham\">Ward Cunnigham<\/a> created the first wiki with the belief that groups of people who want to collaborate also tend to trust one another and I think this is true on the UBC Wiki.  One thing that became apparent to me is that a successfully organized wiki is not just a matter of creating proper namespaces or applying taxonomies; it is also a matter of developing community.  When users understand that the Wiki is not just an individual tool, but rather a space with lots of users, they take more time to make sure their content fits into the Wiki&#8217;s organizational schema. <\/p>\n<p>One of the best definitions of wikis that I&#8217;ve seen states that a wiki is a tool for distributed collaboration.  Organization on a wiki, I believe, is fundamentally about collaboration.  If users on the UBC Wiki are working on different projects (for example, if one person is writing a course assignment and if someone else is updating an employe manual), the way they organize their pages within the context of the greater wiki is a form of collaboration, even if they are not aware of the other person or their work.  <\/p>\n<p>The UBC Wiki is a tool measure in potential energy and its greatest assest is its users. \u00a0The more it gets used, the more useful it will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, it&#8217;s been about six months since I began working on the wiki organization project. With the launch of the updated interface, I thought I&#8217;d take a quick moment to reflect. When I began working on the Wiki in July, my immediate priorities were: To build a complete help section for the wiki. This step [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1719,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[71536,1996],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wiki","tag-coop","tag-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1719"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/open\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}