[topicmapmail] Request for Participation in Topic Maps Wiki Project

[Markus Ueberall]

(_Unfortunately, I messed up by trying to post this in HTML format, so this
is slightly delayed -- thanks for the hint, Michel!_)


Hello everyone,

As some of us are carrying the idea around in our heads for over a year now,
I firmly resolved to actively participate in the coordination of this
project in the course of 2006; and as the turn of the year is imminent again
((depending on one’s time zone, that is)) _suddenly and unexpectedly_, even
with the best will in the world I am unable to further delay this posting in
order to realise (at least one of) last year’s New Year pledge(s) just in
time... :)


*What is it all about?*

Despite of the fortunately steadily growing interest in Topic Maps, so far
there is no project/medium (at least to my knowledge, that is) which
succeeded in both presenting a current overview of all domain related
ongoing (and past) activities as well as involved parties and actively
supporting ((or “demanding”)) communications between individual
interest/working groups (keyword tag interconnection) _in the long run_ –-
i.e., in such a way that it could serve as _the_ primary source of
information or contact point for interested parties, respectively, not
replacing but complementing existing offers of information: by means of
announcement, summary, annotation, and, if applicable, conservation.
One self-suggesting possibility is the installation and maintenance of a
_dedicated_ Wiki, which allows participants to both present themselves and
collaborate (in a controlled manner) analogous to Wikipedia. However, in the
past, comparable approaches always suffered from understaffing or lacking
support.

I am not the only one who believes that, after numerous successful events
during the last two years, it is about time to dare to make another attempt!
Of course it’s quite plain to me that this is a _very_ ambitious project –-
but that’s exactly why active participation in it is _the_ perfect New
Year’s pledge, isn’t it? :)


*Imminent open issues*

As apparent from the aforementioned state description, this kind of project
lives on active, but most notably on sustained participation of interested
parties: Rather than investing as much work as possible in order to install
a Wiki within a time as short as possible, it’s all about long-term planning
and extension whenever an opportunity affords. In order to achieve this, a
critical mass of volunteers is needed, which are jointly constantly and
reliably able to put up with the required minimal amount of resources.

In order to realise this project, initially both an appraisal of available
and an assessment of required resources are suggestive; related questions
are, e.g.:

- Who would be willing and is in a position to contribute to a Wiki in the
long run on the aforementioned conditions (and playing what kind of role)?
  -- tasks include moderation, content providing (articles/comments),
programming/scripting (e.g., import/export tools), (server) administration,
possibly monetary funding, provision of hardware, ...
- What about choices/records regarding applicable hard-/software in general
and the Wiki engine in particular?
  -- MediaWiki[1] surely is one of the best-known engines, TWiki[2] on the
other hand is structured, ...[3]
- What additional resources are available?
  -- By courtesy of Lars Heuer, the project could use the handy domain
topicmaps.info as long as it is guaranteed that the latter won’t get lost
(cf. keyword tag sustainability above)
  -- Are there abandoned web pages whose contents could/should be “adopted”
(i.e., imported) as a whole by agreement with the corresponding authors
instead of only linking to them (in particular, this facilitates the
extension/revision of introductory articles)? 


*Suggested further procedure*

To ensure that interested parties maintain an overview of reactions
regarding this request, I will collect all feedback sent via email (to
ueberall at tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de), mailing list entry (to
tmlist at topicgarden.com or topicmapmail at infoloom.com, respectively) or IRC
comment (on channel #topicmaps at irc.freenode.net[4]) and –- unless objections
are raised –- post a summary (in german/english) on a (bi-)weekly basis,
depending on the amount/results in order to inform about the status of the
project.
 
Also, in order to set a good example, I hereby make a binding commitment to
actively play a part in maintaining the Wiki and coordinating the project,
respectively (or else, I shouldn’t have dared to send out this request in
the first place :)) –- naturally without claiming a leading role.


    [1] Homepage: http://www.mediawiki.org 
    [2] Homepage: http://www.twiki.org 
    [3] cf. http://www.wikimatrix.org 
    [4] blatant ad: a current log archive can be found at
http://wega.tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/ueberall/misc/logs/ (_NB lines
with prefix "[off]" aren’t shown here_)


Ad astra (and a happy new year!),
Markus