From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Sat Jan 25 2003 - 21:52:24 MST
--> Brett Paatsch
>
> I saw Jef Allbright raise the possibility of complementing the mailing
> list with a wiki.
>
> I saw some folk ask about wikis and a few agree that it was a good
> idea.
I'll add my vote for it being a good idea.
I also liked the following comment:
--->Gary Miller
> Robert J. Bradbury said:
> >>So how do I set up my extropic priorities?
> >> Aging, malnutrition/starvation (perhaps poverty), AIDS, Malaria,
> >> perhaps murderous tyrants, ...
>
> This would be something great to have in a Wiki. All of the
> participents extropic priorities and how they are choosing to persue and
> act upon them in the coming year.
>
> This not only gives newcomers an illustration as to what's important to
> other Extropians but it gives them an idea on how to apply Extropian
> principles in their lives!
But maybe that's just me being egocentric. I do think it's a good idea to
present some sort of "things you can do" guidelines for people who would
like to do stuff but aren't in the cut out and do themselves mould.
> I saw one person question whether it was the right tool for the job and
> I thought that Jef answered well that good question by saying it would
> complement not substitute the existing ExI list.
>
> I saw Lee Daniel Crocker say he had some expertise and could set up
> a wiki and he offered too if there was sufficient support for it.
>
> I have heard a few people support it, no one directly oppose it, and so
> what stands out in my mind are two questions.
>
> 1) Are there any practical and logistical problems that the ExI Board or
> any one else is aware of that would stop a wiki being implemented
> in a complementary fashion to the ExI list as Jef suggested?
It would also be a good idea to get official sanctioning, blessing and a
subdomain.
> 2) How much will it cost to set up and maintain? If Lee Daniel
> Crocker is willing to contribute some of his time and expertise that's
> great. But I don't think he should have to bear all the burden for
> something I'd certainly like to see and at least a few others seem
> interested at least interested in as well.
>
> If someone (maybe Lee? who might know what's involved) could put
> together a rough costed plan AND there are no substantial reasons for
> opposing the proposal then my third question would become where
> do I send money to help cover the costs?
Money costs and setup costs are minimal; people and time costs are less so.
The best thing people can contribute is their time when the basic software
is set up.
Software is freely available:
http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=wiki§ion=projects
(The above link is worth visiting just to see the phrase "A wiki
implementation in Emacs.")
If you pick something simple that doesn't require root access or complicated
appservers, such as PHP:
http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=wiki&orderby=&filter=1838‹
(This link is worth looking at to see that it doesn't take long to run out
of names that sound like "wikki" but are still original).
then you can grab a nice host (www.javaservlethosting.com -- responsive,
cheap, reliable) for ~$20/month, unzip the software, set up the database and
off you go. (This is the work of an evening, if that). Then its "just"
cajoling people to join in and participate. It helps to have a single
fanatic or webmaster pushing it all along.
Now on the community side of things, why restrict it just to ExI? Why not
make it more inclusive and drag in the WTA/Cryonics/Life Extension/etc folks
as well by invitation? There's significant topic overlap, and I'm all for
them hearing more about ExI opinionations.
There's also traffic driving to think about -- no one uses it if no-one
knows about it. Such things as adding prominent links to the relevant home
pages (such as ExI and the ExI BBS), maybe coughing up $1/day for google
ads, appending the URL to the footer of ExI list posts, thinking about rules
for replicating traffic or updates to other forums (ExI BBS, the list), etc,
etc.
For a successful small community Wiki implementation, have a look at:
(Wiki links on the right hand side of the main page). I'm pretty sure those
guys get about the same amount of traffic as, say, Nanodot does, going from
posting frequency. Their Wiki has been around for 6 months, give or take.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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