Participatory Enclyclopedia - Fan Based

Fan inspired wikis are nothing short of amazing works. I got lost in a few of them.

Memory Alpha is the wikipedia for the Star Trek television programs and the animated series.

The members of this wiki have decided that only material that originated from the television and animated series could be considered for inclusion on this wiki. This is referred to as the canon.

That means no fan based fiction, audio books, new characters derived from comic books, video games or graphic novels can be included. For that type of information you have to go to Memory Beta.

For Star Wars fans there is the fan based Wookieepedia http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookieepedia and the official Databank wiki at http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Databank

There are lessons that can be learned from these sites. First of all the community is very protective of the information that goes into the wiki. You don't want to be the person posting bad info. They will find you. Quickly. It would not be pretty.

The information has to be verified, meaning you have to state your source. There is a huge printed catalog of books that document Star Trek and Star Wars mythologies, ships, engineering, languages (Klingon) and costumes. Knowing it is not enough. You have to document your article or it might be removed for incompleteness.

Finally everybody has to play nice or you get kicked off the wiki. You won't find much troll or crude content. It is a protected place.

These are some of the lessons that I hope Wikipedia can convince its many users to adopt with the same level of vigilance.

Participatory Encyclopedia - WikiPhilly

WikiPhilly is about the city of Philadelphia, PA. It has articles about landmarks like the John Wannamaker building and the Wannamaker Eagle in the center of the department store.

It contains listings on the known restaurants and classic take-out joints to snag the ultimate cheese steak hoagies. Psst - it's Jim's on 4th and South. All others are pretenders to the thrown.

This has the potential of a great idea for other cities. What is the embedded knowledge that a local citizen takes for granted and a newbie needs to learn and quickly. This is one idea that I hope other citizens and cities begin to duplicate. http://wikiphilly.com

Participatory Enclyclopedia - Conservaedia

Conservapedia is an wiki encyclopedia with a political and Christian focus (their words, not mine.) According to the site, the page was begun in 2006 by home schooled students in New Jersey.

What was informative for me was the Conservapedia Commandments which are the guidelines for posting and participating in the forums.

To submit an article for Conservapedia the information must be true and verifiable. You must cite yours sources. The use of B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) is not allowed because they feel it ignores the historical basis for the uses of B.C and A.D.

There are definitions, articles and various types of information expressed. There was even a page were folks could point out where Conservapedia was not as balanced as it appears to present itself.

Conservapedia could have removed the questions and concerns. It will be up to them on how they responded and become a accurate representation of the views of the conservative landscape. http://www.conservapedia.com

Participatory Enclyclopedias - Planet Math

Planet Math is a encyclopedia for Mathematicians all others that are number bound. The goal of the project is to make mathematics more accessible.

Planet Math has its own classification system and articles submitted by those currently majoring in the field, have written their doctoral thesis or are just plan number junkies. There are free books to download on math topics, a math forum and a range of information starting with high school math moving into geometry, topology, number theory and discreet mathematics. Number crunchers, rejoice! http://planetmath.org

Participatory Enclyclopedias - Armeniapedia

Wikipedia may be the best known but it is not the only example of a group of people attempting to build an on-line knowledge bank of information. There are other fish in the sea.

Armeniapedia is an Armenian focused wiki. Starting in 2004 by Raffi Kojian the wiki covers history, culture, food and other topics with an Armenian or Armenian-American focus.

It invites contributions from the community. There is user generated information on this site in English and in the Armenian language however there is content from other sources that is citied and used by permission. http://www.ameniapedia.org

Wikis - A Brief Introduction

I feel bad for Wikipedia. On the one hand, I'm glad the news media had something else to talk about besides under fed singers and actresses in rehab. Wikipedia took a hit this week and I still hear the chorus of "I told you so!"

I just wish they dug a little deeper. It might have helped to first understand what a wiki is before you start ripping into Wikipedia.



A wiki is used by a group of people to collaborate on projects. The software makes it very easy for team members to share information and to make adjustments without having to tear down and rebuild a web page. It is almost (but not quite) as easy as using a word processor but with the added benefit that that the team members or users do not have to be in the same location.

In fact that is one of the major attractions. For example there will be a "un"conference called BarCampUSA that will happen in Wisconsin in August.

BarCamp, (WineCamps, CoffeeCamps and all other camp permutations) are designed to help people learn things one to one or in groups in a casual minimally structured setting. This originally happened in bars hence "BarCamp".

There are people who have never met each other who are organizing this national event. Check it out for yourself http://www.barcampusa.org At BarCamp people volunteer to conduct workshops, get information about the event and put their two cents on what they want to see happen.

Wikis make it easier for people to collaborate who can't physically be together. Everybody has a voice and an opportunity for input. You might have heard terms like social networking and collaborative media. This is one form of it.

To learn more:

• LIS Wiki http://liswiki.org/wiki/Wiki
• PB Wiki - To create a free wiki site http://pbwiki.com
• What Is A Wiki and How To Use One for Your Projects http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/07/07/what-is-a-wiki.html
  
• Wikia - content based wiki sites http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
  

Other wikis to check out:

• Bullet Physics Library http://www.continuousphysics.com/mediawiki-1.5.8/index.php?title=Main_Page
  
• Library Success - A Best Practices Wiki http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Wikis
• Book Lovers Wiki, Princeton Public Library http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library
  
• Wiki How - User generated "how-to" do things like http://www.wikihow.com
• Wealth of Network, How Social Productions Transforms Markets and Freedom http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php/Main_Page
  

The New Daylight Savings Time & Your Computer

I am already sleep deprived. I don't like the idea of having to wake up one hour earlier than I already do. It is not a pretty sight.

Congress in 2005 decided that as part of an energy bill to extend Daylight Savings Time (DST) ahead by four weeks. That is one hour less sleep per working day. five hours per work week. 25 frigging hours less sleep for the month!

See, I'm cranky already. Where was I? Your computer. Most of us in the program have a personal computer. On the PC side of the fence if you have a brand new computer with Windows Vista you are fine, no worries about DST. You have bigger headaches about the operating system but not this one.

Windows XP uses need to download a patch from Microsoft (and only Microsoft) to get your system to keep the correct time. The direct link for the update is http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst Firefox users - I know it is a pain but use Microsoft IE to update to make sure the patch is applied correctly.

Windows ME, 98, 95 users. I regret to inform you that Microsoft has stated that they will not provide any patches or support for your operating system. I know you've had the beloved rust bucket for a while but this is the reality of working with an obsolete operating system.

You can manually turn off the automatic daylight savings time and then adjust to your local time. This will work for the operating system but other software that is dependent on the correct time might get a little fussy.

I will keep an look out for suggestions but it isn't looking good. I know money is an issue but one of the suggestions I do have is to switch to one of the Linux distributions. It is a different operating system but it will work with older computers. Some of the easier ones to work with are Xandros, Ubuntu , or Linspire

Mac Users - Feeling smug huh? Don't. You might be in the same boat. If you have OS 10.4 .5 or later you are ok for the moment. Running 9.3 or earlier? This is the link to the info on the Apple site http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056

If you are a Palm PDA user you might want to visit http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/dst.html

If you have a calendar or time tracking program you might want to go to the software web site to see if there is a patch for the program. More important, make sure you update your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs before March 11.