Wiki Tutorial

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

Wiki Intro

A little history

The first wiki was create in 1995 by Ward Cunningham, and it was called Wiki Wiki Web (Wiki in Hawaii means quick!).

Interview with Ward Cunningham

Wikis are about speed and easiness of writing and publishing on the Web.

Also about collaboration. According to Ward Cunningham ‘People discovered that they can create something with other people, that they don't even know. But they come to trust and they make something that surprises them in terms of its value’.

For a more detailed page on Wikis, its historical historical perspective and some of its many possibilities see the Wiki page.

This page is more how-to guide.

As it is a wiki, feel free to edit it.

Wiki editing

cheatsheet

''italics'' 
 
 '''bold''' 
 
 '''''bold and italics''''' 
 
 ==standard header== 
 
 ===next-level header=== (...and so on) 
 
 [[Internal link]] 
 
 [[Internal link|alternate text]] 
 
 [http://example.com text of external link] 
 
 [[Category:Example]] (category tag) 
 
 [[:Category:Example]] (link to category) 
 
 ---- (horizontal line) 
 
 * bulleted item 
 
 # numbered item 
 
 :indentation 
 
 ::double indentation (...and so on) 
 
 ;term : definition 
 
 [[File:Image-name.jpg|thumb|frame|Caption text]]
 
 {{:Transcluded page name}} 
 
 {{Template name}} (call to template) 
 
 #REDIRECT [[Page name]] 

editing

How to write on the wiki?

Writing on a wiki is not not very different from writing a blog.

You have a Read and Edit mode.

Edit lets you enter content and make changes to existing content.

While you are editing, you can preview your changes in the Preview window.

Once done editing save the page, otherwise your contribution will be lost.

Title Headings

You can make titles with different hierarchic levels by using "=" as follows:

=Main Title=

==Sub Title==

===Sub-sub Title===

===Sub-sub-sub Title===

You can place content under each of these section

page creation

How to create a page?

In a wiki the information is organized into pages or articles ( no great distinction between the two). If you want to say something about something for which there isn't a page, you create that page and start writing its content.

To create a page create internal links [[name of new page]] for that page

The other easy way to create is to use the search function with the name of the page you want to create. When searching, you are given the possibility to create that page.

Note: For your work you should use sub pages under your user namespace. [[User:yourusername/mypage]]

  • Red link = previously non-existing page.
  • Blue link = existing page.

Wiki - an existing page

oooooooo - an non-existing page

external links

[http://beyond-social.org/ Beyond Social]

Beyond Social

Audio-visuals

uploading images

You probably want not only to write, but also to use images, audio and video on the pages you'll be developing.

Wiki allows the following formats:

Medium Formats
image png, gif, jpg, jpeg, svg
audio ogg, mp3
video ogv, webm, mp4

To upload you can use the picture icon on the menu. It asks you for the file name of the file you are going to upload (they must match) and a caption, if you to say something about that image, video, or audio.

The syntax to insert an image:

[[File:myimage.png|My caption]]

Captions can be added to images by using a vertical bar (the "pipe"):

[[File:myimage.jpg|Caption under the image]]

Youtube/Vimeo videos

To include, you need:

  • the ID of the video you want to include in you page
  • to write {{youtube|id}} for Youtube or {{vimeo|id}} for vimeo. Where the id is the sequence of numbers and letters that follow ?v= in Youtube videos url, and vimeo.com/ in Vimeo videos)

Example: {{youtube|A1YYv_J2csk}} {{vimeo|68841788}}

will results in:

http://vimeo.com/68841788

Wiki calendar care

Here's a link to how to add information to the calendar and what do you if it disappears. It's a pad so it may change, and it acts as a tool should people want to write other questions or comments. https://pad.xpub.nl/p/wiki_calendar_howto

Changing pages' titles

Pages' titles can be changed by using the function Move in the top right corner in a dropdown menu next to the star.

The Move page permits you to attribute a new name to the current page

Communication

How do collaborators, editors, proofreaders, coordinators and designers communicate withing this ecosystem ?

Say one totally disagrees with what is said in page where she is collaborating.

There are several ways to go about it.

One of the places that could be used is the talk page.

By the book

A good free online resource is Yaron Koren's Working with MediaWiki. Yaron Koren is a contributor to the MediaWiki software community, particularly around integrating data and journalism (he's the primary author of the Cargo extension).

Some Key Topics

Further reading

Interview series on wiki publishing by Publishing Lab team Cristina Cochior, Juan Gomez, Lucia Dossin and Sandra Fauconnier