OLPC:Community Portal: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 06:32, 21 November 2008

This page is for the discussion of this wiki and how to better inform those interested in the OLPC project. Wiki technology and etiquette are also the subject of How to use a wiki.

For ideas and general discussion about or feedback from the community, see the OLPC:Village pump
For questions, see OLPC FAQ; or the Ask OLPC a Question Page. The wiki is an evolving effort; there is lots of work to do: Please help!
discussion: see the Talk page for general discussion about this portal and organization of ideas. Organized, concise entries are for the portal itself. Please sign your posts.
Problems with the Wiki itself: the Wiki page.

Discussion also occurs on IRC.

Overviews and lists

For links to many relevant pages on the site, see Table of contents.

Certainly, as the project develops more and more content is going to be posted. But in order to make that content accessable and easy to use, a lot of work is going to have to get done.

Categorization

Every page should have at least one category. If you find one that does not, please try to find one for it and categorize it by adding a [[Category:some category]] to the bottom—preferably an existing category.

How to categorize a page: Note that pages whose names begin with "Category:" cannot be directly altered to add additional cited pages in that category by clicking on the edit tab and proceeding. The actual method of categorizing a page is to add an appropriate tag at the bottom of that page which looks like [[Category:categoryname]]. (Note that preview will not show the effectiveness of this action, but it will work.)

Check Special:Categories and Special:Unusedcategories to see what categories already exist. It can be difficult to find categories though, so if the situation permits, you can make a redirect page which will point to the category. For instance:

There is a category "Category:File formats" which has a collection of different kinds of File formats "JPEG, Ogg, PDF, etc." and there is growing number of pages about these file formats being created. It wouldn't make sense to have a page dedicated to file formats, because there is already a collection of them in Category:File formats, and it gets updated automatically. So instead, create a redirect to the "Category:Xyz" page. This will make the whole collection searchable. Just remember- the redirect automatically becomes part of the category it's redirecting to unless you put a colon in front of the Category, so format the names carefully!

Consolidation

Sometimes writers ramble on or they pull together content from several authors with a few glue words. For instance: there's a lot of information on the Software Ideas page that can be moved to other pages in Category:Software ideas If you see pages like these, Please do what you can to consolidate them. If you see such a page on the Wiki, add a link to it here so that someone can go and rewrite the page in a more condensed and understandable fashion. Check out the Special:Long pages for more ideas.

Formatting

This may seem nitpicky, but it really isn't. Pages need to be formatted in a logical, consistent manner. Otherwise it becomes very difficult to navigate and find information, and we end up with pages which aren't categorized and/or need to be consolidated. This results in a lot of extra work for everyone involved. More importantly even, is the correct capitalization of page and category titles. Unless there is a proper name or acronym in the title, the only capital letter should be the first letter. "Kinds Of Laptops" is not correct. "Kinds of Laptops" is also not correct. "Kinds of laptops" is correct. The reason for this is that if the title is "Kinds Of Laptops" and someone searches for "kinds of laptops", the search won't turn up any results. In a similar vein, if there are capital letters in the middle of the title and there isn't another potential article without that capitalization style, you may want to make a redirect. For instance:

"Ancient Polynesian laptops" might necessitate a redirect titled "Ancient polynesian laptops". This is solely because not everyone who searches is going to use the proper capitalization. NOTE- this is not appropriate where there may be a unique page with the alternative capitalization ie "List of Free software" would NOT require a redirect titled "List of free software" because there may potentially be a page with that title.

Furthermore, try to keep the number of headers to a minimum. Wiki authors love putting in unneeded headers. If you need to make an addition to an article, try to see if you can fit it in a preexisting header. You might have to rename the header to make it more appropriate for a more general topic. The goal of this is to give the article flow, and keep it from getting all chopped up and disorganized. If you have to make a new header, make sure to keep it in the style of the rest of the page.

So you want to create an article...

several things to keep in mind.

make sure the page is not redundant.
make sure other pages link to it. In particular make sure you can find it through one of the categories under navigation. If no one can find your page no one will go to it.
make sure that your title is formatted correctly. If there are unnecessary capital letters, the search will not always turn it up as a result.Please see the formatting conventions on [1] for formatting conventions, particularly Wikipedia:Manual of Style (capital letters). There are a lot of pages being made with a nonstandard capitalization convention, and this needs to be remedied. Titles of pages without a proper noun or acronym should only have ONE capital letter at the beginning of the title. The pages for which this is not the case need to be changed.

Copyright License

Note that all material on this Wiki is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. If you are not the copyright holder of any contributions then please clear it with the copyright holder. Every page has a link to the license at the bottom.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{TOCright}}
-This page is for the discusion of this wiki and how to better inform those interested in the OLPC project.  If you have any questions about the OLPC project please see the [[OLPC_FAQ]] and if you still have questions see the [[Ask OLPC a Question]] Page. This Wiki is an evolving effort and becuase there's this is such a new Wiki there's lots of work to do, feel free to add your opinion and sign it.
+This page is for the discussion of this wiki and how to better inform those interested in the OLPC project. Wiki technology and etiquette are also the subject of [[How to use a wiki]].
+* For ideas and general discussion about or feedback from the community, see the [[OLPC:Village pump]]
-=To Do List=
+* For questions, see [[OLPC FAQ]]; or the [[Ask OLPC a Question]] Page. The wiki is an evolving effort; there is lots of work to do: Please help!
+* discussion: see the [[OLPC talk:Community Portal|Talk page]] for general discussion about this portal and organization of ideas.  Organized, concise entries are for the portal itself. Please sign your posts.
+* Problems with the Wiki itself: the [[Wiki]] page.
+Discussion also occurs on [[IRC]].
-==Categorization==
+== Overviews and lists ==
-So we have fewer than 10 used categories in the entire wiki, and lots and lots of articles. What needs to be done first is some organization. Check out [[:Special:Categories]] and [[:Special:Unusedcategories]] to see what's already around. Here's an outline of some categories it would be good to start with. A few of us here have gone over this, and have agreed that this is a good starting point (of course, it's not complete)
+For links to many relevant pages on the site, see '''[[Table of contents]]'''.
-----
+Certainly, as the '''project''' develops more and more content is going to be posted. But in order to make that content accessable and easy to use, a lot of work is going to have to get done.
-'''Categories'''
+'''Categorization'''
-<s>Common Room</s>
+: Every page should have at least one category.  If you find [[Special:Uncategorizedpages|one that does not]], please try to find one for it and categorize it by adding a <tt><nowiki>[[</nowiki>Category:''some category''<nowiki>]]</nowiki></tt> to the bottom&mdash;preferably an [[Special:Categories|existing category]].
+:<b>How to categorize a page:</b> Note that pages whose names begin with "Category:" ''cannot'' be directly altered to add additional cited pages in that category by clicking on the ''edit'' tab and proceeding. The ''actual method'' of categorizing a page is to add an appropriate tag at the bottom of ''that'' page which looks like <nowiki>[[Category:categoryname]]</nowiki>. (Note that ''preview will not'' show the effectiveness of this action, but it will work.)
-Deployment (logistics)
+Check [[:Special:Categories]] and [[:Special:Unusedcategories]] to see what categories already exist. It can be difficult to find categories though, so if the situation permits, you can make a redirect page which will point to the category. For instance:
-Development
-:Application Development
-:Content Development
-:System Development
-::Hardware
-::Software
+:There is a category "Category:File formats" which has a collection of different kinds of File formats "JPEG, Ogg, PDF, etc." and there is growing number of pages about these file formats being created. It wouldn't make sense to have a page dedicated to file formats, because there is already a collection of them in [[:Category:File formats]], and it gets updated automatically. So instead, create a redirect to the "Category:Xyz" page. This will make the whole collection searchable. Just remember- the redirect automatically becomes part of the category it's redirecting to unless you put a colon in front of the Category, so format the names carefully!
+'''Consolidation'''
-<s>Educators</s> (information for educators)
+* Sometimes writers ramble on or they pull together content from several authors with a few glue words.  For instance: there's a lot of information on the [[Software Ideas]] page that can be moved to other pages in Category:Software ideas If you see pages like these, Please do what you can to consolidate them. If you see such a page on the Wiki, add a link to it here so that someone can go and rewrite the page in a more condensed and understandable fashion. Check out the [[Special:Long pages]] for more ideas.
-Feedback   (Other people's ideas about/for the project)
-:Ideas
-:Critique
+'''Formatting'''
+*This may seem nitpicky, but it really isn't. Pages need to be formatted in a logical, consistent manner. Otherwise it becomes very difficult to navigate and find information, and we end up with pages which aren't categorized and/or need to be consolidated. This results in a lot of extra work for everyone involved. More importantly even, is the correct capitalization of page and category titles. Unless there is a proper name or acronym in the title, the only capital letter should be the first letter. "Kinds Of Laptops" is not correct. "Kinds of Laptops" is also not correct. "Kinds of laptops" is correct. The reason for this is that if the title is "Kinds Of Laptops" and someone searches for "kinds of laptops", the search won't turn up any results. In a similar vein, if there are capital letters in the middle of the title and there isn't another potential article without that capitalization style, you may want to make a redirect. For instance:
-<s>General Public</s>
+:"Ancient Polynesian laptops" might necessitate a redirect titled "Ancient polynesian laptops". This is solely because not everyone who searches is going to use the proper capitalization. NOTE- this is not appropriate where there may be a unique page with the alternative capitalization ie "List of Free software" would NOT require a redirect titled "List of free software" because there may potentially be a page with that title.
-<s>Languages (International)</s>
+Furthermore, try to keep the number of headers to a minimum. Wiki authors love putting in unneeded headers. If you need to make an addition to an article, try to see if you can fit it in a preexisting header. You might have to rename the header to make it more appropriate for a more general topic. The goal of this is to give the article flow, and keep it from getting all chopped up and disorganized. If you have to make a new header, make sure to keep it in the style of the rest of the page.
-OLPC Theory (education theory, distribution theory, etc)
+== So you want to create an article... ==
-----
-Do what you can. If you have any questions, comments feel free to message me.--[[User:Aburton|Aburton]] 14:35, 14 June 2006 (EDT)
-==General Improvements that are needed==
-*We could use someone who actually knows how to decently format pages so they look decent.  I'm pretty clueless when it comes to that.  Wikipedia has a great front page and community portal that we could emulate.
-*Improve first impressions--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 22:59, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
-*#make it easier to get where you're going
-*#Make the main page look more professional - while the main page has improved by leaps and bounds, Improved formating would make the main page much cleaner and more professional.--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 23:06, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
-*Improve the Software Page --[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 22:59, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
-*#Make it will be easier for new developers to jump on board.(this includes those who just got their OLPCs and want to start hacking.
-*#State the goals for the software; what software is going to be included, how things are implemented and what needs work.
-*Linking is needed between pages.  Too many pages are being lost because no one can find them.--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 00:05, 14 June 2006 (EDT)
-==Layout Priorities for OLPC Wiki==
-Feel free to comment, change or add on to the list of wiki imperatives. Discussion in this matter is ''essential.''
-==Pages That Need to be Condensed==
-Sometimes writers ramble on or they pull together content from several authors with a few glue words. If you see such a page on the Wiki, add a link to it here so that someone can go and rewrite the page in a more condensed and understandable fashion. Check out the [[Special: Long pages]] for more ideas.
-# [[OLPC_FAQ]] is quickly becoming Massive.  I've started reorganizing, which has helped but there's still plenty of questions that over lap and could be rewriten and it's still almost so large its useless.--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 22:52, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
-:If you collect questions by topic that makes it easier for others to notice the overlap and to edit them down to more manageable size. It especially helps if there are sub headings so you can click on edit and get a whole category at once.
-==Articles That Need to be Written/Expanded==
-List article ideas here, in particular, those articles that could be written by any intelligent person who has the time and the inclination to do an hour or two of research to collect material for the page.
-#[[Software]] - It has been started but we need to connect all the projects that are going on around the OLPC.
-==Pages that need to be wikified==
-These pages need more linking to other pages.  Check out the  [[Special:Deadendpages]].
-==Language Management==
-This project is truly international and multilingual. There will be many language issues, both regarding the OLPC system software, the OLPC application software, the OLPC educational content, and the content of this Wiki itself. How can we manage all this in an orderly way. What things need to be in English and what things should be in other languages?
-==Random==
-#I think the <nowiki>{{OLPC}}</nowiki> tag could use some formating.  I think a box would disrupt the flow of the page less then the lines that are currently there but I don't know how to do boxs and other such crazy wiki stuff, so maybe someone else can do it.--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 23:03, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
-:I like the slimmer tag--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 15:42, 14 June 2006 (EDT)
-----
-==Wiki formatting==
-Please see the formatting conventions on [Wikipedia] for formatting conventions, particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28capital_letters%29 Wikipedia:Manual of Style (capital letters)]. There are a lot of pages being made with a nonstandard capitalization convention, and this needs to be remedied. Titles of pages without a proper noun or acronym should only have ONE capital letter at the beginning of the title. The pages for which this is not the case need to be changed.
---[[User:Aburton|Aburton]] 14:42, 16 June 2006 (EDT)
-=So you want to create an article...=
 several things to keep in mind.
 #make sure the page is not redundant.
-#make sure other pages link to it.  In particular make sure you can find it through one of the catagories under navigation. If no one can find your page no one will go to it.
+#make sure other pages link to it.  In particular make sure you can find it through one of the categories under navigation. If no one can find your page no one will go to it.
+#make sure that your title is formatted correctly. If there are unnecessary capital letters, the search will not always turn it up as a result.Please see the formatting conventions on [http://www.wikipedia.org|Wikipedia] for formatting conventions, particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28capital_letters%29 Wikipedia:Manual of Style (capital letters)]. There are a lot of pages being made with a nonstandard capitalization convention, and this needs to be remedied. Titles of pages without a proper noun or acronym should only have ONE capital letter at the beginning of the title. The pages for which this is not the case need to be changed.
-=Wiki Discusion=
-Some Clarity is needed here.  What is the Purpose of this section?  It's unclear to me. --[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 22:40, 13 June 2006 (EDT)
-==What's the Purpose of this page?==
-I was hoping for several things for this page. First, that this would be the spot where everyone helping on this page could come together and discuss what this wiki needs to be better.  Secondly I was thinking that this page could be a place to get help editing and formating pages.
-==Specific Page Goals==
-*what is the purpose of the community portal?
-*what audience is a page intended for?
-*what types of pages are missing and should be added?
-*what pages need to be added to assist in navigating the wiki?
-The pages in this section will be ones which need to be planned jointly and put together by multiple authors before being released to the Wiki. See below for article ideas that could be done by a single author working alone.
+== Copyright License ==
-#General Public Introduction (to help the general public find the pages that are relevant to them without hunting through the entire Table of Contents)
-#Content Developer Introduction (a navigation page targetted to people making ebooks and authoring educational content for the OLPC)
-===Work Plans for Specific Page Goals===
-====General Public Introduction====
-This is a place holder. Ideally, we will build a page outline here and the someone will create the page, copy the outline over, and add content to the page. But only when it is ready.
-====Content Developer Introduction====
-This is a place holder. Ideally, we will build a page outline here and the someone will create the page, copy the outline over, and add content to the page. But only when it is ready.
-===Page Layout Standard===
-*How should pages look?
-*Should we have page templates for people to use when creating a new page?
-::I think Templates would help out a bunch.--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 12:42, 14 June 2006 (EDT)
+Note that all material on this Wiki is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.  If you are not the copyright holder of any contributions then please clear it with the copyright holder.  Every page has a link to the license at the bottom.
-=Copyright Licence for this wiki.=
+* http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
-Note that all material on this Wiki is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license. If you do not want your material to be available under this license, then don't put it on this Wiki. If you are not the copyright holder of any contributions then please clear it with the copyright holder. Every page has a link to the license at the bottom.
+* http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalcode
+[[Category:Common Room]]
-*http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/
-*http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/legalcode

OLPC:Community Portal: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 06:32, 21 November 2008

Overviews and lists

So you want to create an article...

Copyright License

Navigation menu

Search