What is a Wiki?

A wiki is an online place where you put stuff (notes, messages, documents, tasks, etc) so that others can get to it. A wiki is a web site that anyone can contribute to without needing any special tools or skills. If you want to put words on the web, you point your browser at the wiki. Every page has an "Edit" button, and when you click that an editor appears so you can change the page you are looking at. When you save, it is immediately available to other Internet users. You can attach documents, and those too are available immediately to others. There is a good article at wikipedia that explains the concepts of a wiki.

What is the difference between Wiki and Blog?

Wikis and blogs both allow people to publish information easily without needing special tools or skills.

• A Blog (or Weblog) is a collection of "posts" which are organized chronologically.
• A Wiki has lots of pages which are named, and allows the information to be organized by subject.
• To publish on a blog, you just type a new post in, and save without having to worry about where it goes.
• To publish on a wiki, you find a page on the subject, or you create a new one, and type and save.

The wiki has an advantage that the information is organized somewhat by topic, while the blog is simply a linear list of entries in the order they were entered. The blog has the advantage that you don't have to worry at all about where to put things.

Why Use a Wiki?

A wiki is a powerful tool for us, because we need to get information organized and presented in a way that others can access and benefit from it. In a volunteer organization there is no professional editors or documentation team to do the work of preparing the content for the web site. A wiki is the simplest easiest way to get good information on the web.

What is 'Process Leaves'?

Process Leaves is the name of this particular kind of wiki, developed by the Advanced Software Design Team at Fujitsu America. It has all of the normal features you would expect to find in a wiki, and it has a number of unique features around task planning and tracking which you might find useful for helping to run a team or organization.

Here is a list of concepts you might need to know to use Process Leaves effectively:

• Each 'leaf' is made up of a collection of 'leaflets' or 'sections' on the display. You generally edit a leaflet at a time ... you never edit the entire leaf.
• Each leaf has a name which can be used to make a link to it from another leaf.
• Each leaf has a public section which is available to anyone who navigates to the leaf. The public section is used to publish information to the Internet users.
• Each leaf has a set of members.
• A member can see the 'member-only' part of the leaf.
• A member can edit the member-only and the public leaflets.
• A member can approve others to be members.
• Each leaf has a set of attachments: some are public and some are member-only.
• Each leaf has a set of tasks that can be assigned to individuals. Individuals have a worklist which shows all the tasks on the site.
• Any member can easily send an email message to all the members, so in this way it functions as a mailing list.

There are a lot more details, but the above should be enough to help you get going initially.

What is the Challenge of Maintaining a Wiki?

The biggest problem with a web site (any web site) is keeping it up to date. You put some information there, but after a while things change, and the information on the web is no longer accurate. Because a wiki is easy to edit, it is easier to keep up to date than any other web site, but there still is work keeping it up to date. Since anyone on the team can edit a page: if you see a page that inaccurate, then you can immediately edit and correct the page.

Why do you need to Log-in?

Good information is precious and must be protected, so the people who are allowed to modify the information must be controlled. Each leaf can have a different list of people who can edit it. But before the wiki can know whether you are a member or not, you need to log in to tell the wiki who you are.

You are probably used to logging in with a username and password. For Process Leaves you supply your email address as the username, and you can register a password to use.

Process Leaves offers another option with OpenID. OpenID allows you to log in once to an OpenID server, and then you can access any number of sites without having to log in. It is "single signon" for the Internet. This is really convenient if you use a number of sites that all take OpenID. But many users find this to not be so convenient if this is the only site you use that takes OpenID. It is your choice. Access more information about Registering with OpenID .

How do you Edit?

Most leaflets have an edit button on the upper right, but it appears only if you are logged in.

Click on that you should be presented with an edit UI. Depending upon the type of leaflet, you will get a different editor. Most leaflets are "Wiki Format" and so you will see the wiki text editor.

There is a separate section on how to enter wiki format.

How do you Create a Page?

Generally you create a page by fist making a link to it on an existing page. You make up the name of the page, and put it in square brackets. When viewing the page, you will see a red link. Click on that link (with a little blue circle after it) will bring you to a page where you can create the new page.

How do you Attach a Document?

The tabs at the top of the leaf display get you to the different parts of the leaf, and one tab is named "Attachments". Clicking on that you should see any documents that are already attached to the leaf. There is a button saying "Create New Attachment" which takes you to the attachment creation form.

You have three different kinds of attachments:

• The first is the normal type you are used to with email programs: you browse you local disk, select a document, and it is uploaded to the leaf. This can be downloaded by others.
• The second is a "link" style. If the resource you want to attach is already on the web, you can take the URL to that resource and make it an attachment.
• The third is a special case: if you know that someone else has a document, and you want them to attach that document, this option allows you to write a description of what you want attached, and enter their email address, and they will receive an email message asking them to attach the document. Process Leaves works for you in gathering the documents of others.

Remember to choose whether you want the attachment to be public or member only.

Hints

Write to last a long time

When you write a page, simply be mindful that the page will probably last a lot longer than you think. It goes without saying that you will be careful that the information is accurate, but also keep in mind that people may be reading this information two years from now. Before an event there is a flurry of activity to let people know about it, and then after the event the pages are typically left there. That is fine and normal. Keeping this in mind, it try to put the "year" into the title as much as possible so that when we make another page next year there will not be any confusion.

• STMAA