Over in this topic I gave you a hint that I'm working on a new penturning information resource. I want to give you some more information and get you all thinking about how YOU can contribute. This isn't something I can do, or a few of us can do. It will require the support of our entire community.
Heard of Wikipedia? Familiar with the concept of a Wiki?
As the Wikipedia article says, a wiki is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. I encourage you to read the Wiki article as it answers a lot of questions I'm sure many of you have about just how the heck something like that can work.
The bottom line is that we're going to build the biggest, most complete, most easily used encyclopedia of penturning anywhere. Whenever you're looking at a page in the wiki, you'll be able to add to it, fix errors, adjust grammar, etc. It might sound like anarchy, but it's collaboration at it's finest. Remember, "none of us are as smart as all of us". As the years go by, the wiki will just get bigger and better.
I'm still working on installing and configuring the wiki software on one of our servers. I have never administered a wiki before, so there's been a bit of a learning curve. Hopefully the time I'm taking now will pay off later in ease of use and less effort for all of you content authors.
Once I get this done, I'm going to solicit about 20 people to work on getting some basic content in there. They'll be assigned to write very simple paragraphs (wiki pages) that describe the basic elements of pen making that we discussed over here.
They'll cite dozens, probably hundreds of terms and concepts that you all can then define, refine, and describe. For example, one of the original authors might write an overview of the tools and equipment needed to make pens, but won't describe things like the various types of lathes, or the various ways to sharpen a chisel. You can imagine that concepts fan out like a spider web from a single original article.
After the original authors get done, we'll open it up to the world to revise and improve. There will be plenty of how-to info coming on editing and working with the wiki software, and I'll also appoint some wiki "champions" who will be able to provide help using the wiki, and will arbitrate disagreements. We'll also set up a forum section just for discussing the wiki and it's content.
Heard of Wikipedia? Familiar with the concept of a Wiki?
As the Wikipedia article says, a wiki is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. I encourage you to read the Wiki article as it answers a lot of questions I'm sure many of you have about just how the heck something like that can work.
The bottom line is that we're going to build the biggest, most complete, most easily used encyclopedia of penturning anywhere. Whenever you're looking at a page in the wiki, you'll be able to add to it, fix errors, adjust grammar, etc. It might sound like anarchy, but it's collaboration at it's finest. Remember, "none of us are as smart as all of us". As the years go by, the wiki will just get bigger and better.
I'm still working on installing and configuring the wiki software on one of our servers. I have never administered a wiki before, so there's been a bit of a learning curve. Hopefully the time I'm taking now will pay off later in ease of use and less effort for all of you content authors.
Once I get this done, I'm going to solicit about 20 people to work on getting some basic content in there. They'll be assigned to write very simple paragraphs (wiki pages) that describe the basic elements of pen making that we discussed over here.
They'll cite dozens, probably hundreds of terms and concepts that you all can then define, refine, and describe. For example, one of the original authors might write an overview of the tools and equipment needed to make pens, but won't describe things like the various types of lathes, or the various ways to sharpen a chisel. You can imagine that concepts fan out like a spider web from a single original article.
After the original authors get done, we'll open it up to the world to revise and improve. There will be plenty of how-to info coming on editing and working with the wiki software, and I'll also appoint some wiki "champions" who will be able to provide help using the wiki, and will arbitrate disagreements. We'll also set up a forum section just for discussing the wiki and it's content.
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