Proposal:PersonalWikiTool

Participation

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• Privatemusings 14:37, 20 December 2010 (EST)

The Big Idea

I want to create an 'IndividualWiki' or 'PersonalWiki' tool - which I suppose could also be called a 'GroupWiki' tool :-) Here's the why and how in a nutshell;

This tool will allow, intuitively, quickly and easily, the creation of a fenced wiki environment, seeded with articles, and / or categories of articles, and / or preselected groups of articles. The 'owner' of this fenced wiki environment would have full control over the range of user rights associated with MediaWiki, so could easily setup the registered editing of a subset of articles by, for example, students in a class, year group, or school.

Essentially, the process should be as simple as applying for an account, receiving credentials for the account, possibly resulting in the creation of a MediaWiki instance, and then following a series of straight forward paths to 'seeding' the wiki (ie. choosing what content, from what project, to import) - early technical discussions indicate that this may involve some development work on MediaWiki's import and export functions.

I would envisage WMAU providing hosting for these accounts as part of a small, trial programme, though obviously there is potential for partnership with other hosting providers should there be demand.

Some present needs for / benefits of such a tool include;

• A PersonalWiki for tertiary sectors such as University departments might encourage expert review of open source material

• Parents and organisations with duty of care for children may prefer to create PersonalWikis, in order to provide a safer wiki environment that they can manage.

• Existing wiki editors who specialise in content creation have often complained that open wiki dynamics are not conducive to content development, such users could use a GroupWiki to co-ordinate their efforts and manage their work in any way they choose

• Great potential for learning within the study both of wiki content and dynamics, not necessarily enhanced in an open wiki environment.

Timescale

I'd like to get these ideas sufficiently clear by mid Jan to be able to have a home on the WMAU wiki, with a view to getting some kind of working system up and running by March / April. I think it will remain important to me to get something actually working and 'out there' - though obviously good intentions aren't necessarily the only requirement ;-)