[Foundation-l] The Perl Wiki, or Perl-Wikipedia

[Eric R. Meyers]

On Wednesday 05 July 2006 18:10, geni wrote:

> Apoligies you arived in the middle of a seperate discussion that has
> had some side effects.

No problem, I understand. :)

My point about not coming to copy or steal was that I have no interest in 
being redundant, rather I want all new information to be extentions of the 
current knowledge base, well integrated and highly interlinked with what 
already has been done very well within Wikipedia.  I like Wikipedia a lot!

> Problems with finding an editorbase. The foundation doesn't have much
> in the way of a history of doing single issue projects. there appears
> to be a general bias against them amoung the various wikimedia editor
> bases since they tend to duplicat the work of either wikipedia or
> wikibooks.

What do you mean by an editorbase?  Do you simply mean people who will be 
willing experts, authors and editors of content?  Perl has a well established 
community of experts, authors and editors, and if "The Perl Wiki" is built 
correctly, then they will come to take advantage of a very good thing and 
extend it into an even better thing for themselves and others to learn from.  
That has been the perl.advocacy usenet discussion, about building the central 
reference Wiki, from the various specialized Wiki sites around the world, to 
create the global wiki for the Perl community.  And Wikibooks will be a must 
have component for the Perl community.  Something magic might happen.

I know what you mean about not having a history yet, but that doesn't mean 
that there can't be a new precedent set here.  The people at Wikimedia are 
doing something new in our information history, you are opening new doors, 
and I think that I found a door that might possibly get to be opened someday, 
not just for the Perl community, but for all global communities.  The reason 
that I came to Wikimedia today is because I want to make sure that whatever I 
want to do conforms to Wikimedia's wishes.  The last thing that I want to do 
is have a negative impact upon what they have been doing so well.  Is their a 
correct structure that will work, for us to work together?

What is an encyclopedia going to become, with Wikpedia setting a new 
functional standard?  How much breadth and how much depth does Wikimedia want 
in Wikipedia?  I don't think that Wikimedia has any real concern for the 
breadth of topics, but I do want to understand the practical limits on the 
depth of a particular topic, in this case, the Perl topic.  I do want to 
understand how we might be able to work together correctly to set a new 
standard.

> Setting up a new type of project within the foundation is a slow
> process. You best bet is probably either to stick with the articles on
> wikipedia and wikibooks or to start your own project on one of the
> various free wiki hosts or your own server.

I made reference to what I had learned about the new project policy, saying 
that I was aware that it could take years to bring an idea to fruition.  But, 
I don't see it as what you think of as a new project, but more of an 
integration of all the Wikipedia components available to solve a Perl 
community problem.  What can we do together in parallel?

Eric
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/attachments/20060705/dd039943/attachment-0001.pgp