alexpgp | On wikis...

I had a spare minute so I added some content to the StikiPad Knowledge Base, for which I received a nice note from one of the fellows behind the site, in which thanked me for my contribution, adding, "If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know."

My reply:

No problem. Thanks for the encouragement (and the offer, which you'll probably come to regret :^).

I've begun the process of integrating my work site (http://galexi.com), which runs Textpattern (and which I'm trying to use to manage static content as well as blog-like articles and form-based dynamic content), with StikiPad. So far, I've got the cosmetics more or less down, with very little content at the site. Among the steps down the road will be filling out the bare bones and creating a local CGI search script that, in turn, calls the StikiPad and Textpattern scripts, scrapes out the meat, and outputs it as one search result to the requesting browser. This, I think, will help maintain the seamlessness of the integration (users only know about one search field, even if the result seems to be two lists), but I'll only need it once the content merits it.

But enough about me and my problems. What about you guys? As far as I can tell, StikiPad is a two-man operation, which in and of itself is nothing to be concerned about, but I'm also noticing that, for example, most of the Knowledge Base content hasn't been touched in a while and there's not many folks registered in the forum.

And before I go too much further, please understand that I am *not* being critical for the sake of being critical. (Too, I may be wrong. Forgive me.) It just seems to me that you guys ought to be - if not beating the crap out of backpackit.com - at least gathering as much steam because you guys offer a better deal at a better price. And anyway, wiki is an idea whose time has come!

Me, I've sort of been a closet evangelist in search of a flock. I've been a wiki fan for several years. I started - believe it or not - with TWiki running on a Linux box in my office, but decided it was too much work. Since then, I've worked with online versions of MediaWiki and a Russian offshoot of WakkaWiki called WackoWiki, but all of them involve simply too much damn work to maintain.

I delivered a presentation a couple of years ago to the American Translators Association on wikis, and although the presentation went well and I got a lot of good comments from the audience, and despite the Association's having published an article I wrote in their membership journal on wikis, I just don't feel anything has come about as a result. Heck, I don't *feel*, I *know* nothing happened.

I think the key here is that most people - for one reason or another - are plumb afraid of wikis, or wikis make them uncomfortable. I set one up on pbwiki a while ago - before running into StikiPad - to coordinate terminology for a group of translators working on a project, and although I know one other translator on the team *looked* at the wiki (because she *sent me email about it*), NOBODY else made a single change!

I'm thinking frequent and widespread demonstrations are called for (and not like in Paris right now, okay?).

I'm thinking it may be time to take a leaf from my old, dusty, and ratty-looking Borland playbook (did I tell you I was a Product Manager there about 15 years ago?) and try to engineer a "Wiki World Tour" or something similar, perhaps one city at a time. (This isn't a pitch for money or support; just me mouthing off, though if you have any ideas...)

Sorry to be so wordy, but I had a moment and well... anyway... you started it! I've got to get back to work.

Hmmm. I do seem to somewhat overdo the asterisks, no?

Cheers...