Recent Changes for "Building community" - Wiki Spot

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2009-10-24 03:19:00

Revert to version 40.

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
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- One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.	+ One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.
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-	+ An easy way to do this is to have lots and lots of pictures. This is often easier than writing long articles and is a great way to document landmarks, businesses, events, etc. Most of my favorite pages on Davis Wiki contain photos (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/Payphone_Project) and over time these pictures will only become more valuable and interesting as things change and disappear (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/The_Jagged_Tree).

Building community

2009-10-24 03:13:37

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 43:	Line 43:
- One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.	+ One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.

Building community

2009-10-24 03:12:29

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
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- An easy way to do this is to have lots and lots of pictures. This is often easier than writing long articles and is a great way to document landmarks, businesses, events, etc. Most of my favorite pages on Davis Wiki contain photos (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/Payphone_Project) and over time these pictures will only become more valuable and interesting as things change and disappear (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/The_Jagged_Tree).	+

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2009-10-24 03:05:38

Revert to version 38.

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
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- For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, he will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that he is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.	+ For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.

Building community

2009-10-24 03:01:13

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
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- For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.	+ For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, he will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that he is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.

Building community

JabberWokky — 2009-09-10 17:28:37

Revert to version 35 (not a wiki).

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 1:	Line 1:
- ==American Sports== - This wiki is an open forum for the discussion of what sports are popular in the United States and why they are popular. It also meant to discuss those sports that are popular abroad, yet fail to appeal to Americans. The sports that immediately come to mind as being most popular in America are Baseball, Football, and Basketball. The sports that are very popular abroad but are much less popular in the U.S. include soccer (futbol, or football in the U.K.), and Cricket. So each heading will propose some main idea and the body beneath the heading will discuss this idea in greater detail. Feel free to edit any part of the document you wish.	+ How can we help our wiki become successful? How can we maintain and build a community around our wiki?
Line 4:	Line 3:
- =Attention Span= - Americans tend to have a short attention span when it comes to watching events. We enjoy short bursts of action followed by periods of time with no action. This could justify why we enjoy baseball and football so much. Football has an especially high energy associated with every play. There is never a dull second when a play is taking place. After each play there is a period of time that the audience can talk to their friends or do whatever else they wish. Following that short break there is another period of high energy play. Baseball could be viewed in a similar manner. It does not require you to watch every second of a long game. There are several breaks between pitches, batters, and innings. This means that there are periods of intense action followed by periods of a break from the action. Basketball is more difficult to fit into this category. However, we could make the assumption that there is always a high level of intensity associated with basketball. Basketball is a high scoring game. This rapid scoring in rapid succession appeases the American viewer who is typically impatient. This impatience could also explain why soccer has not been one of America's favorite sports. Watching a soccer game requires a long attention span and lots of patience. In a 90 minute game a team could score at any time. Soccer teams slowly build up plays and pass back and forth until a perfect opportunity arises to shoot for a goal. If you look away for an instant you may miss a goal, assuming there is a goal scored at all. Often soccer games will end with neither team scoring a single goal. Cricket is a sport that has a series of complicated rules and can actually last for days. This does not mesh well with the short attention span of Americans. - [[Image(spins.jpg)]]	+ == Visualize your community ==
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- =Social Drinking= - Americans often associate sports with socially drinking alcohol. The stop and go action associated with football and baseball facilitate this social drinking. The time between plays in football, and pitches in baseball allow viewers the time to grab their beverage, take a drink, and rejoin the action as the next play or pitch is getting ready to take place. These sporting events are also conducive to drinking alcohol while viewing in a pub or bar setting as well. The breaks between innings in baseball and quarters in football and basketball allow fans the time needed to approach the bar to order their drinks. Soccer does not afford these breaks. Soccer is divided into two 45 minute halves. The only scheduled break that takes place is the half time. Constant play in soccer affords viewers little time to engage in social drinking for fear they may miss the scoring of a goal. - [[Image(glass.jpg)]] [[Image(pub.jpg)]]	+ When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis' memberships will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location-based wikis' memberships will be defined by the geography or social ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge? + + This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve, and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate. + + == Preparation == + + Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some seed pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you seed out a variety of interests. + + For an interest wiki you might start with what you know about the subject and provide some organization for that material. + + == Outreach == + + Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location-based wiki start with a few of your friends; for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts. You can also use the existing ["Interwiki Community" Wiki Spot community] to help you get your wiki off the ground (a good supply of wiki gnomes). + + Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location-based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (e.g. fliers, spray-painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it). + + === Starting small and "opening up" === + + For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak. + + For some, opening up a wiki in its extreme infant stages presents no problem -- it all depends on the needs of your community and the purpose of your wiki. Opening up in a wiki's early stages can work well as long as the purpose and drive of the community is there from the start. + + A good read on some more of this seeding process can be found [wiki:Meatball:"SeedPosting" here]. + + == Ongoing Guidance and Growth == + + Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community. + + Sometimes taking the time to clearly explain your actions and the reasons you have for making them can help convey this to other editors. You can do this either by commenting in the "Please comment about this change:" area when you edit a page, or in the edit itself if that is appropriate. + + You can always call on the [wiki:gnome Gnomes] to come and help out. + + == Establishing Dispute Resolution == + + Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"ReFactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles. + + == Misconceptions == + + One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki. + + No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well-tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly-tended one. + + = General thoughts & opinions = + == Build something for you & your friends == + One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful. --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom] + + == Don't be boring at first == + I don't think you have to have more than 300 pages (that's about what Davis Wiki had), and it's certainly true that you don't want to create a bunch of boring framework pages. But you should have something compelling and interesting. + + An easy way to do this is to have lots and lots of pictures. This is often easier than writing long articles and is a great way to document landmarks, businesses, events, etc. Most of my favorite pages on Davis Wiki contain photos (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/Payphone_Project) and over time these pictures will only become more valuable and interesting as things change and disappear (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/The_Jagged_Tree). + + My advice would be to focus less on adding businesses (this is too difficult to do with few editors anyway) and instead be creative and flesh out pages like http://ithaca.wikispot.org/Oddities. With lots of pictures that could be some compelling stuff that no other web site will ever have. Ever get lost and waste a bunch of time clicking around on Wikipedia? But probably not so much on Yelp, right? '''Zoom in on the quirky stuff that gives your city its character and create a network of fun pages that the user will want to explore once they start reading.''' When you come up with a unique page, post a prominent link right on the front page. Good luck! --["Users/MikeIvanov"]

Building community

2009-09-10 17:13:36

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
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	+ ==American Sports==

Building community

WillyC — 2009-09-10 16:50:05

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 1:	Line 1:
- How can we help our wiki become successful? How can we maintain and build a community around our wiki?	+ This wiki is an open forum for the discussion of what sports are popular in the United States and why they are popular. It also meant to discuss those sports that are popular abroad, yet fail to appeal to Americans. The sports that immediately come to mind as being most popular in America are Baseball, Football, and Basketball. The sports that are very popular abroad but are much less popular in the U.S. include soccer (futbol, or football in the U.K.), and Cricket. So each heading will propose some main idea and the body beneath the heading will discuss this idea in greater detail. Feel free to edit any part of the document you wish.
Line 3:	Line 3:
- == Visualize your community ==	+ =Attention Span= + Americans tend to have a short attention span when it comes to watching events. We enjoy short bursts of action followed by periods of time with no action. This could justify why we enjoy baseball and football so much. Football has an especially high energy associated with every play. There is never a dull second when a play is taking place. After each play there is a period of time that the audience can talk to their friends or do whatever else they wish. Following that short break there is another period of high energy play. Baseball could be viewed in a similar manner. It does not require you to watch every second of a long game. There are several breaks between pitches, batters, and innings. This means that there are periods of intense action followed by periods of a break from the action. Basketball is more difficult to fit into this category. However, we could make the assumption that there is always a high level of intensity associated with basketball. Basketball is a high scoring game. This rapid scoring in rapid succession appeases the American viewer who is typically impatient. This impatience could also explain why soccer has not been one of America's favorite sports. Watching a soccer game requires a long attention span and lots of patience. In a 90 minute game a team could score at any time. Soccer teams slowly build up plays and pass back and forth until a perfect opportunity arises to shoot for a goal. If you look away for an instant you may miss a goal, assuming there is a goal scored at all. Often soccer games will end with neither team scoring a single goal. Cricket is a sport that has a series of complicated rules and can actually last for days. This does not mesh well with the short attention span of Americans. + [[Image(spins.jpg)]]
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- When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis' memberships will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location-based wikis' memberships will be defined by the geography or social ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge? - - This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve, and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate. - - == Preparation == - - Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some seed pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you seed out a variety of interests. - - For an interest wiki you might start with what you know about the subject and provide some organization for that material. - - == Outreach == - - Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location-based wiki start with a few of your friends; for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts. You can also use the existing ["Interwiki Community" Wiki Spot community] to help you get your wiki off the ground (a good supply of wiki gnomes). - - Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location-based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (e.g. fliers, spray-painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it). - - === Starting small and "opening up" === - - For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak. - - For some, opening up a wiki in its extreme infant stages presents no problem -- it all depends on the needs of your community and the purpose of your wiki. Opening up in a wiki's early stages can work well as long as the purpose and drive of the community is there from the start. - - A good read on some more of this seeding process can be found [wiki:Meatball:"SeedPosting" here]. - - == Ongoing Guidance and Growth == - - Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community. - - Sometimes taking the time to clearly explain your actions and the reasons you have for making them can help convey this to other editors. You can do this either by commenting in the "Please comment about this change:" area when you edit a page, or in the edit itself if that is appropriate. - - You can always call on the [wiki:gnome Gnomes] to come and help out. - - == Establishing Dispute Resolution == - - Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"ReFactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles. - - == Misconceptions == - - One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki. - - No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well-tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly-tended one. - - = General thoughts & opinions = - == Build something for you & your friends == - One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful. --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom] - - == Don't be boring at first == - I don't think you have to have more than 300 pages (that's about what Davis Wiki had), and it's certainly true that you don't want to create a bunch of boring framework pages. But you should have something compelling and interesting. - - An easy way to do this is to have lots and lots of pictures. This is often easier than writing long articles and is a great way to document landmarks, businesses, events, etc. Most of my favorite pages on Davis Wiki contain photos (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/Payphone_Project) and over time these pictures will only become more valuable and interesting as things change and disappear (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/The_Jagged_Tree). - - My advice would be to focus less on adding businesses (this is too difficult to do with few editors anyway) and instead be creative and flesh out pages like http://ithaca.wikispot.org/Oddities. With lots of pictures that could be some compelling stuff that no other web site will ever have. Ever get lost and waste a bunch of time clicking around on Wikipedia? But probably not so much on Yelp, right? '''Zoom in on the quirky stuff that gives your city its character and create a network of fun pages that the user will want to explore once they start reading.''' When you come up with a unique page, post a prominent link right on the front page. Good luck! --["Users/MikeIvanov"]	+ =Social Drinking= + Americans often associate sports with socially drinking alcohol. The stop and go action associated with football and baseball facilitate this social drinking. The time between plays in football, and pitches in baseball allow viewers the time to grab their beverage, take a drink, and rejoin the action as the next play or pitch is getting ready to take place. These sporting events are also conducive to drinking alcohol while viewing in a pub or bar setting as well. The breaks between innings in baseball and quarters in football and basketball allow fans the time needed to approach the bar to order their drinks. Soccer does not afford these breaks. Soccer is divided into two 45 minute halves. The only scheduled break that takes place is the half time. Constant play in soccer affords viewers little time to engage in social drinking for fear they may miss the scoring of a goal. + [[Image(glass.jpg)]] [[Image(pub.jpg)]]

Building community

WillyC — 2009-09-10 16:49:04

Upload of image spins.jpg.

Building community

WillyC — 2009-09-10 16:45:19

Upload of image pub.jpg.

Building community

WillyC — 2009-09-10 16:44:18

Upload of image bar.jpg.

Building community

WillyC — 2009-09-10 16:42:32

Upload of image glass.jpg.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2009-08-17 10:43:12

Revert to version 33 (More spam).

Differences for Building community

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- * [http://www.arzinger.ua/index.php?page=pract&id=22 dispute resolution Ukraine] - -

Building community

Mike88 — 2009-08-17 09:58:32

Differences for Building community

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	+ * [http://www.arzinger.ua/index.php?page=pract&id=22 dispute resolution Ukraine] + +

Building community

WilliamLewis — 2009-08-05 15:44:31

Revert to version 31 (rm spam).

Differences for Building community

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Line 40:	Line 40:
- * [http://www.arzinger.ua/index.php?page=pract&id=22 dispute resolution Ukraine]

Building community

giggon — 2009-08-05 12:38:19

Differences for Building community

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	+ * [http://www.arzinger.ua/index.php?page=pract&id=22 dispute resolution Ukraine]

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2009-04-23 00:18:18

thoughts from a wikispot talk mailing list thread

Differences for Building community

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- ----- - ''One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful.'' --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom]	+ = General thoughts & opinions = + == Build something for you & your friends == + One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful. --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom] + + == Don't be boring at first == + I don't think you have to have more than 300 pages (that's about what Davis Wiki had), and it's certainly true that you don't want to create a bunch of boring framework pages. But you should have something compelling and interesting. + + An easy way to do this is to have lots and lots of pictures. This is often easier than writing long articles and is a great way to document landmarks, businesses, events, etc. Most of my favorite pages on Davis Wiki contain photos (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/Payphone_Project) and over time these pictures will only become more valuable and interesting as things change and disappear (i.e., http://daviswiki.org/The_Jagged_Tree). + + My advice would be to focus less on adding businesses (this is too difficult to do with few editors anyway) and instead be creative and flesh out pages like http://ithaca.wikispot.org/Oddities. With lots of pictures that could be some compelling stuff that no other web site will ever have. Ever get lost and waste a bunch of time clicking around on Wikipedia? But probably not so much on Yelp, right? '''Zoom in on the quirky stuff that gives your city its character and create a network of fun pages that the user will want to explore once they start reading.''' When you come up with a unique page, post a prominent link right on the front page. Good luck! --["Users/MikeIvanov"]

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2009-01-28 01:26:32

Revert to version 26 (more vandalism..).

Differences for Building community

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- For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, he will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make him not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that he is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.	+ For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.
Line 31:	Line 31:
-	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.
Line 43:	Line 43:
- One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.	+ One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.

Building community

2009-01-28 01:20:59

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
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- One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.	+ One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.

Building community

2009-01-28 01:19:55

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 31:	Line 31:
- Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.	+

Building community

2009-01-28 01:18:48

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.	+ For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, he will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make him not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that he is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.

Building community

WilliamLewis — 2009-01-16 20:38:38

Revert to version 23 (rm vandalism).

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 1:	Line 1:
- NO COMMUNISM IS EVIL ___!!!!!!!!!!!	+ How can we help our wiki become successful? How can we maintain and build a community around our wiki? + + == Visualize your community == + + When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis' memberships will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location-based wikis' memberships will be defined by the geography or social ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge? + + This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve, and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate. + + == Preparation == + + Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some seed pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you seed out a variety of interests. + + For an interest wiki you might start with what you know about the subject and provide some organization for that material. + + == Outreach == + + Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location-based wiki start with a few of your friends; for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts. You can also use the existing ["Interwiki Community" Wiki Spot community] to help you get your wiki off the ground (a good supply of wiki gnomes). + + Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location-based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (e.g. fliers, spray-painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it). + + === Starting small and "opening up" === + + For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak. + + For some, opening up a wiki in its extreme infant stages presents no problem -- it all depends on the needs of your community and the purpose of your wiki. Opening up in a wiki's early stages can work well as long as the purpose and drive of the community is there from the start. + + A good read on some more of this seeding process can be found [wiki:Meatball:"SeedPosting" here]. + + == Ongoing Guidance and Growth == + + Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community. + + Sometimes taking the time to clearly explain your actions and the reasons you have for making them can help convey this to other editors. You can do this either by commenting in the "Please comment about this change:" area when you edit a page, or in the edit itself if that is appropriate. + + You can always call on the [wiki:gnome Gnomes] to come and help out. + + == Establishing Dispute Resolution == + + Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"ReFactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles. + + == Misconceptions == + + One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki. + + No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well-tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly-tended one. + + ----- + ''One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful.'' --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom]

Building community

2009-01-16 20:37:37

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 1:	Line 1:
- How can we help our wiki become successful? How can we maintain and build a community around our wiki? - - == Visualize your community == - - When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis' memberships will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location-based wikis' memberships will be defined by the geography or social ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge? - - This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve, and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate. - - == Preparation == - - Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some seed pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you seed out a variety of interests. - - For an interest wiki you might start with what you know about the subject and provide some organization for that material. - - == Outreach == - - Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location-based wiki start with a few of your friends; for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts. You can also use the existing ["Interwiki Community" Wiki Spot community] to help you get your wiki off the ground (a good supply of wiki gnomes). - - Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location-based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (e.g. fliers, spray-painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it). - - === Starting small and "opening up" === - - For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, he will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make him not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak. - - For some, opening up a wiki in its extreme infant stages presents no problem -- it all depends on the needs of your community and the purpose of your wiki. Opening up in a wiki's early stages can work well as long as the purpose and drive of the community is there from the start. - - A good read on some more of this seeding process can be found [wiki:Meatball:"SeedPosting" here]. - - == Ongoing Guidance and Growth == - - Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community. - - Sometimes taking the time to clearly explain your actions and the reasons you have for making them can help convey this to other editors. You can do this either by commenting in the "Please comment about this change:" area when you edit a page, or in the edit itself if that is appropriate. - - You can always call on the [wiki:gnome Gnomes] to come and help out. - - == Establishing Dispute Resolution == - - Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"ReFactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles. - - == Misconceptions == - - One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki. - - No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well-tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly-tended one. - - ----- - ''One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful.'' --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom]	+ NO COMMUNISM IS EVIL ___!!!!!!!!!!!

Building community

JACKTEQUILA — 2007-07-19 00:03:31

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.	+ For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, he will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make him not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak.

Building community

JasonAller — 2007-05-13 00:21:04

Use the Gnomes

Differences for Building community

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Line 35:	Line 35:
	+ You can always call on the [wiki:gnome Gnomes] to come and help out. +

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2007-04-04 21:18:20

File App.ico deleted.

Building community

xiedir — 2007-04-04 12:40:41

Upload of file App.ico.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-04-02 08:29:47

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 43:	Line 43:
- No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly tended one.	+ No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well-tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly-tended one.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-04-02 08:19:43

,,''

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 5:	Line 5:
- When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis membership's will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location based wikis membership's will be defined by the geography or social inter-ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge?	+ When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis' memberships will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location-based wikis' memberships will be defined by the geography or social ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge?
Line 7:	Line 7:
- This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate.	+ This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve, and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate.

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2007-03-19 11:00:41

+seed posting article. "click here" is bad, but it seemed best here.

Differences for Building community

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	+ A good read on some more of this seeding process can be found [wiki:Meatball:"SeedPosting" here]. +

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2007-03-14 18:58:09

added 'opening up' section, inspired by mike

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 21:	Line 21:
	+ === Starting small and "opening up" === + + For many wikis, opening up to the general public too early can create misconceptions and dampen the excitement of editors. When someone who's not been involved in your wiki checks it out, she will form impressions about your wiki. These impressions might make her not want to contribute -- after all, there might not be much there, or much that she is interested in. This means the core group of editors you start out with will have to keep working to build interesting material, despite the fact others will visit and "walk away," so to speak. + + For some, opening up a wiki in its extreme infant stages presents no problem -- it all depends on the needs of your community and the purpose of your wiki. Opening up in a wiki's early stages can work well as long as the purpose and drive of the community is there from the start. +

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2007-02-24 05:58:52

using the word "seed" rather than "stub" bc it seems more known to ppl

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 11:	Line 11:
- Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some stub pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you stub out a variety of interests.	+ Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some seed pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you seed out a variety of interests.

Building community

JasonAller — 2007-02-22 09:16:36

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 11:	Line 11:
- Set up enough pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some stub pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you stub out a variety of interests.	+ Set up enough[[Footnote(How many this is quantitatively depends on your subject and the group of potential contributors)]] pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some stub pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you stub out a variety of interests.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and it is best if everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community. + + Sometimes taking the time to clearly explain your actions and the reasons you have for making them can help convey this to other editors. You can do this either by commenting in the "Please comment about this change:" area when you edit a page, or in the edit itself if that is appropriate.
Line 33:	Line 35:
	+ No one has to expend their effort to improve a wiki, you want to foster the desire to improve it by caring for it. A well tended garden doesn't get littered in as often as a poorly tended one. +

Building community

GrahamFreeman — 2007-02-20 09:50:40

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's best to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's better to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.

Building community

GrahamFreeman — 2007-02-20 09:45:46

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- Act as a member of the community that you visualize. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. You can and perhaps should lead, but if you do then it's best to lead by example than to give orders. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.

Building community

GrahamFreeman — 2007-02-20 09:44:08

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- Act as a member of the community that you visualize. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important part of a community.	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important and co-equal part of a community.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-02-18 05:42:50

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 17:	Line 17:
- Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location based wiki start with a few of your friends, for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts.	+ Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location-based wiki start with a few of your friends; for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts. You can also use the existing ["Interwiki Community" Wiki Spot community] to help you get your wiki off the ground (a good supply of wiki gnomes).
Line 19:	Line 19:
- Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (i.e. fliers, spray painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it)	+ Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location-based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (e.g. fliers, spray-painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it).

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-02-18 02:55:36

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 27:	Line 27:
- Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"WhyRefactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles.	+ Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"ReFactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-02-18 02:54:35

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 27:	Line 27:
- Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:wiki:"WhyRefactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles.	+ Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:c2:"WhyRefactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-02-18 02:48:06

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 27:	Line 27:
- Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users.	+ Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users. You can choose to use ["Talk Pages" talk pages] to resolve nearly every dispute, or you can try to resolve things within a wiki page itself by thoughtful [wiki:wiki:"WhyRefactor" refactoring]. In either case, the important thing is to get individuals to talk out their issues rather than get caught up brutal deletion-reversion cycles.

Building community

BrentLaabs — 2007-02-18 02:44:24

(quick edit)

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 23:	Line 23:
- Act as a member of the community that you visualize. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community.	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community. Remember, wiki works because everyone is an editor, and everyone feels like they are an important part of a community.

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2006-12-28 06:16:05

a personal comment

Differences for Building community

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	+ + ----- + ''One strategy that worked well for Davis Wiki, when we were first getting started out, was just building something that our small group of people were happy with -- even if the larger community didn't end up using it. We always knew that it would be terrific if more people contributed, but we were really happy just building something simple that we found useful. I think that kind of attitude, at least early on, can really help to build something meaningful.'' --["Users/PhilipNeustrom" PhilipNeustrom]

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2006-12-28 06:10:27

Differences for Building community

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- One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can simply throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling.	+ One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling. If I stumble upon your wiki will I get an idea of what you want to do? Will I find your wiki interesting even if it doesn't have a lot of content on it? All wikis are different, but these should be questions you think about as you begin building your wiki.

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2006-12-28 06:07:46

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 28:	Line 28:
	+ + == Misconceptions == + + One of the most common misconceptions about starting a wiki is that you can simply throw a wiki up on the web and expect it to grow simply out of inertia. Wikis build themselves, but much like any ecosystem, you have to have the right amount of starting material and a dedicated initial base of contributors to get things rolling.

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2006-12-28 05:59:14

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 19:	Line 19:
- Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence.	+ Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence (i.e. fliers, spray painted buses, blimps with your wiki's logo on it)

Building community

JasonAller — 2006-12-27 19:50:58

Differences for Building community

Deletions are marked with - .	Additions are marked with +.
Line 24:	Line 24:
	+ + == Establishing Dispute Resolution == + + Fostering communal mediation is a good way to turn the direction of the community over to the users.

Building community

JasonAller — 2006-12-27 18:23:17

expanding

Differences for Building community

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- When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see?	+ When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? Is it focused on a common interest, or on a common location? Interest wikis membership's will be defined by the scope of the interest, and location based wikis membership's will be defined by the geography or social inter-ties. Is it an active group, or will the wiki serve more as a repository of gained knowledge? + + This process will help you define what you are trying to achieve and in doing so it will also help you establish the metrics by which you will judge the eventual success of the wiki you initiate.
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	+ For an interest wiki you might start with what you know about the subject and provide some organization for that material. +
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- Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core.	+ Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. For a location based wiki start with a few of your friends, for an interest based wiki start with your existing interest group or contacts.
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- Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process.	+ Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. Location based wikis can take advantage of existing media to spread the word of their existence.
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- Act as a member of the community that you visualize.	+ Act as a member of the community that you visualize. Trying to establish too much authority will not result in a healthy community.

Building community

JasonAller — 2006-12-27 16:55:23

draft

Differences for Building community

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	+ + == Visualize your community == + + When you think about what you want your wiki to look like in the long run what do you see? + + == Preparation == + + Set up enough pages to establish a core upon which people can build. If you want everyone in a location to participate try to set up some stub pages that will catch the interest of early adopters in each sector of the community. If you focus exclusively on bars and nightspots at the beginning, you will be less likely to attract a broad range of users than if you stub out a variety of interests. + + == Outreach == + + Start with your early adopters. These are the people who will help expand your core. + + Then work to flesh out your user community to increase the breadth of representation. This can be a slow process. + + == Ongoing Guidance and Growth == + + Act as a member of the community that you visualize.

Building community

PhilipNeustrom — 2006-12-27 09:25:35

two small questions

Differences for Building community

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	+ How can we help our wiki become successful? How can we maintain and build a community around our wiki?