Dear Listers,
I added a new Wiki web site to the Matronics Email List features earlier this
year. What's a Wiki, you ask? Well, here's the Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki) definition:
A wiki (IPA: [ w .ki ] <WICK-ee> or [ wi .ki ] <WEE-kee>) is a type of Web site
that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit
and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration.
This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for
collaborative authoring. The term wiki also can refer to the collaborative
software
itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a Web site,
or to certain specific wiki sites, including the computer science site (an
original
wiki), WikiWikiWeb, and on-line encyclopedias such as Wikipedia.
Under the Matronics Email List Moniker, there is now a very nice List-specific
Wiki available! It a place for Listers to put articles about any aviation topic
that suits them. The purpose is to provide what the mailing lists do not:
structure and persistence. The mailing lists are a fantastic resource to ask
a question and get good (and bad and funny and annoying) answers. But once the
question is asked and answered it is not in front of the List anymore. If a
new person subscribes the next day, he/she does not see that information unless
he/she goes to the trouble to search the archives, a hit or miss proposition.
The result is that the same thread of conversation gets created and/or
revisited.
There are several things that happen as a result:
1. The person gets his or her question answered;
2. The information gets better as more people think about and answer the
question;
3. The people who have seen the same question asked and answered get annoyed
at seeing the same things over and over and over and ...
So this is where the Wiki comes in. You know what questions you wanted answered.
You may have asked or answered the question. You know the information is useful.
So you put the information here, in the Matronics Email List Wiki!
It doesn't matter that this information is 100% complete or correct. Just
writing
something creates a placeholder and makes useful information available
immediately.
It has the same immediacy as the mailing list but it has persistence
and structure.
But what if the information is incomplete or incorrect? No problem! Anyone
else
coming along can edit the article! If I write something and you discover
something
I have left out or stated incorrectly, you can fix it right then!
So let's begin and make this the place for information about building, flying,
maintaining, and understanding our airplanes.
But what about whether something is "appropriate" or not? Don't worry. Write
it down. Let the reader determine whether or not it is appropriate. If it is,
he/she will read it. If it isn't, he/she won't. It's as simple as that.
And when you do write that article you won't have to worry about whether some
editor
is going to decide whether or not to print it in a newsletter or whether
the webmaster will have time to put it up on the web page.
The last question I hear brewing out there is: if anyone can post anything,
won't
this just become a mass of garbage? Surprisingly, the answer is a resounding
no. If you want proof, go visit the Wikipedia, a free-to-everyone encyclopedia
written by whoever wants to write articles. The articles there are as good
as anything I have read anywhere and anyone can add anything anytime they want
to.
So don't hesitate. Write it down. Put it here. It will never hurt anyone.
The
more information we get here, the more useful it will become to other people
and the more information they will put here for YOU to use.
Here's the URL to start (there are lots more bured under this starting place):
http://www.matronics.com/wiki/index.php/Matronics:Community_Portal
But please don't forget that this Wiki and all of the other Matronics Email List
features are supported solely by YOUR Contributions!! November is List Fund
Raiser month and there are lots of Free Gifts to be had with your qualifying
Contribution. Please make a Contribution to support the continued operation and
upgrade of these great services!!! Thank you!
http://www.matronics.com/contribution
Matt Dralle
Matronics Email List Administrator
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