[OSGeo-Board] Re: Wiki

[Arnulf Christl]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Frank wrote:
> 
>> Gary,
>>
>> This suggests to me that we should push forward moving the wiki properly
>> into the osgeo.org domain rather than discouraging it's use.  Though
>> doing so does, I think, mean we have to be more careful about
>> distinguishing what is a foundation position vs. the idle musings of one
>> or two individuals.
>>
>> Best regards,
> 
> 
> Gary Lang wrote:
>  > Right. How would you distinguish these?
> 
> Gary,
> 
> I didn't follow up on this at the time because I was not uncertain.  I
> have thought about it a bit and have these ideas:
> 
>  o There needs to be some appropriate disclaimers in the wiki, especially
>    at the top level, about it not being "official".

Hi,
there is a default page created by Mediawiki which is also well 
recognized by search robots. It is contained as a native link at the 
bottom right of every page. It should contain exactly this kind of 
information and could then also be protected from further edits. 
Currently it is empty:
http://www.fossgis.de/osgeo/index.php/OSGEO:General_disclaimer

I have also just added the text from the main describing how the Wiki 
fits into OSGeo to the About page:
http://www.fossgis.de/osgeo/index.php/OSGEO:About

We should also address the Copyright issue asap, curently it is the 
MediaWiki standard GNU FDL which I understand could be too restrictive 
for the liking of some of us?!
http://www.fossgis.de/osgeo/index.php?title=OSGEO:Copyrights

>  o I think we should *not* use the same background and styling for the
>    wiki as the rest of the site, to make it look distinct.

This has already been suggested. We can change the layout but maybe for 
the time being it is even better to have the look and feel of any other 
Mediawiki, makes it less conspicuous.

Please also observe that we are already creating an OSGeo logo by simple 
habituation because it appears in the Wiki. This is not intentional and 
we should address this asap. Who is going to address this? WebCommittee?

Keep an eye on:
http://www.fossgis.de/osgeo/index.php/Special:Popularpages

As soon as the Wiki is tracked by search engines page hits will start to 
increase rapidly - by then the issues discussed here should be resolved. 
Currently it is not recognized as a relevant Wiki because is appears 
below a lower level directory.

>  o We might consider making the wiki open for viewing and such only to
>    logged in members of the web site.  This might be difficult since the
>    wiki is not part of the CollabNet infrastructure.

There have been different remarks on this issue. There are basically 
three technical options:
* Anonymous editing
* Account required, but can be created anonymously (current solution)
* Account required, has to be created SysOps (~=moderated)

Additionally individual pages can be "locked" from editing. This is not 
standard Wiki practice but might be a good idea for static information 
(as suggested above).

> I am interested in learning what degree of integration we can achieve with
> the CN user login info with components that are not part of the CN
> infrastructure.  Ideally I would like a "single login" to be able to apply
> to a variety of the foundation projects even when they are not using all
> the CN stuff.  This may turn out to be impractical.

Oh, don't we all dream of single sign on?

> Overall though, I'm happy to turn this issue over to the web committee to
> deal with, with the understand that the board asks them to somehow make
> it clear to visitors that the wiki documents are not official policy
> of the foundation by some appropriate means.

+1 from Arnulf for the WebCommittee to deal with these issues

> Best regards,

Arnulf