Wiki Scaffolding: Helping Organizations to Set Up Wikis

ONEKIN Research GroupUniversity of the Basque Country (Spain)

Oct 3-5th, 2011

Oscar Díaz and Gorka Puente

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What?

Why?

How?

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WHAT IS WIKI SCAFFOLDING?

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What is a wiki scaffolding?

4What

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Corporate wikis

What

A wiki framed by an organization

This organization can be

A company

A department

A university

Not all wikis are corporate wikis (e.g., Wikipedia)

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Corporate wikis

49%

What

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Corporate frame: wiki impact

The corporate frame:• Organigram• Permissions• Templates• Terminology

Might need to be available as soon as the wiki is set up

“This frame” becomes the wiki scaffolding

7What

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Corporate frame: wiki scaffolding

Structural concerns

Communication means

Permissionneeds

A wiki installation where some categories, templates, permissions, etc are initialized at the outset to mimic the corporate background

What

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Corporate frame: wiki scaffolding

Virtual organization Wiki (e.g., Wikipedia)

Physical organization Wiki (e.g., IBM Wiki)

Wiki Scaffolding: nothing Wiki Scaffolding: organigrams,documentation, restrictions of the

hosting organization

What

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WHY WIKI SCAFFOLDING?

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Why wiki scaffolding (WS)?

11Why

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Wiki scaffolding requires …

…organizational knowledge• Organigrams• Internal documents• Terminology

…technical knowledge• Installing wiki engine• Installing extensions• Access control mechanisms• …

12Why

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HOW WIKI SCAFFOLDING?

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What is the rabbit in the hat?

Domain-Specific Languages

• “A programming language that offers expressive power focused on a particular problem domain”

14How

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Why DSLs?

Enhance quality, productivity, maintainability and portability

Allow domain experts understand, validate and develop program themselves

15How

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Wiki Scaffolding Language (WSL) (pronounced “whistle”)

Aim: Wiki Scaffolding

Target audience: non programmers

Built on top of FreeMind (mind-mapping tool)

WSL expressions are mind maps

How

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FreeMind

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FreeMind is a popular mind mapping tool

How

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FreeMind

18How

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Process

19How

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User specifies WS as a FreeMind map

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Wiki Scaffolding for a Software project

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User checks the map

21How

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User exports the map

22How

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WSLexpressiveness

Example

Conclusion

s

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WSL expressiveness

The WS captures the CORPORATE FRAME as long as it impacts the wiki operation

The corporate frame:

Organigram

Permissions

Templates

Terminology

WSL expressiveness

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Glossary

Organizational glossary to classify and locate wiki content -> wiki categories

WSL expressiveness

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Documents

Organizational documents -> wiki articles

WSL expressiveness

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Guidelines and boilerplate text

Minutes, reports, deliverables -> wiki templates

WSL expressiveness

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Events

Milestones, deadlines -> wiki events

WSL expressiveness

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Awareness

Track changes -> RSS and email

WSL expressiveness

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Discussions

Discussions -> talk pages

WSL expressiveness

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Organigram

WSL expressiveness

Organization’s organigram -> wiki users and groups

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Access restrictions

Restrictions -> wiki group permissions

WSL expressiveness

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Presentation

Presentation -> wiki skins

WSL expressiveness

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EXAMPLE

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Example: a wiki for software documentation Rationales:

the scattering of stakeholders,

the need for collaboration and tracking,

iterative manners

Example

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FreeMind example

36Example

Wiki Scaffolding for a Software project

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WSL generation

Example

Generated Wiki Index

Wiki Scaffolding for a Purchase project

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CONCLUSIONS

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Conclusions

Wiki Scaffolding:

Captures corp features that percolate wiki initialization

Wiki Scaffolding Language (WSL):

A graphical DSL for WS specification

Conclusions

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Conclusions

Very soon WSL as FreeMind official plugin code in freemind.sf.net

More examples in the proceedings

40Conclusions

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www.onekin.org/wsl

gorka.puente@ehu.es