Cal Poly Wiki

[xkai]

I think a wiki would be a good addition to the site, we could create a editable database of the Cal Polys and people could get a overview of some of the places on campus, critiques, and whatnot. I realize the forums do that to some extent or another, but this would be more factual.

I'm thinking along the line of basically using MediaWiki...like in Wikipedia to carry this out, but I'm just sayin'.

[Admin]

I'll look into it this weekend. Students can submit their critiques, reviews, campus events, and etc. and I'll be happy to post your articles in the articles page.

[JPWRana]

i think though it should have its own section rather than cramming MANY reviews into 1 thread.

[zoedragon]

Why is it called wiki? Is it because "encyclopedia" is too long?

[xkai]

Originally Posted by zoedragon

Why is it called wiki? Is it because "encyclopedia" is too long?

Nope, the idea of an interconnecting site such as that is known as "WikiWiki" (Apparently meaning "fast" in Hawai'ian). Hence WikiWiki (Though it's just shortened to wiki nowadays) + Encyclopedia = Wikipedia.

You can see the creator, Ward Cunningham's, initial WikiWiki at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors

[zoedragon]

Good to know, thanks for the info! I always thought it was a strange name, but now it makes sense. Is Ward from Hawai'i? Why not Rapidopeida or even Fastpedia?

[Admin]

Thanks for the history of the wikipedia. The question is, "Will there be a great amount of content to post on the Cal Poly Wikipedia?" Because most factual information about the Cal Poly university is can be search in the csupomona.edu website.

[xkai]

Originally Posted by KayCee

Thanks for the history of [sic] wikipedia. The question is, "Will there be a great amount of content to post on the Cal Poly Wikipedia?" Because most factual information about the Cal Poly university is can be search in the csupomona.edu website.

While I realize that much of the information can be obtained from the Cal Poly Pomona website, my main point of contention was to allow it to be not as strictly objective as Wikipedia, rather allowing people to create world-editable entries (Comments and conversations would remain through the talk page as in other wikis) that would have a student-oriented slant. For example, if one was to write an entry about the cashier's office, one might list when it has less traffic, and what times would be beneficial for a person who did not want to wait in line very long. Others might include what buildings tend to remain open past the 10 PM closing, when the Campus Center food centers actually tend to have fresher food, etc.

I'm sure that the articles page provides similar facilities, but like I said, I was kind of think it would be edited at a whim.

[Puffguts]

Talking about Wiki! I just found the wikipedia has calpolyforums being one of the two links to get more "calpoly pomona information".

[StuckInTraffic]

There's a java wiki at work that I use at it's a double edged sword because it allows anyone to edit almost anything, which is good and bad.

[Admin]

Reviving this thread to get everyone's suggestions.

To get the project started and running, I mapped out the layout. The Cal Poly wiki's layout will be very similar to the Wikipedia's frontpage: left column with the navigation, main categories and portals on the top column, featured and new articles on the center, and a Picture of the Day/Week below.

The frontpage layout will be critical. And keep in mind that both the Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo articles will be edited and created. We need to make a clear distinction of which article relates to which university.

We can presume that the wikipedia users are intermediate or advanced users of the internet and information technology so the usual visitors will be familiar with the Wikipedia layout and format.

I'm still learning how to use the MediaWiki software and I would appreciate if anyone with some experience with the wiki software can assist in this project. I will keep you guys posted with the progress.

If you like, please subscribe to this thread to get automatic PM and/or e-mail straight to your inbox. Thank you.

[Admin]

CalPolyOnline.com's Wikipedia is under development and will soon be open to the public. The contents are not published and we hope that our members and visitor's participation will help contribute to the free knowledge base for Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo universities.

Cal Poly's wikipedia is being powered by Mediawiki and the following links should help you get started on how to create new topics, edit existing contents, and other basic functions:
* User's Guide
* Configuration Settings List
* FAQ


The wikipedia will be bridged with the discussion forum, allowing seamless integration of the user accounts. If you login using your forum account, you are automatically logged in into the wikipedia account as well, which allows you to access the wikipedia features. User permissions will be set on the wikipedia page so visitors who have not logged in into their account have limited access.

MediaWiki's discussion (talk) pages are replaced with vBulletin threads.

[Admin]

Hello everyone,

The CalPolyWiki page has been successfully installed and ready for our members' contributions. However, I would like to get some suggestions on how to categorize the contents as CalPolyWiki will be an online encyclopedia for both California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO) and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona).

If you visit the main Wikipedia homepage, the top section displays the "Today's Featured Articles" and "In The News" and the topics are changed daily to reflect new articles and current news. What we can do is select a popular and widely talked about news from each campus and post it once a week or every two weeks.

The middle section can have brief info about the universities and relevant links to direct visitors to learn more about the universities. New visitors like parents and their high school students are very interested on the admission policy, criteria, application period, calculating GPA+SAT, and etc. Freshmen are interested in what clubs and organizations are available at the university. Seniors might be interested in the graduate programs within the university that they are attending or at the other Cal Poly university. The topics are endless and maybe we can alternate the links in the middle section when necessary.

The bottom section is open for suggestions. We could post "Did You Know?" articles that includes interesting facts that not many students would already know. I'll come up with some more ideas.

Finally, Cal Poly forum members can access the wikipedia usercp page simply by logging in into their forum account. One account allows you to fully access all futures of both the forum and the wikipedia page as well as the directory. The CalPolyWiki articles are editable by our members and visitors (unregistered users) may not have access to edit all articles available in CalPolyWiki.

Your suggestions are very welcome. Thank you. Have a great week.