In the press. "The OpenMoko wiki - a tangled pile of mostly outdated and incomplete documentation."

Stroller stroller at stellar.eclipse.co.uk
Tue Jul 15 20:33:27 CEST 2008


On 15 Jul 2008, at 18:27, Curtis Vaughan wrote:

> Since Ken really liked OpenWRT's Wiki, I looked at it and see they use
> MoinMoin. So, I am willing to set up MoinMoin on a server to be  
> used as
> an FR community wiki.

I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is with the  
INFORMATION, not the platform it's contained on.

Ken mentions that the OpenWRT Wiki (which I too have found useful) is  
maintained by the developers.

And I think there's a lot of truth in the statement that people are  
reluctant to edit the Openmoko wiki at present.

Do Openmoko's developers spend any time editing the wiki? I know  
they've got loads of other things to do, but maybe just a few minutes  
dedicated each day would provide some direction. One great thing  
about wikis is that you can make a quick edit to them "this doesn't  
work for me, I had to do X" and then someone else can clean up later  
on, "there are two methods of undertaking this task, depending upon  
your hardware version; GTA02 requires X but earlier models require Y".

Someone else suggested that "clean up" tags might be added to  
articles. I think "citation needed", "is this true?" and "GTA01 /  
GTA02 differences?" tags might  be useful, too. As I understand it if  
tags or templates or whatever are used for these then they can be  
summarised by looking at a single "pages which use this template"  
page. This allows contributors to easily see what is in need of  
editing or correction.

Right now I'm happy to edit Wikipedia or OpenStreetMaps, but not the  
Openmoko wiki and I'm not sure why that is. I've seen something  
similar with the Gentoo Wiki, where people seem generally reluctant  
to edit stuff they don't "own". Articles are great and comprehensive  
when someone takes the initiative to start them, but over time they  
become outdated and - after the original author has lost interest -  
no-one takes the time to put much effort into them.

I thought today about starting a "Freerunner usability" page on the  
wiki, as it seems a very common FAQ on IRC. New users are not  
satisfied with "the software's not stable yet" but instead want to  
know "how 'alpha' is it? can I make calls and send texts? how about  
calendaring?"  Many Linux enthusiasts LOVE the idea of a completely  
open phone and they're willing to sacrifice features for that right  
now, because they know (and love!) the fact that Open-Source Software  
will fix that for them in the future. As long as they can make calls,  
send texts then they're happy with a alpha software, but one user  
worries about email or battery life, another needs a browser. It  
would be great to have a single page one could point them to (perhaps  
telling them which image to use if they need a specific feature, best  
call stability or audio quality) - right now I can't find a page that  
answers their questions, but I don't want to start a new one because  
*surely* there must already be one??

Stroller.





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