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Introduction
Click here for recent news to do with the UCanWIKI
NEWSFLASH: the wiki is a bit of a mess at the moment! I've been using it single-handedly, and have tried to categorise things on the way, but haven't had much time... to see a list of all the pages on the wiki, click here. The quality of the pages varies - some are excellent, though! --Jim 00:12, 9 February 2007 (GMT)
A wiki is a collection of webpages which can be edited by anyone. Wiki pages are interlinked. Any text in blue or purple is a link through to a wikipage which already exists; any text in red is a link to a wikipage which doesn't exist yet.
To see a very succesful wiki in operation, check out Wikipedia, the wiki encyclopedia which now has over 1.2 million articles. Wikipedia uses the same software as the UCanWIKI, and includes plenty of technical notes on how to write wiki pages. Wikibooks, a sister project of Wikipedia designed to produce factual books on various subjects, has a pretty good title called Writing Pages with Wiki Formatting, which is a great introduction to writing wiki pages.
The UCanWIKI is new, so most of the links are red. Also, we're not quite sure what we are going to use the UCanWIKI for. But here's some ideas:
- Technical support notes for students: there are already pages started for:
- A depositry of information (for example, all of the great tips which are knocking around in the archive of the U Can Do IT mailing lists
- A helpdesk for students to ask each other, and any passing tutors, for help with their computer
One resource that seems to be particularly useful for technical support notes is the Wikibooks selection of computer software books. Any information on Wikibooks is in the public domain, so we are free to make use of it. Also, since Wikibooks is based on the same architecture as the UCanWIKI, you can copy the code of Wikibooks pages directly into the UCanWIKI. This will probably result in a lot of red links (i.e., for pages which do not exist on UCanWIKI), but it would give a good framework for us to build on. The first draft of UCanWIKI's first technical support page, Firefox, was built in around three minutes by copying and pasting information from Wikibooks. It's missing all of the pictures, but is an excellent start.
But, really, the sky's the limit. So, for the moment, just play around with the wiki, and note down any ideas you have on this page.
News
--Jim 15:53, 29 June 2006 (BST): Lisa has now emailed U Can Do IT Tutors about the wiki, so hopefully a few of you will check it out over the next few days. With this in mind, I thought I'd better direct you to my userpage, where I've compiled an ever-growing list of things I think would be good for the UCanWIKI. Some of these things are tasks that only I can/would want to do (like contacting various charities in Scotland who might like to use/add to the UCanWIKI), but other tasks - such as copying over and formatting the already extant knowledgebase and course notes from the U Can Do IT website can be done by anyone. Feel free to get started on anything on my list, if you think it's worthwhile - just let me know so that we don't replicate each other's work!
--Jim 15:51, 28 June 2006 (BST): I've made a start to the Instructions and Course Notes pages by copying over the U Can Do IT core syllabus. It's probably a good idea to start the course notes from here and then branch out. See my note at the top of the page for one way of doing this that keeps track of what's been done.
--Jim 13:42, 28 June 2006 (BST): I've made a start on the Community Portal, a place where editors and readers of the UCanWIKI can meet up to discuss ideas, request news pages, etc. Hopefully it will build up to be the first port of call for visitors to the wiki.
--Jim 09:26, 28 June 2006 (BST): editing of the UCanWIKI is now only available to people with a user account. To get a user account, please send me an email by clicking here.
--Carl 22:43, 27 June 2006 (BST): the WIKI will now display fine in IE, I have reverted back to one of the supplied templates and provided a new logo. I will implement a new layout (which will emulate the website) in due course. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the U Can Do IT - Wiki!
--Jim 15:23, 27 June 2006 (BST): currently the UCanWIKI only looks right in Firefox. The stylesheet does not work properly with Internet Explorer. The best way around this is to view the page in Firefox, as long as it suits your other needs in terms of accesibility etc. The stylesheet is being worked on and should support IE soon.
