RE: [Evolution] About Wikis

["Anton J Aylward, CISSP" <aja si on ca>]

Close but not quite what I meant.
Never the less, this is a very interesting site and I think that 
Evolution would benefit from something like this.  Indeed in many 
ways its more than the in-house 'project management and tracking' 
wiki mode I'd been thinking of.

One of my points was -well, among my points were- the idea that 
a mail list is a pipeline with a low s/n ratio (although better 
than USENET) not least of all because of people including previous
messages.  Its not indexed and its never 'refactored'.  That
and we need more than just a FAQ.  In fact a FAQ is like watching
TV, its "them" telling the rest of us, whoever the "them" that
wrote the FAQ are.  A Wiki has as many POVs as people willing to
contribute.  As such it spans not just the "Idiots Guide" but also
the "guru's guide".

What started me off on this was the issue of specification and 
design decisions.  Again and again I see, and not just here but on 
every project I've been involved in, misunderstandings or questions
arising because the decisions about why things are the way they are 
did not get recorded, documented and disseminated.  Sometimes those
decisions are 'obvious' to the person concerned because of his or 
her background, circumstance and information, but not to others.  
And of course the circumstance can change and the decision needs 
to be reappraised.  It may still be the most suitable one, but
the process of making the decision needs to be recorded.  In a
situation where there are many people involved in the development
and testing, these channels of communication are more important 
than the one-man-band or a couple of buddies working together.
See "The Mythical Man Month" is you want an interesting discussion
and illustration.

Yes, I like this Wiki you mention, Digger, but it is a bit oriented 
towards the .... well ... 'boosterism'.  Since my involvement with
Wikis has been either pure discussion or project management, I find 
this a little strange and uncomfortable, even though I know that its
perfectly reasonable.

Anton J Aylward



> -----Original Message-----
> From: digger vermont [mailto:digger netaxs com]
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 4:49 PM

> Is this the kinda site your're looking for?
>
> http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/HandheldsWiki
>
> It's the site for "linux on an iPAQ" anf the Familiar Distribution. 
>
> digger