Hi, nice to meet you all. I'm Makopoppo.
In OpenSimulator Wiki, Fritigern told me his idea about dividing wiki into user
parts and developer parts.
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/User_talk:Makopoppo#An_Idea_Which_Has_Been_On_My_Mind_For_Some_Time
It would be nice to implement it. And more, I'd like to hear your thought about
wiki future as well, especially if you
haven't use OpenSimulator wiki ever or recently. (This is rather my personal
activity than as a wiki admin job)
Here is my idea about what OpenSimulator wiki will be:
* The definition of "User"
OpenSimulator software, as itself, is a framework for 3D virtual environment.
It can be included into enterprise
systems; i.e. some might want to bundle it into their web servers, groupwares,
or such. Some wants to create their own
kins for their use. Some wants to simply use this distribution out-of-the-box.
Some doesn't want to own their sims, just
wants to connect to them from their viewers. All of them are "Users". They will
be categorized into three types:
Client Users: Who connects to (or logins to) OpenSimulator-based grids with
their viewer, websites, or some other
possible methods. They don't need any computer-specific knowledges, they can be
teenagers, or even infants.
Documentation for them might be out of focus of OpenSimulator project, it is
rather client vendor's area, but having
minimal instruction and links to their document for further information is not
so bad idea.
Grid Users: Who connects their OpenSimulator-based regions to
OpenSimulator-based grids, or just using it standalone.
They needs minimal knowledge of operation systems, databases, or some other
related softwares such as web servers to run
their own simulators. Since there are already many resources for them, and
especially for personal use, kins projects
doing great job to make clear documents, maintain them and providing support
for years. We can encourage or help them to
improve their documents, such as, providing link list to their pages, or
bollowing their article with huge credits.
Framework Users: Who enhances OpenSimulator software for their use. The purpose
varies amongst each other, from personal
use to enterprise use. For example, the person who implements *Module, script
functions, connectors or such. To say in
another word, who using OpenSimulator as a framework. I personally think that
one of the role of our OpenSimulator core
project is provider of the best documentation for them. And I know currently we
don't have enough documents for them, or
if exists, it hasn't been maintenanced for years.
So, who will be the "Developers"? It will be the contributors who contributes
OpenSimulator framework itself. They
should know OpenSim internal architectures, implementing guidelines, or
licensing matters. Some experts can understand
them only by reading codes (yikes!), but it would be nice to have such
documents, if we can keep updating them forever.
* Possible Wiki Structure
Considering these points above, we can divide the wiki into three domains:
http://opensimulator.org/<-- for "Client Users" and "Grid Users"
http://framework.opensimulator.org/<-- for "Framework Users"
http://dev.opensimulator.org/<-- for the contributors of OpenSimulator core
project (coders, document writers, issue
managers, wiki admins)
Although MediaWiki can create namespaces and we can use it for this purpose, I
feel sub-domaining provides more
straight-forward way to access to them (this is probably because I am an
address bar lover). Again, this is just my idea.
* Should we create anything on our own?
I personally think we don't need to "reinvent the wheel" to create all
OpenSimulator documentation from the scratch,
there are already nice documents all around the web. Why not make great use of
them? I don't mean we can copyright
violations and bring them all. Instead, it would be nice to have links to their
project websites with simple
descriptions about their project goal or feature on our wiki pages. Or, using
their documents with big credit would be
nice too(Cons is duplicated documentation will be more difficult to
maintenance).
I wonder why kin projects (i.e. OSGrids, Inworlds, AuroraSim, …) are not
feathered as kin developers. They are the good
OpenSimulator framework users and the good OpenSimulator "User" documents
provider. And communities. I know there are
many other OpenSimulator-forums and many experts grandly help so-called
"noobs". We can encourage and help them to
support others in their community, such as, again, adding link to their forums.
Blogs too. I came here looking at a post
in ilibsl blog. I had a parcel in Ener Sounds(http://iliveisl.com/makos-home/
is me), and after leaving there, I found
OpenSimulator in another post and tried to use it (to reproduce the terrain of
Ener Sounds in vain lol). That was the
start. OpenSimulator developers including me tends to detailed describe about
the architectures, but for users, the
documents created by the users will be helpful. It might be not the best way,
since the users have to access each blogs
and forums to find the answer for their question, but if OpenSimulator core
wiki has nice directory to find them easily,
it can be ideal. (I feel someone might have suggested the same before, but I
can't remember who)
It shouldn't keep contributors from writing such documents in OpenSimulator
Wiki. Our purpose are varies, so it should
be always open for those who wants to contribute the articles. But if we can create the
scheme of "Mash-up" the
OpenSimulator-related documentations, OpenSimulator community (includes kin
projects, blogs, forums or such) will
accurate toward mature community as a whole.
Thank you for reading. *Steps down from soapbox*
Again, comments will be appreciated.
------
Makopoppo (Makiko Nomura)
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