Hi Everyone, I must commend Jesse and Alison's amazing work in moving the power of categories forward for WE. This has huge potential for improving the utility of our project and I am inspired by the gifting culture of so many in our community!
I've said this many times before -- but my faith in education has been restored witnessing the tireless contributions of educators around the world who are returning to the core values of our noble profession -- that is to share knowledge freely! BIG thanks and community kudos to our emerging Category team :-) Cheers W 2009/10/13 Jesse Groppi <[email protected]> > Elizabeth, > > This is exactly what I was hoping to see! Please have a look at what > Alison and I have already begun, and ask as many questions as you can. > <smile> > > Jesse > > > On 12/10/2009 23:50, elizabeth mbasu wrote: > > Dear Jesse, > I know about web pages in terms of pages and sub-pages i.e parent, > children, grandchildren etc. and can generate a structure for this. I have > read your write up and am signing in hoping to learn more about categories > along the way. I am not sure that I really understand everything about > categories. > Many thanks, > Elizabeth > > --- On *Mon, 10/12/09, Jesse Groppi <[email protected]><[email protected]> > * wrote: > > > From: Jesse Groppi <[email protected]> <[email protected]> > Subject: [WikiEducator] Announcing the categories workgroup and inviting > new members > To: [email protected] > Date: Monday, October 12, 2009, 2:49 PM > > Hi all! > > There's another workgroup a-brewin' down on the wiki! This one is about > categories; yes, dreadful fun, I know. Before I talk about the workgroup, > I'd like to introduce you to the concept, and the rationale behind their > use. > > *What are categories?* > > A category is just what it sounds like: a method of grouping pages > according to their content. Categories also work with parent-child > connections in the same way that subpages do. The category you put a page > in will actually be a subcategory of another. A category system will have > many levels within it. Where the category system gets even more useful than > the subpage system is in the number of relationships that can be defined by > it. While a subpage can only have one parent page, any page or category can > be in as many categories as we like. This is where the mediawiki software > becomes genius in its use of virtual reality; even though there exists only > one document, at a single url, it can be found and related to other > documents in any number of ways. This creates a powerful browseability that > is trumped only by the searchability of the SemanticWiki extension, which > involves a steep learning curve. > > *Why categories?* > > The category system is a built-in method of organising content far better > than the subpage system method. It creates relationships between content > that cannot be defined by subpages, making it easier for members to move > from page to page and between related information. Want to know what other > projects there are on astrophysics? The category system will tell you > that. Want to be able to find all the resources from Otago Poly-Tech > easily? Curious about what 10 year old children are learning elsewhere in > the world? The category system allows for these. Using the category system > is preferred over contents pages because it requires far less effort from > members to keep current. To add a page to a category, one never has to > leave the page, itself! > > The other key factor for categorising pages is a concept called "search > engine optimisation" (SEO). You may have heard of this if you are in any > way involved with web publishing. I'm not going to explain SEO, but I will > tell you the point of it is to increase readership organically (they come to > us, we don't market directly to them). This is done by appealing to the > formulas Google and other search engines use to determine who goes at the > top of any search list. The thing is, if there aren't any links to your > page, Google never sees it! Categories create a link-based map of the > website, allowing Google's programs to see each page that has a category. > > *The workgroup* > > Sounds great, right? Well, WE's category structure is a bit out of shape > at the moment. For example, about 30% of the categories used don't actually > exist, yet; there are a handful of central/root/contents categories, none of > which go deeper than a few levels; there are (as I write this) 12,200 > uncategorised pages out of 68,992 total, or about 15%; and most of the > existing categories aren't connected to any other category. > > So, Alison Snieckus and I have seeded a workgroup to get WE's category > system in tip-top shape, as well as working to educate WE members on > categories and advise the style guidelines workgroup on guidelines that > affect category usage. We're still organising the group, and there are some > tasks to be done, and we could use your help with both! WE would really > benefit from your opinions and ideas, so please stop by ( > http://www.wikieducator.org/Workgroup:Categories ) and sign up. There are > lots of informational links, and it isn't necessary you be an expert on > wikis or the category system to take part, but you might find you know a lot > more when we're all done. If you have any questions, please feel free to > ask here, or on the workgroup talk pages. As with the style guide > workgroup, membership isn't required to participate in discussions, it just > helps us to know who wants to be involved so we can give them credit and to > make sure everyone has something to do to help. > > Looking forward to seeing you there! > > Jesse > http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jesse_Groppi > skype: jesse.groppi > > > > > > > -- Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. Board of Directors, OER Foundation. Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org Mobile +64 21 2436 380 Skype: WGMNZ1 Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
