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Ensign Wiki - Part 2 |
September 26 , 2007
Welcome to today's training class. Our topic will be the new EnsignWiki knowledge base for Ensign Windows.
One week ago we announced the creation of a knowledge base that users could contribute to by posting articles, questions and answers, and have pages they maintain about their trading methodology. 40 have registered to be able to edit the database content, however, not too many have made any contribution. I guess many are waiting to see how the project develops and what is appropriate contribution.
The technology being used is a wiki, similar to the famous Wikipedia site. The address to the EnsignWiki is: http://ensign.editme.com
As stated on the EnsignWiki Home page, there is a Show Menu in the upper right corner that adds a tool bar of menus for adding content to the wiki.
You have to be registered to add content, so you might take the opportunity to do so if you intend to add to the database of user knowledge. A week ago, we had a couple of pages in the database, and I am pleased that 1 week later the wiki has 200 pages, which is a good fast start. There is lots more that can be added, and will be added over the coming weeks. Your participation is invited, and one of the purposes of today's class is to take the edge off, so you will not be fearful of participating or intimidated.
I have found working with the wiki to be very delightful and intuitive. And when I do have a difficult formatting issue, I can see the HTML tagging which I am already familiar with to get into lower level details. For the majority of what I want to do, I use the Rich-Text editor, which is just like working with a word processor. I can control bold, underline, italics, add tables, lists, images, and links. See last week's class where we reviewed the editor features of the wiki.
One of the great suggestions received this week was to have a category of pages in the Index that begin with a prefix of 'Question:'. This category would be used to post questions to be answered by patrons or staff. When the dialog matures and all commentary is received in answer to the question, the page can be retitled to be placed elsewhere in the index.
So, click on the Index link in the viewer above.... the Index link is by the Ensign Software logo at the top of the form.
Drag the slider bar down the Q section, or click the | Q | in the page index to jump down to the Q section. I see there is one Question: in the listing at this time, and it is about the Beta Release.
Click on that link to read the question. http://ensign.editme.com/QBF Now, I took a few minutes ahead of class to write an answer to the question, so it is a Q&A in progress. I can envision the use of Question: xxxxxx pages as a forum for discussion and obtaining some help from other users. So, you are invited to start using the wiki in this way. If the material discussed is informative, content can be relocated as a page in the wiki Index, or material can be cut and pasted on other pages of similar topical content, etc. If the information is trivial, the page can be deleted so the Index does not get too cluttered.
Any feedback about having a Questions: forum and participation by others in posting an answer to the same page?
@Buffy2: Love it here. Support never closed :-) with support checking as another user couldn't of answered ? on beta.
I like the idea of having a specific place to check occasionally to see if I can help out with an answer. The pages that begin with Question: will be kind of a forum for discussion with users helping users.
TOC: Hi, would there be a way to filter the wiki for new additions, so only the new contributions could be seen?
Yes, TOC, on the Tools menu list is a menu Site | Changes, and this list shows the pages added or changed in chronological sequence. The new material is at the top of the list.
http://ensign.editme.com/_Recent
The pages shows a link to the page added or edited, its version revision, and then a link for the person who made the edit. Scroll down on this page you see that Buffy posted a page Question: Beta Release and the note says Added by Buffy.
You can click on the link Buffy and see what other pages she has added or edited. This is a very nice capability of the wiki, to see what is changing and by whom. If you click on the version link, you see a side by side comparison of the page with its previous version, and the edit changes are shown in various colors for edits, deletions, and additions. This is all very nice, delightful and powerful.
Another proposed use of the wiki would be for users to start their own page wiki pages using the User: prefix, and then their name or methodology. So there could be a User: Randy page, or a User: Buffy page, and on these proposed pages, the user could post a picture, a bio, and examples of their work and discussion of their methodology. I think this would be a great place for the community of users to get to know each other better.
So, are some of you willing to start your own User: pages? You are invited. We would love to know more about you and your work.
@Buffy2: best would be a directory page like support has -- is that difficult?
A directory pages can be created too, Buffy.
On the Home page is a link for Standards. Lets briefly discuss some standards for the wiki contribution. Raw solo pages will also auto show on the Index page, and that is one of the purposes of using the prefix categories. Lets review the proposed standards shown on the Standards page. The objective is for consistency.
If any would like to become registered so you can contribute, click the Show Menu if the tools menu is not yet showing. On the Tools menu, you click the User | Register menu. Do so now, and I will watch for your registration and approve you at this time. Then after you are approved to be an editor of the wiki, you would click the Page | New menu, enter a page name in lower case letters without spaces, and be in the editor. Type in content, or paste material from the clipboard. You can try starting your own User: name wiki page you will publish about yourself.
One thing learned last week is to register you have to use Internet Explorer outside of chat room. You cannot use the chat room viewer to succeed with the registration process. You can view wiki pages in the chat room, but to do registration or editing, do so using Internet Explorer because of java that is needed to operate the forms, like the editor.
@Buffy2: so if I did a bio how would I make that a "directory" on main page
I will go start a directory page. Then the user bio pages can be links on the directory page. What we need are some bio pages to put on the directory.
@Buffy2: I started my user page, saved it, figure I can edit later finish it.
I will try a trick of putting a period ahead of Directory so in the Index section of the User: group it shows at the top of the index listing.
http://ensign.editme.com/userdirectory
Buffy, go to that page. I added you as a bullet item. Now I will let you go practice linking the bullet to your page. Edit the userdirectory page to link it to your page. Go to the userdirectory page, double click on it to be in editor. Select your name by dragging across it, click the Link button and find your page in the list, or on the Link dialog, enter the link as Buffy which is the page name you started. Click the Insert button to close the Link dialog form. And it is then all linked up, and shows in blue and underlined.
@Buffy2: OK did I do it?
Yes Buffy, you have made a link to your page. Looks good. That is a start.
@Buffy2: thank you. So that would have to be done for each page I create? Link it to the user directory page?
Yes, if you wanted links on one page to connect to another page.
The EnsignWiki will become larger and more valuable with the passage of time. Learn to use its fantastic search capability, and the search page tells you how to make the search more precise.
@Buffy2: does it search the linked pages?
Buffy, it searches all pages, and the content of the pages, not just the titles. So that is superior to the Q&A Knowledgebase search, and is a primary reason for moving the Q&A content to the EnsignWiki.