{"id":1398,"date":"2012-10-09T13:53:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T18:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=1398"},"modified":"2012-10-09T13:53:14","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T18:53:14","slug":"some-interesting-wikis-that-arent-wikipedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/some-interesting-wikis-that-arent-wikipedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Interesting Wikis That Aren’t Wikipedia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
\"W\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"i\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"K\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"I\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"S\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

I've been looking at wikis \u2014 lots of wikis \u2014 in order to find a few of the most interesting to present at a hands-off technology workshop next week. (Won't you please join us<\/a>?) Of course interest is highly subjective, but I hope you find these projects intriguing, stimulating, and otherwise though-provoking.<\/p>\n

First let me mention the elephant in the room. In my opinion, Wikipedia is one of the most interesting projects in the history of humanity. But we all know about Wikipedia. My goal here is to show that Wikipedia is not the only wiki on the planet. Onward!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What if Hitler won World War II? That's one of the most common scenarios when imagining alternate histories. The Alternate History Wiki<\/a> goes much further, with contributors speculating on thousands of other possible timelines that might have unfolded. What if Robert Kennedy had not been assassinated<\/a>? What if a virus had devastated the Mayans in the 9th century<\/a>? What if the earth was tilted 90\u00ba<\/a> so the North Pole was off the coast of Africa? (In a similar speculative-imaginative vein, see also Galaxiki<\/a>, which bills itself as a fictional galaxy anyone can edit.)<\/li>\n
  2. As the name suggests, Appropedia<\/a> is structured much like an encyclopedia. Because wikis can be sprawling in their scope, this is a common and sensible form. Appropedia is notable not merely for its admirable focus (on sustainability<\/a>, appropriate technology<\/a> and poverty<\/a> reduction) but also for the quality of its engagement, which includes a substantial service learning component<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. There's a type of wiki known as a \"city wiki,\" focusing on a single urban locality. Examples abound, but one of the weirdest and most wonderful is surely Davis Wiki<\/a>, dedicated to the city of Davis, California. What makes this one stand out, besides its prodigious size, is that it's not as serious and straight-laced as many others. The wiki provides a wealth of serious content where appropriate, but also has room for a listing of the bathrooms at UC Davis<\/a> \u2014 ranked by cleanliness or lack thereof.<\/li>\n
  4. The Internet Movie Firearms Database<\/a> is dedicated to figuring out just what guns were used in every scene of every movie ever made. As you can imagine, that's a lot of guns. I'm not a gun nut, but to me this is an intriguing proof-of-concept, demonstrating how a data-set can be developed with collaborative tools.<\/li>\n
  5. The most interesting wiki I discovered was undoubtedly TV Tropes<\/a>. A trope is a commonly recurring device or motif, not necessarily clich\u00e9, found in writing of all sorts. This site aims to catalog such tropes, initially stating with television (and apparently involving more than a few script writers) and eventually branching out to other forms such as film, radio, comics, theater, literature and more. Note that this analysis is very different from the encyclopedic approach. According to the site itself, you \"can probably gain more info on the what<\/em> of (for example) Star Trek from [Wikipedia] than you can from actually watching the show, and that's nice. Here? Here, you can get a glimmering of why<\/em> the show is like that.\" Fascinating stuff \u2014 to me, anyhow. Your mileage may vary.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In recognition of the fact that interests vary, I've compiled a further listing of wikis that may be interesting to other people \u2014\u00a0perhaps one of them will be interesting to you.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. For those who are interested in the U.S. political process, OpenCongress Wiki<\/a>, Ballotpedia<\/a> & Judgepedia<\/a> may be worth a look.<\/li>\n
    2. SourceWatch<\/a>, run by the Center for Media and Democracy, \"aims to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interest groups.\" (See also CoalSwarm<\/a>, a sub-project.)<\/li>\n
    3. I hesitate to post a link to Metapedia<\/a>. It's a multilingual white nationalist and white supremacist, extreme right-wing encyclopedia. The perspective represented here is morally repugnant to me personally, and I expect to the Xavier community as well. And yet, I think access to this site presents obvious educational possibilities for creative teachers interested in history, politics, race relations, ethics and morality \u2014\u00a0to say nothing of critical thinking.<\/li>\n
    4. Given Xavier's stake in the life sciences, the following may be useful: MedPedia<\/a> is an open access online medical wiki encyclopedia, and MetaBase<\/a> is a user-contributed database of biological databases.<\/li>\n
    5. NotePub<\/a> is an online notepad. You can write private, public, and shared notes. Extremely simple, easy-to-use and possibly quite handy.<\/li>\n
    6. OpenStreetMap<\/a> is quite impressive. Compare to Google Maps, but note this is published under the Open Database License. I think this is more of a tool for web developers to build upon but the potential is inspiring.<\/li>\n
    7. Scholarpedia<\/a> is kind of like an open access online journal in a wiki format. The articles are written by invited expert authors and are subject to peer review.<\/li>\n
    8. Uncyclopedia<\/a> & Encyclopedia Dramatica<\/a> are satirical. The former is a direct parody of Wikipedia and feels a bit safe, while the latter is focused more on net culture and is not for the faint of heart.<\/li>\n
    9. Wikitravel<\/a> is a travel guide. Nuff said.<\/li>\n
    10. Sensei's Library<\/a> is a wiki about the game Go. It may be the most extensive Go resource on the web.<\/li>\n
    11. Wookieepedia<\/a> is an example of a fannish wiki. It's all about Star Wars<\/em>, not just the movie but every aspect of the franchise. Any popular culture phenomenon with a dedicated cult is likely fodder for a wiki. I cite Wookieepedia because it's one of the biggest and most popular of such wikis, and provides an excellent example of the form.<\/li>\n
    12. If you don't find any of the above even vaguely interesting, then Meatball Wiki<\/a> is surely not for you. It's a wiki about wikis. Not a mere list of extant wikis, it \"contains technical analyses of indexing schemes, wiki architecture, and inter-wiki protocol design. Yet it also philosophizes about the nature of hypertext, government, and identity, not to mention detailing user interfaces, community building, and conflict resolution.\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If you're interested in learning more about using wikis, let me know. I'm happy to work with you. And don't forget to come to our workshop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      Photo credit: Various letters by Chris<\/a> \/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0\/<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I've been looking at wikis \u2014 lots of wikis \u2014 in order to find a few of the most interesting to present at a hands-off technology workshop next week. (Won't you please join us?) Of course interest is highly subjective, but I hope you find these projects intriguing, stimulating, and otherwise though-provoking. First let me ...continue reading \"Some Interesting Wikis That Aren’t Wikipedia\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[310,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-1398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-social","7":"tag-technology","8":"tag-wikis","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry","11":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-my","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10382,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/conversation-52\/","url_meta":{"origin":1398,"position":0},"title":"Conversation #52: Helaine Blumenthal, Zach McDowell and Naniette Coleman on Wiki Ed","author":"Bart Everson","date":"November 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Download Conversation #52 A conversation with Helaine Blumenthal, Zach McDowell and Naniette Coleman on Wiki Ed. As Classroom Program Manager for the Wiki Education Foundation, Helaine develops relationships with instructors, volunteers, and Wikipedia editors to expand support for program activities. Helaine is responsible for on-boarding and mentoring the instructors who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)"","block_context":{"text":"Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2076,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-77-inline-grading-for-assignments-and-tools\/","url_meta":{"origin":1398,"position":1},"title":"Bb Tip #77: Inline Grading for Assignments and Tools","author":"Janice Florent","date":"September 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The new Inline Assignment Grading feature introduced new capabilities for grading Assignments in Blackboard and a new user experience for the grading sidebar. 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Currently, most professors get a word count by copying text from Blackboard, pasting it into Microsoft Word and then getting a word count inside MS Word. A new \u201cWord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles"","block_context":{"text":"Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/blackboard\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3816,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-104-word-count\/","url_meta":{"origin":1398,"position":3},"title":"Bb Tip #104: Word Count","author":"Janice Florent","date":"September 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One feature missing from Blackboard is the ability to get a word count for discussion board threads, blogs, wikis, and journals. Currently, most professors get a word count by copying text from Blackboard, pasting it into Microsoft Word and then getting a word count inside MS Word. 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