Hello all.

It's in the very early stages of development, but I'd like to announce that I've put up an Empeg-related WikiWikiweb at:

http://www.illusionary.com:8080/empeg/

What's a WikiWikiWeb? In short, it's a user-modifiable website.

I also am subscribed to the handhelds.org list for porting Linux to the Compaq iPAQ handheld computer, and the handhelds.org fellows have implemented a WikiWikiWeb as a general knowledgebase for the handhelds.org users. It has turned into a phenominal success with lots of people recording and organizing little bits of information into a generally accessible site. (If anyone's interested in looking at it, it's here)

I was reading in another thread on the Reviews forum about how some people felt that the Empeg documentation was, well, less-than-stellar and the idea of having a user-maintained set of documentation was proposed. I immediately thought of the success of the handhelds wiki and decided to utilize some of my own resources to set up an Empeg Wiki and hopefully realize a similar success as the handhelds wiki, with information that could be used to improve the end-user experience for the Empeg.

Is it kind of redundant, considering the FAQ forum here (among the many others) and the "Empeg Hacking" site at mars.org? Sort of. But having multiple locations for information is good. Also, the very nature of the Wiki promises a much more dynamic and organic growth of information; when it was announced, the handhelds wiki experienced a big growth spurt of quite a lot of new information that wound up being scattered a bit haphazardly about. With the information in place, the site's maintainer could then organize it into a more coherent layout once it was clear what kind of information was being submitted. (Content first, then layout.)

I'd also like to propose that a portion of the site be devoted to actually writing that user-contributed Empeg documentation that was mentioned in the thread I linked to a bit above. Information submitted to that area would be submitted with the understanding that it was towards the purpose of re-writing (or at least annotating) the existing user manual by the people who are actually using it.

Finally, I cannot say enough about how well maintained this BBS is, but in the end, if someone has something important to say, unless Tony or Dionysus puts a note in the FAQ forum, it stands a good chance of getting lost in the noise. Hopefully providing a more organic, and less strictly-organized environment, a lot more of the not-quite so important information can be brought to the front.

Like I said, I've only spent about the last hour or so setting the software up and putting it online with a very rudimentary set of information, but I'd love it if anyone who had interest would stop by and contribute anything they wish. Feedback would of course be much appreciated.

Cool. What software are you using to drive your Wiki? Our internal wiki uses PyWiki, which is good, but not quite as quick, or as flexible when choosing WikiNames. It does use RCS as a backend, which is good, though.


Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg

It's called "ZWiki" and it runs on Zope. You can find the ZWiki stuff at www.zwiki.org and Zope at www.zope.org. It was really easy to set up, and of course if you're already using something Python-based, you'll be happy to know that Zope is written in Python. (I personally can't get into Python, but that doesn't mean I can't use it and like it. :)

Oh my God. I thought I was having trouble with all these Linux terms, now all of a sudden we've got an entirely new vocabulary based on "wiki" as its root name. I think I'm going to die.

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Tony Fabris

The server keeps refusing connection. Does it work at the moment? ('Ordinary' server, at port 80, works normally.)

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

Huh, that's weird. The server magically "Went away" some point over the weekend. I'll have to keep an eye on that I guess.

Rob and Tony, (if you see this note) I'd like to ask you each a question/favor:

Tony, since you've submitted most of the items in the FAQ section on this BBS, would you mind if I reproduced the information on the wiki pages?

Rob, to what extent, or can I to any extent, reproduce the empeg documentation on the wiki site for user-annotation? I'd like to be able to have some form of documentation up there so that if someone says, "The documentation on feature [x] isn't very good" a nice way of responding can be "Go to [this url] and add whatever comments you'd like!" Or am I going to have to write new documentation myself from scratch to start from because of copyrights?

I don't mind, of course. The only difficulty is that most of the FAQ items are reprints of articles posted elsewhere on this BBS (and each one is linked back to the original in those cases).

So you'll need to get their permission as well.

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Tony Fabris

Copyright is owned by SONICblue so I can't give an answer to that without asking a few people. Personally I think it would be better to start a user documentation effort - however our documentation is almost certain to be rewritten soon in far greater detail, so you risk wasted effort.

Rob

Maybe i'm not getting something... but since when is it in anyway violating copywrite to produce your own documents on how to use something? As long as the text and graphics aren't used verbatim... there should be no problem in writing up your own... such as the remote control's functions table that was created a few months back.


|| loren.cox
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I don't think you read the original post very well:

dglidden: "to what extent, or can I to any extent, reproduce the empeg documentation on the wiki site for user-annotation?"

I also think don't think you read my reply very well:

rob: "Personally I think it would be better to start a user documentation effort"

To summarise - it would be violation of copright to reproduce the empeg documentation (with or without annotations) without permission, so this must be looked into first. I suggested starting from scratch with new documentation.

You somehow seemed to read the exact opposite into both of our posts

Rob

*slaps forehead*

You are correct sir, in my hasty screening before leaving the office, i jumbled up the reposting of the FAQ, the annotation of the original docs, and the copywrite factor.... i can delete that post now can't i... i'll leave it for posterity to remember to read closesly before posting....

*slinks behind the tree*


|| loren.cox
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