I took some time last night to start refactoring the FOAF Wiki. This was something we needed to do, but comments on rdfweb-dev from Marc Canter, suggesting that folk are struggling without decent FOAF documentation, prompted me to devote a bit more time to it this week.
I'm pretty happy with the result as I've ended up with main entry points (FAQ, Tools, Developers, and DataSources) under which everything else can probably be arranged. Barring a Syntax page which ought to tie together the various vocab and extension discussions.
The FAQ should hopefully answer the majority of queries that Marc raised, including oft overlooked details such as "how do I link to my FOAF?, what icon(s) can I use?", etc.
This all got me to thinking about Wiki Refactoring in general. Is Wiki Refactoring really Refactoring?
Martin Fowler recently aired a pet peeve about the abuse of the term: people talk about "refactoring" when they really mean "rewriting". I'm pretty sure I've done this on more than one occasion.
Re-organising a Wiki -- breaking down pages into inter-linked related pages; combining related information -- seems like refactoring on the surface. But is it? The re-organisation seem to add (implicit) information, if only in the links between topics.
Not surprisingly there are pages about Wiki Refactoring on the C2 Wiki, which I'll be exploring when I get a few free minutes.
Bill de hÓra's comments about the Echo Wiki pretty much echo (ha ha) my own thoughts when I skimmed through it recently. It didn't have the same "feel" as other Wiki sites I've used. So, while it's a currently high-profile example of Wiki use I'm not sure it's necessarily a good exemplar of the Wiki concept in general. And not that it needs to be: its a tool to get a certain job done, and if it works great.
Posted by ldodds at July 4, 2003 02:18 PM | Feedback? | | TrackBack