1================= 2 What is Wicked? 3================= 4 5:Contact: horde@lists.horde.org 6 7.. contents:: Contents 8.. section-numbering:: 9 10Wicked is a wiki application for Horde. 11 12This software is OSI Certified Open Source Software. OSI Certified is a 13certification mark of the `Open Source Initiative`_. 14 15.. _`Open Source Initiative`: http://www.opensource.org/ 16 17 18Goals 19===== 20 211. To Facilitate Maintaining a Knowledge Base 22--------------------------------------------- 23 24In order to facilitate maintaining a knowledge base, Wicked must make it as 25easy as possible to enter information. If the user encounters impediments 26when entering information, he or she will be less likely to enter information. 27The goal as Wicked evolves, then, is to remove as many impediments to entry as 28possible. 29 30Here are some technological impediments we should be mindful of: 31 32- Requiring complete documents or validatation which prevents saving. 33- Requiring lots of information related to pages (categories, etc.). 34- Complicated markup which has to be learned. 35 36We should be mindful that not all impediments are strictly technological - 37there are psychological impediments as well. As a simple example, different 38fonts and ways of rendering a page may make it appear more "professional" or 39"perfect", and this might discourage a user from adding his thoughts somewhere 40near the middle. Another example: a strongly implied organizational structure 41for a wiki might discourage someone from contributing some discussion that 42does not fit into any of the predefined slots. 43 44One of the most important factors that will encourage a person to add 45information to a knowledge base is whether he or she find useful information 46in it. If a user keeps coming back to it to search for useful information, 47that user is more likely to contribute. 48 492. To Facilitate Inter-connecting Knowledge 50------------------------------------------- 51 52The value of a large knowledge base isn't solely in the amount of information 53it contains. There are many large knowledge bases which are difficult to 54navigate, and seem to prevent you from finding things that you know must be in 55there. One of the ways to avoid this is by facilitating the 56inter-connectedness of knowledge - if we make linking between pages easy, don't 57prevent (and even encourage) "dangling" and "accidental" links, and provide 58mechanisms so that synonymous terms can refer to the same page, knowledge in 59the knowledge base will be much more accessible. 60 613. To Facilitate Peer Review and Discussion of Content 62------------------------------------------------------ 63 64The openness of a wiki is one of its great strengths; it allows anyone to add 65their opinions or references to facts or whatever. One of the most unique 66goals of Wicked is to find new mechanisms to facilitate this. For example, 67allowing people to subscribe to a page, area, or the entire wiki to receive 68change notifications keeps people coming back to topics that they are 69interested in, and adding their opinions. 70 71Adding an "invite" feature which allows a user to solicit input from a third 72party increases traffic and discussion on a topic and also gives Wicked a sort 73of one-shot single-topic mailing list feature. It also provides a mechanism 74for publishing information, for example to release a memo in an organization. 75 764. To Facilitate Accuracy Through Accountability 77------------------------------------------------ 78 79There are only two ways to know whether information is accurate: 1) to have an 80idea of the accuracy of the source of that information or 2) to test it. In 81most document-management-type solutions, permissions systems are used to 82ensure that only authorized users can modify documents, but in wiki we 83recognize that permissions are an impediment to contribution. 84 85Although Wicked does support setting permissions for pages, accuracy in wiki 86is provided by tracking changes made to pages so that we always know where 87the information came from. This also increases the quality of the content by 88providing accountability. 89 905. To Facilitate Paper Publishing 91--------------------------------- 92 93Once the collaboration on some piece of knowledge is done, Wicked should 94support printing it in a "final form" useful for consumption. 95 96 97Features 98======== 99 1001. Change Tracking and Revision History 101--------------------------------------- 102 1032. Full-Text Searching 104---------------------- 105 1063. Support for Multiple Content Types 107------------------------------------- 108 109Not implemented yet. 110 1114. Page and Site Subscriptions and Invitations 112---------------------------------------------- 113 114Not implemented yet. 115 1165. Typesetting to PDF 117--------------------- 118 119Not implemented yet. Exporting wiki pages to Latex is already possible 120though. It is still planned to export complete wikis or "books" (sets of wiki 121pages). 122 123 124Obtaining Wicked 125================ 126 127Further information on Wicked and the latest version can be obtained at 128 129 http://www.horde.org/apps/wicked 130 131 132Documentation 133============= 134 135The following documentation is available in the Wicked distribution: 136 137:README_: This file 138:COPYING_: Copyright and license information 139:`docs/CHANGES`_: Changes by release 140:`docs/CREDITS`_: Project developers 141:`docs/INSTALL`_: Installation instructions and notes 142:`docs/TODO`_: Development TODO list 143 144 145Installation 146============ 147 148Instructions for installing Wicked can be found in the file INSTALL_ in the 149``docs/`` directory of the Wicked distribution. 150 151 152Assistance 153========== 154 155If you encounter problems with Wicked, help is available! 156 157The Horde Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQ), available on the Web at 158 159 http://wiki.horde.org/FAQ 160 161Horde LLC runs a number of mailing lists, for individual applications 162and for issues relating to the project as a whole. Information, archives, and 163subscription information can be found at 164 165 http://www.horde.org/community/mail 166 167Lastly, Horde developers, contributors and users also make occasional 168appearances on IRC, on the channel #horde on the Freenode Network 169(irc.freenode.net). 170 171 172Licensing 173========= 174 175For licensing and copyright information, please see the file COPYING_ in the 176Wicked distribution. 177 178Thanks, 179 180The Wicked team 181 182 183.. _README: README 184.. _COPYING: http://www.horde.org/licenses/gpl 185.. _docs/CHANGES: CHANGES 186.. _docs/CREDITS: CREDITS 187.. _INSTALL: 188.. _docs/INSTALL: INSTALL 189.. _docs/TODO: TODO 190