From WolfWikis

Welcome to the Village Pump of NCSU's WolfWiki.

This page is intended for comments and discussion about WolfWiki. Please keep discussions factual constructive and respectful. Remember that the written word is much sharper and hurts more than the spoken one because it is not accompanied by gesture, facial expression or intonation.

Names of pages

I have taken the liberty to add a few words about naming of pages on Getting started The lemma names are a vital part of the wiki structure because they are the ones that give access to the information. Thus they must be chosen with care. If a page is a spin off of a certain course and contains info specific to that course, e.g. the readings of course CH434, please choose a name that indicates so., e.g. CH434\readings.

Jcfolmer 13:00, 1 September 2006 (EDT)

Deletions

So far only the library people seem to have the right to delete and/or protect pages. I have created a template for pages that are to be deleted {{To be deleted}} that contains a category WolfWiki:to be deleted. The idea is to put this tag on a page that is not kosher for some reason so that the sysops can clean up more easily.

Jcfolmer 12:58, 1 September 2006 (EDT)

Accessibility

It seems that legislation has been passed that requires all web-based educational material to be 'accessible' in the sense of accessible to people with a handicap. Of course that is a lofty objective, but it puts a burden on the educator that (s)he is often not well equipped for. Most of us are professionals in other fields than computer science and our computer skills are often self-taught and limited. We also lack the time to learn more than a modicum surreptiously on occasion. For this wolfwiki to have any hope of being a useful tool in education at NCSU a number of questions need to be answered.

1. To what extent can wolfwikis answer to this requirement?

   I am concerned that the answer is: not really. E.g. one requirement is that everything should be accessible without a mouse. I do not see that at all in a wiki.

   Another point is figures, aparently they need to be tagged in such a way that their content -if important- is accessible in words. Given the fact that this wiki does not have <math> tags (Apparently it would require a lot of additional software) the only way to put in mathematical formulas is by making images out of them and uploading them. Does that mean that every formula has to be written out in words too? This would certainly make any mathematical content too combersome to consider.

2. To what extent will the sysops (read:librarians) help us make things accessible?

   Again the teachers are not in a very good position to do that

3. Shouldn't this wiki be closed down?

   Maybe that is the best thing to do before a lot of people lose a lot of time and effort on it.

Jcfolmer 10:43, 6 September 2006 (EDT)

Response to message above:

1. WolfWikis should be able to meet the typical requirements for accessibility. For more information, please refer to the Wikipedia Accessibility Guideline as WolfWikis uses the same software. The example you provided of the requirement that everything should be accessible without a mouse is already met! :) Navigation through pages in WolfWikis is the same as most accessible websites; to see what I mean, use the tab key to navigate around this page. It seems odd to us who use mice that an option like that would be available, as we never use it. WolfWikis also provides template options beyond the default that will allow for easier navigation and improved use of accessibility features built into web browsers. -- The <math> feature may be overcome by including the text of the formula as if it would be included with the <math> feature installed. Unless the <math> feature will enable a formula to be read back to the user in a special way, the display wouldn't matter, so long as the text of the formula is present (I don't think you'd have to resort to writing them out in words).
2. Students may be found that can assist with this.
3. WolfWikis is a great service and should not be closed down without seeking assistance from other parts of the NCSU community to help solve this problem. Once the scope of the problem is determined (it may not be as serious of an issue upon closer investigation), I'd be willing to volunteer some of my time to help out and help encourage others to as well.

An important aspect to consider would be how students can use WolfWikis to collaborate and publish non-educational material, such as articles about their student organizations, NCSU history, and culture. This would be material that would fall under the usage guidelines for WolfBlogs and WolfWikis, and would be material within the Library's mission to support and archive.

Please provide a link to the relevant laws and I'll try to provide some more targeted feedback. I apologize if anything above is misinformed, as I suffer from the opposite problem; I'm a computer science major, not a professional librarian. Jmsevits 17:14, 8 June 2007 (EDT)