Hi all,<br><br>I'm currently the developer of the iGEM 2007 community website, and this message is aimed primarily at OWW developers. In know there has been discussion in the past about combining or merging the iGEM page and wiki with OWW, and this email is not about that. It is about how information is organized on the wiki, specifically, how the same information is presented by different labs or teams.
<br><br>As far as I understand it, besides using templates and categories, there is no way to really structure the content on a mediawiki page. For example, every team on the iGEM 2006 wiki provided a picture and a project abstract somewhere. The information was available, but not accessible without visiting every single team's page and actively looking for it. This year, one of our goals for the iGEM 2007 website & wiki is to make sure this kind of information is tagged, or marked-up, or annotated, or put in a special area on a template, or by some other method standardized across all the teams. If information common to all teams is standardized, it will be much easier to find and reuse, from both a human and machine perspective.
<br><br>I haven't learned much about it yet, but I want to point out <a href="http://microformats.org/about/">microformats</a> to OWW developers. If you already know about them, please let me know what you think. Here's popular definition from the microformats website: "simple conventions for embedding semantics in HTML to enable decentralized development." They are basically just standardized xhtml tags, and so should be easy to integrate with mediawiki content. The biggest hurdle would be making them simple for users to use.
<br><br>I think microformats might help standardize wiki content, so I wanted to make sure they were on your radar and also invite any comments or suggestions for other means of structuring or standardizing that content.<br>
<br>Thanks,<br>Mac Cowell<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br><span class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Mackenzie Cowell</b> <<a href="mailto:macowell@gmail.com">macowell@gmail.com</a>>
<br>Date: Jan 30, 2007 1:44 PM<br>Subject: Re: [OWW-SC] flexible databases<br>To: Tom Knight <<a href="mailto:tk@csail.mit.edu">tk@csail.mit.edu</a>><br><br></span>Cool! I wonder if there could be some sort of hybrid solution for BIG databases where the user could access a web service that would send a small facet of the big server database to their browser for viewing with Exhibit.
<br><br>Austin just walked by and mentioned they are trying to get the google maps integration working so all the labs can be plotted on a map; I was going to do the same thing for all the iGEM teams this year, and I wonder if Exhibit will make it easier to do.
<br><br>mac<div><span class="e" id="q_110745262ac436e6_1"><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 1/29/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Tom Knight</b> <<a href="mailto:tk@csail.mit.edu" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
tk@csail.mit.edu</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
This doesn't work in my copy of Safari; use Firefox.<br><br><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br>> From: Austin Che <<a href="mailto:austin@csail.mit.edu" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
austin@csail.mit.edu</a>><br>> Date: January 27, 2007 3:06:29 PM EST
<br>> To: <a href="mailto:sc@openwetware.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sc@openwetware.org</a><br>> Subject: [OWW-SC] flexible databases<br>><br>><br>> I've been looking at using Exhibit on the wiki:
<br>> <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Exhibit" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Exhibit</a><br>><br>> It allows for completely client side databases with javascript.<br>><br>> I've been talking with the author to improve the support for it on<br>> the wiki. There are still some bugs but I've gotten it to work
<br>> with firefox at least in some configuration.<br>><br>> As one test, I've moved some of the E. coli genotypes here:<br>> <a href="http://openwetware.org/index.php?title=E._coli_genotypes/Exhibit" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://openwetware.org/index.php?title=E._coli_genotypes/Exhibit</a><br>><br>> You can edit the data as javascript in the file. There are lots of<br>> display options. Right now it just uses the default display
<br>> options.<br>><br>> Some key things that I think are interesting and have tested:<br>> - The data can be read from a Google spreadsheet instead of from<br>> the wiki.<br>> - Support for google maps (although this does not quite yet work
<br>> on the wiki)<br>> - Timeline support. This supposedly already works on the wiki<br>> <a href="http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Upcoming_events" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Upcoming_events</a><br>><br>
> --<br>> Austin Che <<a href="mailto:austin@csail.mit.edu" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">austin@csail.mit.edu</a>> (617)253-5899<br>> _______________________________________________
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http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/oww-sc</a><br><br><br></blockquote></div><br>
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