Permaculture Database

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

> Subject: Re: [permaculture] database, wiki, blogs, forums, etc
> Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:14:00 +0000
> From: webmaster@pfaf.org> Reply-To: permaculture 
> <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

> If I were to implement this, I'd just use an off the shelf wiki, and
> write a documentation convention for how to format a page. Say
>
> ==processes ==
> List processes here.
> ==Output==
> List output here.
> ==contraints==
> List constraints here.
>
> In these sections you can add links to the appropriate
> process/output/constraint.
>
> This would need very little setting up, it could be done in a day.
> It would meet the need of most users, who basically just want to read
> things.
>
> The next problem is searching, say finding things with a given output.
> If bi-directional linking is used (say the category feature in
> wikipedia) this becomes quite simple, as a category page contains a list
> of all things which link there. There are extensions which allow complex
>    boolean logic to be applied to categories.
>
> Why would I choose a wiki.
> 1) Revison control - absolutely vital for any community driven project,
> you need to know who did what when. Be able to revert changes back.
> 2) Simple format - html is too complex for most people, filling in lots
> of fields is a pain.
> 3) All the basic plumbing is there: user logins, image uploads,
> administrative control, configurable display styles, spam detection.
> 4) Programming hooks in MediaWiki its relatively easy to write custom
> extensions for any features.
> 5) Maintainability, complicated code bases cause problems if the main
> developer goes away. Using a well know code base lessens this problem.
>
> Its these things which take the time, and are hard to do right. CMS
> solutions may do some of this stuff for you.
>
> Rich

And this convinces me that we can not do without a wiki.