OpenWetWare talk:Software/Subwikis: Difference between revisions

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'''[[User:Austin|Austin Che]] 15:07, 17 October 2006 (EDT)''':
This is slightly different from having private pages on openwetware but I believe it solves all the problems with private pages (and more). It also touches on the issue of the openwetware software distribution.
The basic idea is to host wikis for others. My envisioned scheme is something like the follows. We have *.private.openwetware.org be a place for subwikis. People can request a subdomain, let's say SUBWIKI so they can go to subwiki.private.openwetware.org to get to their wiki. The subwiki can be setup however one wants such as regards to permissions. A subwiki can be completely private (i.e. requires login just to read), can be like openwetware which requires login to edit but the user list is controlled by someone else (so essentially a lab can lock down pages that only they can edit), or whatever other form you want.
A bit more technical details. To create such a new wiki is very simple. On the server, one script needs to run that does the following: create a new mysql user/password, a new directory to store the subwiki's file uploads (images directory), and a wiki configuration file that includes the database username/password. That's all that needs to be done. The subwiki uses the same mediawiki installation as openwetware and inherits the same configuration file (including extensions). Of course anything can be overriden by the wiki specific configuration file, but the default is to create an empty, completely separate wiki in terms of database and uploads, yet uses the exact same code base and shares the same settings.
An example I've set up is at http://test.new.openwetware.org/ which is pretty much an empty database with almost exactly the same settings as openwetware. I'm also playing with OpenID. Try logging in to the test server at [http://test.new.openwetware.org/wiki/Special:OpenIDLogin Special:OpenIDLogin] and entering http://new.openwetware.org/wiki/User:YOURUSERNAME (i.e. your user page on openwetware). The idea is that you can log in to the subwikis using your openwetware username/password.
Benefits:
* Requires minimal work on the back-end to setup for us
* Essentially no extra work for subwiki maintenance (i.e. upgrades)
* Possible single sign-on with openwetware
* We share and make better use of our new server resources (network reliability, backup, etc.)
* Can automatically move existing wikis to be hosted by openwetware
* Easy to move pages (manually and perhaps automatically) from subwiki to openwetware.
* People no longer need to maintain their own wiki/extensions and trying to match with openwetware. All subwikis immediately get all mediawiki and extension upgrades
* We've also talked about perhaps using the hosting of private wikis as a means of supporting the public wiki (i.e. some fee for us hosting the wiki).
===Comments===
*'''[[User:Jamesh008|Jamesh008]] 16:08, 18 October 2006 (GMT)''': I really think private wikis will encourage more and more labs to start using OWW. I know there is some hesitation as soon as I explain what OWW is about to less enlightened folks!<br>However I would not want to see any private wiki need a login just to read, that really defeats OWW as I see it. Editing is another matter and is what ''bothers'' people so much.<br>How much do you  think it will cost to host say 100 private lab wikis? When does the cost become high enough for OWW to start charging, would a donation be more along OWW philosophy, is there a make a donation page like sourceforge.net [http://sourceforge.net/donate/]?
*'''[[User:Jamesh008|Jamesh008]] 16:08, 18 October 2006 (GMT)''': I really think private wikis will encourage more and more labs to start using OWW. I know there is some hesitation as soon as I explain what OWW is about to less enlightened folks!<br>However I would not want to see any private wiki need a login just to read, that really defeats OWW as I see it. Editing is another matter and is what ''bothers'' people so much.<br>How much do you  think it will cost to host say 100 private lab wikis? When does the cost become high enough for OWW to start charging, would a donation be more along OWW philosophy, is there a make a donation page like sourceforge.net [http://sourceforge.net/donate/]?
**'''[[Sri Kosuri]] ([[User talk:Skosuri|talk]]) 11:16, 18 October 2006 (EDT)''':This is something we come back to over and over.  I think it's more a matter of our own organizational capacities.  Who deals with downtimes/backups/user accounts/etc?  What do we do when Austin leaves (god forbid).  Many of us have our own private wikis, but we are willing to maintain that ourselves.  Most of the people that help run the back-end of OWW have vested interest in getting information more open.  We all benefit from it.  However, many people do not really want to invest the effort to maintain private lab pages to everyone.  Another option we talked about is we hope to deal with this in the future is to have a OWW distribution.  In this manner people could download and maintain the software themselves, with a super-easy ways to move a page onto OWW for 'publication'.  You can also imagine doing a public/private partnerships with private wiki hosting companies that are popping up all over the place.  Anyways, this is definitely a topic we should bring back to the steering committee, especially considering Austin's progress  
**'''[[Sri Kosuri]] ([[User talk:Skosuri|talk]]) 11:16, 18 October 2006 (EDT)''':This is something we come back to over and over.  I think it's more a matter of our own organizational capacities.  Who deals with downtimes/backups/user accounts/etc?  What do we do when Austin leaves (god forbid).  Many of us have our own private wikis, but we are willing to maintain that ourselves.  Most of the people that help run the back-end of OWW have vested interest in getting information more open.  We all benefit from it.  However, many people do not really want to invest the effort to maintain private lab pages to everyone.  Another option we talked about is we hope to deal with this in the future is to have a OWW distribution.  In this manner people could download and maintain the software themselves, with a super-easy ways to move a page onto OWW for 'publication'.  You can also imagine doing a public/private partnerships with private wiki hosting companies that are popping up all over the place.  Anyways, this is definitely a topic we should bring back to the steering committee, especially considering Austin's progress  
Austin J. Che
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