hacking.developers.tucows.com
=============================
http://hacking.developers.tucows.com is the URL for a new developer
relations project. It's a knowledge base whose purpose is to help fill
the "knowledge gaps" about our platform. Members of the Tucows
development community (developers both inside and outside Tucows) can
use this knowledge base to gather and contribute information about the
Tucows platform and development.
The problem we're trying to solve
=================================
There's a lot of developer-related knowledge about the Tucows platform
out there that isn't in our documentation, but scattered all over the place:
- My own notes
- Various departments within the company
(from sales engineering to product management to support)
- Our customers, who have built everything from simple workarounds
to full-fledged client apps
- Third-party developers whose programs use our APIs
Some of this information may be material that will eventually end up in
our documentation. Some of this information, while useful, won't always
necessarily belong in our documentation. Some examples:
- Workarounds for specific set-ups
- Writing client code in a programming language not covered
in our documentation
- How to use/modify a client code library written by a third-party
developer
- Accessing our APIs using an unsupported library/application
One solution: A knowledge base
==============================
Microsoft's approach to this problem is the Microsoft Knowledge Base
(http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx), a searchable site
that contains workarounds, example code, "how-to" articles and tips for
all Microsoft products. Much of this information can't be found in the
documentation and was written as a result of experience with their
products and feedback from their customers. It complements their
documentation.
The Knowledge Base is maintained by a large department at Microsoft who
work on it full-time. Most companies, us included, don't have the luxury
of being able to have such a department.
Our solution: A wiki
====================
We want to approximate Microsoft's Knowledge Base. We plan to do this by
creating a publicly-accessible, searchable site that can be:
- read by anyone
- more importantly, written to/edited by anyone
Anyone with a solution that hasn't been covered before would be able to
add a new article. Anyone who has anything useful to add to an existing
article or who has corrections to make can do so. The system keeps track
of all changes to it so we can know what changes were made, who made
them and when. It can also "backtrack" to any previous version if need
be. The system would be an exercise in cooperative, collaborative editing.
This system is called a "Wiki". I won't go into the details of what it
is or how it works, but you can find out more on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki. One very popular wiki is Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/), which uses a wiki system to house a
collaboratively-written and -edited encyclopedia.
Here are some developer wikis:
- Technorati: http://developers.technorati.com/wiki
- Valve Software: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page
- a wiki hosted by Microsoft for Windows Mobile developers:
http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/MobileDeveloper.HomePage
- Zope: http://www.zope.org/Wikis/ZODB/FrontPage
- Mozilla: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Main_Page
- "Hot or Not": http://dev.hotornot.com/wiki/Main_Page
The collaborative environment provided by such as system:
- Makes it possible (and easy) for anyone in the developer community to
add their knowledge to our knowledge base
- Harnesses the "gift economy" culture prevalent in the developer
community
- Builds community among the developers through active participation
- Collects what developers need: information
- Is a good source of useful information for our documentation team
What's happening
================
We have set up a wiki at http://hacking.developers.tucows.com/, which
I'll refer to as "Hacking". I'm in the process of seeding "Hacking" with
articles and have shown it to a handful of active participants in the
Tucows developer community.
The following articles should give you an idea of the sort of thing that
will appear in it:
- A page on CCS:
http://hacking.developers.tucows.com:4080/index.php?n=Main.CCS
- An article covering CSS styles in Blogware blogs, which is currently
undocumented:
http://hacking.developers.tucows.com:4080/index.php?n=Blogware.CSSStyles
- An article covering the Blogware Reseller API PHP Library, a
third-party code library that is currently undocumented:
http://hacking.developers.tucows.com:4080/index.php?n=Blogware.ResellerAPIPHPLibrary
Hacking is and always will be a work in progress. I expect to continue
feeding it with articles based on knowledge culled from sources such as
direct communication with customers, the sales engineers, Tucows Discuss
and so on; I encourage other developers to do the same. As its chief
editor, I will monitor the changes made to it regularly.
If you have any questions, concerns, ideas or suggestions about this
project, please let me know!
--
_________________________________________________
Joey deVilla - Tucows, Inc. - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
TC/DC (Technical Community Development Coordinator)
"Nerdy Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
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