I vote for AnonymousReadOnly/GatedWriteable, but I wouldn't terribly
mind logging in to a GatedAccess system (However, I'm still waiting for
my user ID).
Mike Schrom
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
At the request of several people in our VistA Community,
I am asking for discussion of the issue of whether the OpenForum
Wiki should be GatedAccess or GatedWriteable.
As the administrator of the Wiki, I was nominated to bring this discussion
up as a topic on HardHats. As a HardHats volunteer, I am not clear if
this is beyond the purview of the agreement between WorldVistA and
Hardhats that VistA related discussions would be best served by a unified
mailing list.
I would ask the indulgence of the participants in this list to allow a
brief (perhaps 2 days) discussion of this topic, as the wiki is an
important resource to the community, and it is difficult to hear the views
of the broad community as it only has a limited number of active
communication channels, an important one of which is this mailing list.
To start with, I would like to provide some context.
The wiki at http://openforum.worldvista.org/wiki uses the MediaWiki code
base, developed originally to support Wikipedia. (PHP and MSQL technology)
We initially tried to have a OpenWriteable wiki, but ran into multiple
abuses of the wiki by spammers and others who were intending to raise
their google rank by exploiting our good will. (if they are referenced by
a site of high reputation, such as our wiki, their ranking will rise)
There was a discussion on the Friday conference call last month, during
which the participants suggested we should have a GatedAccess Wiki. In
other words, only those who have accounts on the wiki would be allowed to
edit, read, or in any way interact with the wiki. For those who have
access to the DVA FORUM system, this the same model used there.
Recently, there has been some discussion that the consensus on the
conference call does not reflect the consensus of the greater VistA
Community.
It has been suggested that in contrast to our current policy, that we
should have only a GatedWritable wiki policy where accounts are needed to
modify or administer the wiki, but where an AnonymousReadOnly policy would
allow everyone who is interested to access the documentation on the wiki.
The Pros for GatedAccess:
GatedAccess allows strengthening the community of people who are using the
wiki, by providing names or "handles" that people can use to communicate.
The closed nature of the wiki would require those who want to be a part of
the wiki system to identify themselves, allowing a larger sense of how
many people are in the community. The small number of active participants
on Hardhats might tempt outsiders to characterize the community as being
significantly smaller than it actually is. The large number of lurkers on
hardhats is not apparent to anyone other than the mailing list
administrators, thus allowing detractors to say the VistA community is a
fringe group and thus can be easily marginalized.
Asking for an login name on the wiki could be a signicant way for a small
business to express their interest and advertise their existence.
Another argument is that the VistA codebase/database is so large that
without help, it is almost impossible to gain traction in looking at the
technology. Public acknowledgement of interest would allow the VistA
community to do a better job supporting those who are interested, and keep
them from wasting time researching information that is easily available
from our community experts.
The Pros for AnonymousReadOnly/GatedWriteable:
AnonymousReadOnly/GatedWriteable allows those who are lurking or only
evaluating the VistA system to do so without making the commitment of
asking for a name on the wiki. It is not clear how many people research
VistA before making a commitment to reveal their interest in any public
way.
The "try before you fly" option would allow a broader availability of
information to anyone who wants to evaluate VistA or share information
collected by the community.
Issues regarding the size of the communty might be better addressed by
attatching a hit-count to the web pages, that would indicate the number of
people who visit that page. Perhaps some log-analysis tools could be used
to reveal aggregate information about the number of different addresses
who accessed the pages.
The commitment to open processes, open code, and open documentation of the
WorldVistA organization on behalf of the VistA community would be
reflected in using the AnonymousReadOnly/GatedWriteable model for the
WorldVistA OpenForum wiki.
The Pros for AnonymousReadOnly/AnonymousWriteable:
The issue of spam and the heavy load of volunteer effort to reduce spam is
such that the original policy of AnonymousReadOnly/AnonymousWriteable is
not really acceptable. Volunteer effort would be better leveraged in
making the content of the Wiki better, rather than keeping vandals from
abusing the wiki.
So this is the decision presented before the VistA community represented
here on Hardhats. Please provide your viewpoints and sentiment regarding
which policy is best for the OpenForum Wiki:
* GatedAccess
vs AnonymousReadOnly/GatedWriteable
Thank you for your time and attention,
David Whitten (713) 870-3834
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