<!> This page isn't so necessary any more, as there are plenty of WikiNodesNetworksInTheWorld now. Just cruise through one of those, and you'll get a feel for what it's like. Consider this page deprecated.
(Recovered from the old TheGrandVision page.)
Currently, this is just a walk-through on the navigational concept. I need to write about the more important aspect, though: Delegation of subject matter between wiki..! (which leads to OnePlaceForEveryIdea)
Suppose you have a notion that "it would be neat if there were open-source-ish specifications for robotics components." The only thing is, you don't know anything about robots.
You do know, however, that the local Seattle Robotics society knows about robots. Maybe someone there would be interested in talking about the idea?
You visit the SRS wiki (note: this is just a story- SRS does not actually have a wiki- yet!), and visit the WikiNode, to see how the SRS wiki connects to the world.
The SRS WikiNode introduces itself by saying, "This wiki is about the personal projects and thoughts of the Seattle Robotics Society." Hm. Not quite what you want. But lo! In the "delegations" section, there's an entry for "general robotics", with a link to a wiki called "the General Robotics Wiki."
(Just out of curiosity, you see what else is delegated. Apparently, there's an entire wiki devoted just to Seattle Manufacturers, that you can visit to learn about special purpose manufacturing centers in Seattle. Interesting! That could be useful, later on, should you decide to do anything with robotics components locally.
You click the link to the General Robotics Wiki. It doesn't take you to the wiki's front page; Instead, it takes you to that wiki's WikiNode. WikiNodes generally link to other WikiNodes.
The General Robotics Wiki has a massive (but not unmanagable) WikiNode, with many broad delegations. The SRS wiki isn't even listed there. The introduction notes that the wiki exists solely to coordinate robotics wikis, maintain delegations between them, and to host subjects not covered by delegations which have less than 5 pages.
Keeping in mind that your idea is "open-source-ish specs for robotics components," you look through the list:
Robotics Societies (a wiki devoted to coordinating robotics societies) -
interesting, but not what we want Robotics Companies (sony, fujitsu, honda, and their robotics efforts,...) -
nope. Robotics Software (AI, architectures, libraries,...) -
interesting, but not what we want Robotics Hardware (development platforms, sensors, power supplies,...) -
this looks like it might be it..! Future of Robotics (apparently, there's a whole wiki for that) -
not what we want History of Robotics (another wiki for the past) -
not what we want Science Fiction (for compendiums and ideas of robots in science fiction,...) -
no. ...
(Mind you, I don't know a whole lot about robotics, so I'm just making this up. Actual robotics experts would decide how to frame everything.)
Robotics Hardware is the closest thing, so you click on that.
You are taken to the Robotics Hardware wiki WikiNode. On this WikiNode, you see the following delegations:
Sensors, by type (links to a page with a list of types of sensors, and particular wikis for them)
Manipulators, by type (links to a page with a list of types of manipulators, and particular wikis for them)
Manufacturing (links to a wiki on manufacturing robotic components)
Blueprints (links to a wiki on blueprints for robotics hardware)
...
Hah! Blueprints! Because you're thinking about "open-source-ish specs for robotic components," right?
So you click on Blueprints, and come to a WikiNode on a wiki dedicated to blueprints for robotic components.
By reading the WikiNode, you come to learn that the Wiki doesn't really have blueprints on it. It has some, but there's a statement communicating, "If there's a blue print for a particular component, find it on that component's wiki. If the component doesn't have a wiki, we'll host the blueprints for it here, until it obtains a wiki of its own."
The Robotic Blueprints wiki actually coordinates a lot of other wikis, from the perspective of blueprints. It natively hosts many many pages on how to make robotic blueprints, good tools to use. It delegates out to the Visual Language and to the Mechanical Drafting and Electrical drafting wiki for the particulars of communicating on paper. But it also features ProductiveWikiOverlap by defining many terms locally, specific to blueprints. (The local page definitions link to the foreign, more general, page definitions.)
Okay, but what about our open source idea for blueprints?
Ah-hah! On the delegations list, there's "Robotics Design Licenses wiki," which takes you to a wiki devoted to license issues for robotic designs. Yes!
You click on the link. Jackpot!
It turns out, you could have gotten there other ways, too! If you had gone by the route of software, rather than hardware, you would have also been refered to the Robotics Design Licenses.
This site already has the idea you meant to place (if it hadn't already existed.) You can see on this site the very negotiations taking place that need to be taking place for people to hash out good robotics licenses.
On the delegations, you see a link to the GNU Free Robotics Foundation, as well as a link to a wiki on general Software and Hardware IP issues.
A Single Place for Every Idea
(See also: OnePlaceForEveryIdea.)
You see here the every idea has a "place". The division of ConceptSpace onto individual wiki's is handled by the people who actually work in that space.
Note that this doesn't mean "One Word, One Page." It doesn't even mean "One Idea, One Page," since a single idea can be reflected from many angles. But for every perspective attached to an idea, there is a single page.
What if people are having problems on a wiki? There's personality conflict, and it needs to divide into two? Or the rules are too restrictive, some people thing, so they make a parallel wiki?
These cases will come up. However, WikiNodes still works. As a matter of honor, the wikis should still link to one another on the WikiNodes page, saying, "There is this other wiki with the same scope," and, politely, tell what differences exist between the two in terms of rules and personality. Which do other wikiNodes link to? Whatever they like, or both, if needs be. This is not terribly different; A wiki only has so many neighbors, and people traverse these paths frequently, and the updating is distributed across all users.
More To Write
The critical role of ChangeAggregators. How community spreads over the WikiNodesNetwork. Different types of wiki (KnowledgeManagement vs. Community wiki.)