• A polling system, a la http://www.urbandictionary.com
• The ability to lock the creation of sub-wikis to administrators only.

If anyone here is familiar with the WikiDot, and might be able to give me a guess as to how difficult the above changes might be, please let me know your opinion.

Below is the project proposal. Feel free to peruse.
Thanks,
Sean

Wikimentany.org (?)

Project Phase:

• Reserve wikimentary.org
• Begin work with wikidot.org developers
• Broadcast idea
• Implement WikiDot server (w/ updates)
• Finalize rules and procedures
• Promote site & begin process

What it is:

• A web site designed similarly to http://www.wikidot.com
• Allows for wiki and forums for open Documentary Projects (controlled by the individual directors)

Advantages:

• Wikimentary will be a social network for the growing movement of viral video-loggers documentarians who have so far acted individually
• Will allow for a division of labor of the video-loggers so that the most efficient at certain tasks can concentrate their time on these tasks
• Will promote a more professional and user-interactive/Web 2.0 approach to video-log documentaries

Disadvantages:

• Documentaries will tend to Illustrative rather than Observational style; many ‘talking heads’ rather than ‘real’ footage
• Documentaries will tend to be shorter and free, not tailored for DVD distribution or network/cable broadcast

Individuals and Roles associated with a Documentary Project:

• Steering committee: controls main Wikimentary site & appoints the members of the Authorization committee
• Authorization committee: accepts & votes on new documentary projects; creates the sub-site & forums for the project and hands them to the director; authorizes changes in the nature of projects; closes old & invalid projects; accepts or rejects finalized documentary for publication & then publishes it
• Director: workhorse; controls wiki edit authority & discussion authority; decides what to put on script
• Director's guild: list of directors
• Narrator's guild: list of voice talent that shows language, dialect, skills, availabilities
• Resources/Specialists: academics, journalists, etc. who have/will act as experts on a topic
• Assistance committee: people who know what to do to create documentaries & can answer questions; will produce a FAQ & walkthrough on how to make a documentary; help with copyright questions, etc.
• Editor's guild: list of individuals with video editing software (must ensure that they’re legit and registered!)
• Director's Assistants [DA’s]: unaffiliated contributors who do most of the work; add new ideas to projects, edit scripts, find multimedia

Main page:

• Edited by the Steering and Authorization committees only
• Lists open and closed Documentary Projects, Director's guild, Narrator's guild, Specialists/Resources, etc.
• Shows popularity up-down voting poll of what people want to have upcoming, á la http://www.urbandictionary.com

Documentary Projects:

• Three levels of copyright:
  • Full commercial copyright
    • Director can make money; Wikimentary will not make money, and the Authorization committee will not finalize the project; the Assistance committee may or may not offer free assistance
  • Creative-commons (commercial)
    • Director can make money; individuals and business can copy and display the documentary for free; Wikimentary will not make money, but will provide assistance
  • Creative Creative -commons (non-commercial)
    • Neither Director nor Wikimentary can make money on the project
• Must have printable release forms for interviews & other legal documents
• Lifecycle:
  • Director proposes a project to the Authorization committee, including main topics, copyright level, etc.
  • The Authorization committee polls the user base for opinions or directly authorizes the project
  • The Authorization committee creates the project’s wiki and forums, then grants administrator access to the Director
  • The Authorization committee and Director recruit members to act as DA’s
  • The Director and DA’s debate content on the forum, gather multimedia, and write the script
  • The Director recruits and interviews Resources
  • The Director recruits Narrators, if necessary
  • The Narrator reads the script, if necessary
  • The Director recruits the Editor
  • The Editor assembles and mixes the final documentary output
  • The Authorization committee reviews the finalized script and output for style, format, and usage or copyright violations
  • The Authorization committee votes on finalization of the project
    • If partially failed, the Authorization committee will request the Director to complete a list of outstanding actions necessary before finalization can succeed
    • If totally failed, or at any time during the lifecycle of the project when deemed absolutely necessary, the Authorization committee may unilaterally delete the project entirely, or may assign a new director
    • If succeeded, the Authorization committee begins distribution and promotion of the final documentary media, if requested by the Director

What is needed:

• Must make this concept LLC
• An extension to the WikiDot software to allow for polling, as per http://www.urbandictionary.com
• An implementation of the WikiDot application on a dedicated server, as according to http://www.wikidot.org/doc:installation#toc1
• A FAQ like http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/documentary.html

I won't be going into detail about this, because it's dead simple: As long as wikidot can't be installed the same way you do it with applications like Joomla! and SMF, I don't see myself ever putting Wikidot to use. I allowed myself to get thrilled once again when I saw the news here about the installation being much simpler now. Then I see that I have to use some other program that I am nowhere familiar with, and I have to follow some 15 steps in order to complete an install that completely baffles me, and leaves me thinking with such questions as "Is it 100% sure that this won't leave my computer much more vulnerable to outside attacks?". Why couldn't you just have made yet another nice web application that can be uploaded to your web host or put in your www WAMP folder, and installed in the matter of a few mouseclicks? The kind that you can find on http://www.opensourcecms.com/
If I wanted a really bloated wiki, I'd go for DekiWiki…

For a while, Wikidot seemed to be heading in the right, no, the perfect direction according to my needs. Now, I fear that I'll have to start looking for an alternative, as I don't think I'll ever see the day when I can singlehandedly install Wikidot, without the help of some webby-wiseguy.

(Okay, ranting a bit, I'm sorry, but I just had so high hopes for this software so seeing how things have developed lately has kinda brought me down that's all. Had some big plans for this application you know)

I don't know that I'm ready to delete any pages I created yet, but I did upload a file to the wrong page and I'd like to remove it to keep things clean.

Also, I uploaded a set of scripts attached to my new howto and needed to update it, but could not overwrite the existing file. I had to upload a "version 2" file and edit my howto to reference the new file.

Thanks,
Ed

Of course, with all of the time I've spent here since Thursday, it's kind of like stuffing the ballot box ;)

I guess the question behind the question is, what stage of development is v2 (alpha, beta, release candidate) and how stable or dynamic is it expected to be? Also, is there a list of what is different between v1 and v2 somewhere?

thanks.

Update: In the forums:

• Requests & Ideas
• Bugs

just share the source :D

I'd like to create a wiki for the people in my neighboorhood, and they absolutely don't know english (most of them are elderly people).

greetings, Daxtar

Awaiting your news.

P.D. many thanks for your very very good wiki farm.

I hope I can do something, not a pro in php programming, but I can do some translate, to Chinese language.