[wiki-research] WikiCreole 1.0 Press Release

[Desilets, Alain]

Congratulations Chuck et al. This is a great contribution to the world
of wiki. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wiki-research-bounces at wikisym.org 
> [mailto:wiki-research-bounces at wikisym.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Smith
> Sent: July 4, 2007 8:01 AM
> To: Discussion of wiki research and practice; The discussion 
> list for wiki standards
> Subject: [wiki-research] WikiCreole 1.0 Press Release
> 
> Link to this press release:
> http://www.wikicreole.org/wiki/WikiCreolePressRelease
> To digg it: 
> http://digg.com/software/WikiCreole_1_0_a_common_wiki_markup
> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> 
> After a year of diligent effort, a group of nearly 50 
> dedicated users and developers are proud to release 
> WikiCreole 1.0. Creole is designed to be a common wiki markup 
> language which augments existing markup to enable wiki users 
> to transfer content seamlessly across wikis, a boon to novice 
> and expert users alike.
> 
> Creole, taking its name from the field of linguistics, a 
> stable language that originated from a combination of two or 
> more languages.
> As every wiki software has its own markup definitions, the 
> differences can make them difficult for novices to learn and 
> experts to remember, thus a common wiki markup lays the 
> foundation for development of cross-engine wiki software.
> 
> The Creole name for a common markup was born from an idea of 
> wiki founder Ward Cunningham at Wikimania 2006 the 
> international Wikipedia conference. The goal: create a common 
> markup that was not a standardization of an arbitrary 
> existing markup, but rather a new markup language that was 
> created out of the common elements of all existing engines. 
> Under this premise the Wiki Creole Working Group analyzed 
> existing wiki markup and compiled a greatest-common 
> denominator subset of elements and presented its report.
> 
> Practitioners and wiki developers were then invited to a 
> workshop at WikiSym 2006 in Denmark to learn about Creole and 
> discuss how to proceed. WikiSym is a symposium (conference) 
> series dedicated to wiki research and practice. Participants 
> evaluated different markup elements for possible unification 
> and added them to a wiki created for this purpose. The 
> resulting data resulted in the first version of the Creole 
> spec, version 0.1. Many workshop participants also agreed to 
> implement Creole into their existing wiki implementations.
> 
> In true wiki fashion, the report and data were published to a 
> wider audience who were unable to attend allowing them to 
> discuss the decisions made and add their own proposals. An 
> iterative workflow was introduced that discussed and 
> introduced these new proposals into the spec. Discussion 
> pages were used to address each topic and at the end of each 
> iteration (4-8 weeks), a new version number was added to the spec.
> 
> The working group's goal was to emphasize consensus instead 
> of majority rule, so opinion polls were always followed by an 
> attempt to reach mutual agreement. After many long months of 
> cooperation, the working group finally reached a point of 
> maximum commonalities. Creole 1.0 was then frozen for the 
> next two years to allow time for adoption.
> The WikiCreole site (www.wikicreole.org) now has extensive 
> documentation of the empirical analysis and discussions of 
> the elements to support the decisions behind the spec. Today, 
> ten wiki engines support Creole and many more are planning to 
> implement it in the coming months. Wiki engine developers 
> implementing WikiCreole in their parsers, give a clear sign 
> to the community of their readiness to cooperate and draw us 
> all closer together, making life easier for everyone in the 
> wiki world.
> 
> With the support of i3G (Interdisciplinary Institute for 
> Intelligent Business Processes; Heilbronn, Germany), 
> Christoph Sauer and Chuck Smith have led the process with 
> great help from the wiki developer community through its 
> initial concept to 1.0. Through their selection of content 
> and personnel, i3G, is trying to overcome the barriers 
> between computer science, engineering and business. They also 
> develop customized concepts for companies to help optimize 
> operational workflow and its representation for IT systems.
> 
> For more details, contact Chuck Smith at +49 7131 504 474 or 
> csmith(at)hs-heilbronn.de 
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