Workshop>>Wiki Markup Standard

In becoming wiki editors, non-technical users face many obstacles, one of the largest being that every wiki has its own unique syntax. A common wiki markup would facilitate not only learning and teaching wikis, but also developing advanced generic wiki editors. The standard wiki markup should be intuitive and unlikely to interfere with existing text. Critics say users will not change, but if a wiki standard were developed, new wiki engines could take advantage of it. A standard wiki markup is critical to advancing wikis across the board.

Organizers

Contact: Chuck Smith <csmith(at)hs-heilbronn.de>

Christoph Sauer is a researcher at Heilbronn University's i3G Institute where he manages the Software R&D group, including the WikiWizard Project he founded in 2004. WikiWizard is an open source editor for JSPWiki which combines advanced markup highlighting and wizard dialogs to make wiki editing easier. The group's work also involves setup and maintenance of dozens of wiki installations, plugin development for JSPWiki, and teaching the wiki way to the public. He worked with Audi and Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, NJ. Before that, he worked as a database programmer with a German ERP company for several years.

Chuck Smith is a researcher at the Heilbronn University's i3G Institute where he works for the Software R&D group. He is the lead developer of the WikiWizard, a WYSIWiki editor for the JSPWiki. He is the founder of the Esperanto Wikipedia (the 15th largest Wikipedia with 45,000+ articles) and a board member of the World Esperanto Youth Organization. He also maintains the JSPWiki record at WikiMatrix.Org.

Participation

Accepts walk-ins.

External resources

• WikiMarkupStandard@Meatball - work in progress
• WikiMarkupStandardIsMisguided@Meatball - criticism
• WikiMarkupStandardWorkingGroup@Meatball - mailing list