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olywiki!

Sun, 12/16/2007 - 7:26pm — micah
I've been having an idea for an Olympia city wiki floating around in my head for a while; while on tour, I decided to do some research and see how hard it would be to make one. Well, turns out the folks at Davis wiki (the largest English-speaking city wiki) have already expanded their wiki server to be used for any purpose, and, being totally inspired by their wiki, I set up an Olympia wiki: olywiki.

This could become an incredible community resource, allowing anyone to access specific information about local culture, businesses, politics, events, activism, and more, always in a contextual environment. It's really bare-bones right now but with your help, it could be amazing, and it could serve the entire community, whether you're an activist, a business owner, a secretary, a musician, or anyone else with an interest in local affairs.

Right now, the URL is oly.wikispot.org but I'd be willing to shell out some cash for a catchier domain and attach it to the wiki, if a lot of people show interest.

What do you all think?

Comments

Sun, 12/16/2007 - 8:56pm — Rick

Great.

The docents have been talking about this for some time. I'm glad someone is moving ahead with the project. Let us know how we can support you.


> It's OK to be nice. <
enpen's social contract
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Jacob Burckhardt
Sun, 12/16/2007 - 9:05pm — micah

Content, content, content

Thanks for the encouragement!

Right now, the wiki just needs a lot of new pages. Even tiny little seed articles are great, and I have a lot of "gnoming" energy when it comes to tidying, linking and sprucing them up.

Mon, 12/17/2007 - 2:58pm — jusbytheclown

WOW

Looking for great things there. An inspiration that almosted tempted me to revamp Dance O' Dance... but not quite yet.

Humorous explorations in academic, cultural, and technological literacy while creating your new public media

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Tue, 12/18/2007 - 8:53am — darrow

Awesome idea

Thanks for doing this--once again I'm just amazed with the community involvement here and I'm very glad we came to the area :)
Tue, 12/18/2007 - 4:48pm — micah

Yeah!

No problem! Though starting a wiki is the easy part. Turning it into an awesome, multi-use tool and exposing the greater community to it, that's the hard part.
Tue, 12/18/2007 - 4:23pm — Logarithm

Excellent idea

This is great! I'll continue to help out during my lunch breaks.
Tue, 12/18/2007 - 4:47pm — micah

Awesome work so far! I've

Awesome work so far! I've been watching the Recent Changes page and it's really excited to see the wiki grow.
Wed, 12/19/2007 - 2:39pm — emmettoconnell

Just added a civic section

As a general reference for local government, citizenry, that sort of thing. Only one article up so far, on how to file an initiative with the city of Olympia.

Just as a general thought, it would be much better if this project were hosted locally, like Olyblog.

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full disclosure

Wed, 12/19/2007 - 3:14pm — micah

Local hosting = additional cost

Looks good. It's hosted by a non-profit in Davis who are letting other communities use their wiki server for free. I'm not sure I see any added value in local hosting, especially since it would mean significant additional costs, and I don't anticipate control issues from the wikispot founders.
Wed, 12/19/2007 - 3:17pm — emmettoconnell

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

I assume it was a free wiki hosting service. Fine with me. Olyblog was originally hosted by some folks in Canada (on Rick's dime), but now is hosted locally by some very very very nice folks.
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full disclosure

Wed, 12/19/2007 - 3:21pm — micah

Ah, let me clarify: it is a

Ah, let me clarify: it is a free wiki hosting service, which was started with the goal of allowing other communities to do what Davis wiki does. See here.