[doc] Moin Categories

[Ben Edwards]

I have exchanged a couple of emails with Enrico, most of what I say
below is reiterating this.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:54:45 +0200, Enrico Zini <enrico at enricozini.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I've seen the work at the page http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org/CategoryDefined .
> 
> Because of my Debtags experience, I'm always interested when I see that
> categories are mentioned, and I appreciate the effort of promoting the
> use of categories for Wiki documentation.
> 
> From debtags, we've seen that categories work better when they are
> contextualized: it's called faceted categorization and it's a common
> concept in library science.
> 
> To give an example of faceting the categories, here's what the Doc
> categories laid out in that page would like:
> 
> CategoryNewbie          -> CategoryAudienceNewbie
>                        -> CategoryAudienceAdvBeginner [1]
>                        -> CategoryAudienceCompetent [1]
> CategoryDeveloper       -> CategoryAudienceDeveloper
> 
> CategoryDesktop         -> CategoryPlatformDesktop
> CategoryServer          -> CategoryPlatformServer
>                        -> CategoryPlatformKiosk
> 
> CategoryApplication     -> CategoryTopicApplication
>                           (possibly split in TopicGraphics,
>                            TopicWriting, TopicPIM...)
> CategoryNetworking      -> CategoryTopicNetworking
> CategorySecurity        -> CategoryTopicSecurity
> CategorySetup           -> CategoryTopicSetup
>                        -> CategoryTopicCustomization
> 
> CategoryTechnical       -> CategoryStyleTechnical
> CategoryTask            -> CategoryStyleTutorial

So by context you mean audience, platform, style?

My initial idea was to have no more than 15 categories/tags,
preferably under 10. The idea of this was that it is easy to learn
them all (remember initially they will be types in as free text
search).  Also having a relatively small number would mean in the
future if a search was developed they would all fir on the screen,
with check boxes next to them.  The user could then see exactly what
was available.

Basically I was trying to make the Tags broad and the number small -
one of my reasons was that the simpler it is the more likely it would
get used.

I also have a bit of an issue with having 'Beginner' & 'Advanced
Beginner' - it seems a bit too subjective to me.  The idea of
CategoryNewbie was that is is fairly well defined as a walk through
document that douse not assume pre-knowledge.  This is therefore a
audience and a style.  I am sure there are lots of academic arguments
why having the tag meaning these two things is bad but I was trying to
be pragmatic.

Ben


> Adding the context, from one side gives a less ambiguous meaning to the
> category itself, and also allows to identify the pieces of documentation
> by combining different ways of looking at the corpus of knowledge.
> 
> For example, if I feel like I'm a newbie, I can head for the "Audience"
> facet and go for "newbie", then see what topics are there for me.  Or I
> could be interested in the Security topic, and then look for things for
> newbies.  The resulting categorization is an inference between the
> "measures" (the categories) of the objects taken from different
> dimensions (the facets).
> 
> You can have a look at debtags-edit to see a working example.
> 
> Do you Moin experts think it's feasible with the Moin interface to go
> for categories like these?  If yes, I'd like to take care with the
> transition and categorization, giving the experience I already have; I'd
> need some assistance for the Moin part, though, because I'm still a
> beginner with it.
> 
> Ciao,
> 
> Enrico
> 
> [1] See http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org/StagesOfUse
> --
> GPG key: 1024D/797EBFAB 2000-12-05 Enrico Zini <enrico at debian.org>
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Ben Edwards - Poole, UK, England
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