If there's ever to be a federation of wikis, it'll need some ground rules. What are they?
What should they be? The rules will depend on the desired outcome.
One set of rules would define a "constitutional" federation, with rules to regulate good conduct. Such a federation may require an elaborate structure similar to modern governments with executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The decision-makers that control key Internet resources seem to be moving in this direction with ICANN.
Another approach is to define a minimal standard for interoperation. At its most minimal, it could simply be a modified form of link, like Py Wiki:Recent Changes. Another extreme would be to decide on an XML format which all Inter Wiki pages would follow. Usenet would be a good example of this kind of federation. There are few central powers ("There is no Cabal."), just widely-available standards and software.
Yet another way is an "open" model, where the content is freely available, and cooperating groups can establish their own federations. These groups could impose whatever rules they desire, but people would be free to copy any content to other systems and establish new rules. This is somewhat similar to the Red Hat (Red Hat The Company) Linux situation. Several groups have taken the base distribution (freely available and copyable), added or subtracted features, and released the result as a different distribution.
Be careful to fractally apply Wiki Nature. Perhaps that would mean the federation was either like a giant game of Nomic, or perhaps a giant anarchy. Don't forget that anarchies and communes don't scale because it's difficult for a person to personally care for a stranger except abstractly.
Draft for a minimal "open" federation:
1. All Inter Wiki sites may copy any information (pages, links, media) from other Inter Wiki sites, in full or in part. Any site may use any method it chooses to select available Inter Wiki information. Only technical or resource-related restrictions on copying may be imposed (like rate limiting).
1a. [Legalese defining an "Inter Wiki site". Probably longer than the rest of the charter.]
2. Copied information may be modified or deleted, with or without notifying the originating site. (Like all Inter Wiki information, the modified version may be copied back to the original site.) The originating site has no responsibility for the information after it is copied.
3. Contributors to any Inter Wiki site give all Inter Wiki sites a non-exclusive non-expiring right to publish their work, and to construct/publish arbitrary derivative works based on their original work. Sites which leave the Inter Wiki do not retain rights to Inter Wiki-published material (which must be negotiated with the author).
4. Retaining attribution of "signed" works is encouraged, but not required. Misattribution of works is strongly discouraged, but Inter Wiki sites are not required to take action. (This is essentially a clarification that arbitrary changes can be made to copies.)
[The original version stops here. Amendments welcome below.]
Contributors: Clifford Adams
It's simpler to use the Free Website License.
I think this proposal is just wrong. As a contributor to C2, I would not like C2 to be part of such a scheme. The principled alternative should be Aggregation On The Client.
Other sample charters would be welcome. (Perhaps they should start here, and branch into other pages if they become long.)
See also: Inter Wiki, Wiki Portal, Stone Society, Wiki Stone Society
<Simple Solution> : No Government, No Rules, No Central Database or registry mechanism, the method resides within the page as Wiki Words:
It exists on more than one wiki
It has a topic or a category which can be expressed in a Wiki Word
It is expressed as having a mode (i.e. Thread Mode Document Mode etc.)
It has reached a certain level of completion or status (Active Thread Refactoring Needed Historical Information etc.)
It is decided to make it available to others through the Simple Solution
One line is added at the end, but can be anywhere on the page.
The line contains some Wiki Words which will identify the characteristics of the page
Some possibilities for this page for that line:
Inter Wiki Page Wards Wiki.Inter Wiki Charter Thread Mode.Active Thread StartedJune2001 Category Wiki Suggested Approach
Some possibilities for Recent Changes
Inter Wiki Page Wards Wiki.Recent Changes List Mode.Chronological Category Page Lists Wiki Activity To be continued (a certain period of time lapse is required before continuation - a couple of weeks - additional research and editing required)
for now
Name Collisions:
You would have to deal with name collisions. A string to a Visual Basic Wiki would be far different from a crochet Wiki or a semiotics Wiki.
I have this idea for a Context Sensitive Name Registry. Unlike your DNS system or Wiki itself, where you map one name to one page, you'd map one name to a multitude of different pages. The appropriate page would be determined automatically from context. This would avoid the "Which namespace did I stuff that into?" problem and the name collision problem. Context could be determined by weighted arcs that are adjusted by reward/punishment and back-propagation. Or perhaps through natural language parsing context-determining techniques. -- Sunir Shah Years later, I'm surprised I was supportive.
Sounds like "magically determine the meaning through methods that haven't been invented yet" to me. -- Daniel Knapp, signed for culpability
Planet Math does this -- Bayle Shanks
And an army. It needs an army. -- (Ken Carpenter, perhaps exhibiting American Cultural Assumption)
An army to implement the Remote Strangulation Protocol.
Reading that made my day. Thanks. -- Daniel Knapp
See original on c2.com 