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InterWiki
is the idea of having one unified Wiki system distributed across many servers. Although the work would be distributed across many servers, to the user the transition between server to server would be apparently seamless: You might not even know that different pages are being handled by different machines on different continents. The main advantage of such an idea is that the Wiki could grow — both in topic coverage and in traffic — without any of the machines getting overloaded.
- from the original definition on
Wiki:InterWiki
Wiki:InterWiki
has not been implemented — it is too complex to be voluntarily adopted by the many
WikiEngine
""s. Or another way of saying it is that too many people do not believe it is worthwhile. A different idea, which is being implemented, is to explore the ways that separate wikis can be connected with one another.
I (Gregor Richards) would like to make my own suggestion for an interwiki content system. I'm calling this my
ProposedInterWikiContentStandard
Interim or alternative solutions exist:
InterMap
— included as part of
UseModWiki
(the software
MeatballWiki
runs). (See
Wiki:InterWikiMap).
SisterSite
— implemented on
WardsWiki
and others (see
Wiki:SisterSites).
InterWikiSearch
— implemented —
MetaWiki
(for some wikis)
NearLinks
Motivations:
Wholeness
Avoid forks (see
RightToFork
for an opposing force)
Stay on topic and defer off-topic links off-site
Wiki:WikiSquatting
is reduced with more personal and informal Wiki sites
To make interlinked contributions in different Wikis, automatic creations of
BidirectionalLink
""s on the fly would be helpful. Currently we have to do this manually, very timeconsuming. --
FridemarPache
Wiki:SisterSites
does just this — poll other Wiki servers for a list of defined words and automatically link to the same word on remote Wikis using icons on the bottom of the page. The main
TinyWiki
site is running
ActiveWikiPages
logic to add reverse links back to anyone that links to it, in a similar vein.
InterMap
gives "monikers" for easy linking to sites in the
InterMap
— the name from the
InterMap
and a colon prefix a
WikiWord
to designate a link to that word on a different Wiki. A
WikiEngine
should have a
SelfReferringInterWiki
moniker. Monikers are also abused on some sites to link to images, non-Wiki pages, and anything else that can benefit from URL simplification. This is the most popular approach to networking Wikis.
InterWikiSearch
deals with the obvious problem of not knowing what is where. Wikis covering new subject areas, and differing local conventions also prevent content from being linked in without a method of locating arbitrary content. While not as automatic as a link, this is a very handy tool that cannot easily be replaced. See
MetaWiki
and
InterWikiSearch
CategoryWikiTechnology
CategoryUnimplementedWikiTechnology
CategoryInterCommunity
Technology
I just had the idea for
WikiPassport
technology, which would ease things for people doing a lot of
WikiWalking
. -- JürgenHermann
What do you mean by a
SubWiki
I have written an article about
InterWiki
for Wikipedia at, obviously,
WikiPedia:InterWiki.
Please correct any errors you may find. I'd also be interested in some history. Cheers,
WikiPedia:User:Eloquence
Could
WikiEngine
authors standardize the location of the
InterMap
files? This would make automatic recursive traversal of the entire Wiki network possible. This could be used for creating a Wiki that automatically
SisterSites
with all Wikis, could be used to build a list of all known Wikis, could be used by a search engine like
InterWikiSearch
but automatically covering all Wikis, could be used to graph Wiki interrelationship, and countless other fun things. I'm not naive enough to suggest a new standard — just asking for clarification on an existing one. If a consensus begins to form, then people who want to follow have something to follow. Likewise, a program or page listing all defined words is needed. Oh, I hacked up this page — sorry if I botched anything — feel free to revert. --
ScottWalters
See also
Wiki:InterlinkingWikiForums.
The
[InterWiki email list]
is for discussion of technologies used to connect wikis together, or to connect them with other things.
We are thinking about an Interwiki and a couple of other nice things as well. See
"Idea for a better use of human intelligence
--
MattisManzel
I distrust
InterWiki
because it seems like too much of a big deal, too coarse a granularity. Creating a new
WikiSubcommunity
should be as easy and as fine-grained as creating a new page, not as hard as setting up a new site.
RecentChanges
needs to become fluid and dynamic to support this. --
DaveHarris
You mean like
[SebastianPaquet's list of feed manipulations]
I propose that at least the intermap file (which holds the
InterWiki
definition strings) is treated case-
in
sensitive. See also my patch for adding
UseMod:WikiPatches/InterSiteIcons.
I also wrote a patch for adding
UseMod:WikiPatches/InterSiteIcons
(see a screenshot there) with an extended intermap file format, which is compatible to the
UseMod
1.0 format. --
TomGries
This is sort of a superset of what I have done on my wiki —
— I drop the name before the colon and colour the rest green. It makes things a lot more readable, e.g. using 'a' or 'an' in a more natural way, and you can still find out the full URL (if you want to) by looking at the bottom of the screen. And I agree about the case-insensitivity requirement e.g. the 'b' in Meatball :-) --
Wiki:PaulMorrison
Is anyone interested in attending or hosting a workshop on
InterWiki
type stuff at
WikiSym
? --
BayleShanks
I'm certainly interested enough to attend a workshop and I am definitely planning to be there. --
HansWobbe
Me, too. --
HelmutLeitner
OK, please see
InterWikiWorkshopProposal
One of the (late) results of the interwiki workshop is a growing number of wiki standardisation requests, among one of them
tries to create a wiki exchange format. It would be great, if you would contribute by helping to describe a unifying wiki data model (syntax neutral). Ah, read it for yourself. --
MaxVoelkel
PATTERN FORM (
WikiPatternLanguage
Pattern Name
InterWiki
Context
: The wiki systems existing worldwide.
Problem
: Users often want to refer to pages on other wiki systems. Writing the URLs is tiresome. URLs don't look beautiful in text. If a founder or developer decides to change his domain or URL structure, he breaks all external links and it's hard work to repair that.
Solution
: For outgoing links: create a table of shortcuts (see for example
InterMapTxt
) so that you can refer to the wikis by their name. The syntax "wikiname:pagename" is already an accepted standard. — For incoming links: develop relationships and add value to those wikis you are interested in being connected (as part of that link to your wiki using URLs), at some point ask for
InterWiki
support.
Examples
CommunityWiki:MattisManzel,
Wiki:FrontPage
Resulting Context
: Separate wikis that share users or interests develop a kind of awareness for each other. If it were possible to read the
InterWiki
tables automatically, one could reconstruct the existing international network of wiki relationships.
Comments
: Do this only for wikis that are actually linked, because hundreds of wikis in this table will decrease the performance of your wiki software. — The
InterWiki
system can also be used for non-wiki websites if they have a simple URL structure (for example:
Acronym:OOP).
InterWiki
is a reliable basis for having incoming links which will positively influence search engine ranking.
See also
SisterSites
CommunityName
WikiPedia:Meta:WikiNet.
END OF PATTERN FORM
CategoryWikiPatternLanguage
CategoryInterCommunity
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