Toronto Wiki Tuesdays

Toronto Wiki Tuesdays monthly meet up. This photo taken at Rower's Pub in Harbord Village hosted by Martin Cleaver and Sunil Shah.

Toronto Wiki Tuesdays is the monthly meeting of wiki enthusiasts in the city of Toronto.

Sunir Shah and Martin Cleaver run a monthly get-together in Toronto, typically on the Second Tuesday of each month, to discuss Wikis.

Technology is incidental to the effect: *uses* are core: impacts on culture, innovation, and what-a-wiki-can-do-for-you are all fair game.

We are running things more formally so people have stronger reasons to come along.

We'll talk for about 10 minutes, break into discussion for about 30-45 minutes, summarize and then pay homage to the beverages ;)

Contact Martin at 416-786-6752.

Blog reviews:

• http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/2007/01/toronto-wiki-tuesdays.html

Article inspired by this group:

• http://www.llrx.com/columns/tao10.htm
  

Upcoming Toronto Wiki Tuesday events

Thinking Outside the Book

Location: Groundhog Pub

401 BLOOR STREET EAST
Toronto, ON M4W 1H7
(416) 975-1867

Documentation. It's a necessary part of any software or hardware project. But the traditional methods for delivering documentation to users — printed manuals, PDF files, online help, and the like — are mired in a sometimes unnecessary level of complexity. On top of that, updates to the documentation often can't be made and deployed quickly.

Enter the wiki. It's not just for project management, planning, and the like. A wiki can be a powerful tool for writing and delivering documentation.

In this talk, Scott Nesbitt will explore the constantly evolving role of wikis in the creation and distribution of documentation. Drawing on a number of real-world example, Scott will discuss:

• The benefits of using wikis for documentation
  

• How both Open Source projects and firms of varying sizes use wikis to deliver documentation
  

• The technologies used to get content into and out of wikis
  

• The pros and cons of involving your community of users in the documentation process
  

• When a wiki might not be the best choice for delivering documentation

About the Speaker

Scott Nesbitt is a partner in DMN Communications, a technical communication consultancy based in Toronto, Ontario. A technical writer for over 14 years, Scott has spearheaded the use of wikis for documentation with a number of clients. He's also been using wikis for professional and personal writing projects since 2002.

• http://www.meetup.com/TorontoWikiTuesdays/calendar/11009769/

Past Meetings

Speaker:
Keith Robinson
This month's speaker is from TVOntario and will speak about the use of wikis for TVO's The Agenda

When and Where:
6:30pm, Tuesday 14th April at Groundhog Pub, 401 Bloor Street East in the downstairs room.

Synopsis

The idea behind the AgendaCamp ( http://tvo.org/agendacamp ) concept was to marry the barcamp ( http://barcamp.org ) model with the production of a live current affairs television program in order to engage the community to help create television as The Agenda with Steve Paikin went on a five city tour across Ontario.

AgendaCamp is a unique new concept that marries the best aspects of public broadcasting and emerging social media. At AgendaCamp members of the public, expert guests, and host Steve Paikin join together face to face in a local venue for a series of workshops focused on regional economies. Any participant can propose and lead a discussion. Participants capture the event by live blogging, shooting video and uploading to Youtube, taking pictures and creating an interactive wiki. The online audience can follow the conference as it unfolds, and continue the discussion after the event.

Despite the high tech veneer, AgendaCamp is not simply about preaching to the converted. Several locations were remote in communities (including AgendaCamp Thunder Bay which took place at the Fort William First Nation Community Centre). A big part of the experience is teaching ordinary citizens how to use these new digital tools.

Over the course of the first four events, AgendaCamp has had more than 300 in-the-flesh participants including: mayors, MPPs, MPs, cabinet ministers, native chiefs, policy wonks, students, professors, factory workers, and factory owners. It has generated more than 100 user created Youtube video clips, and hundreds of wiki entries that have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

And while AgendaCamp is designed to stand on its own, the ideas generated by it have reached many hundreds of thousands through the Agenda on the Road broadcasts. Clips from the camp are rolled into the broadcast and participants are able to ask the panel questions as part of the live studio audience.

Keith will take us through how TVO used the wiki to: plan the events, engage participant interaction through, during and after the events and how the wiki became pivotal for both production and Agenda Camp outcome purposes.

About The Speaker and his organization

Keith Robinson is the supervising editor of TVO.org. TVO is Ontario's public educational media organization and a trusted source of interactive educational content that informs, inspires, and stimulates curiosity and thought.

Tuesday July 8 2008 at The Ferret & Firkin, 720 Spadina Avenue

• Truthiness for the Masses - what is sufficient truthy?
  

Over the last two years or so the Wikipedia has faced a number of criticisms in the press about its potential inaccuracies. It's not so much that the Wikipedia is filled with errors, but that it could be filled with errors, and the reader will never know one way or the other.

But over the last year the hue and cry on this topic has almost disappeared. What happened? And can it be further improved?

Maury Markowitz is a Wikipedia editor. Maury works at a large financial institution.

• Toronto's monthly gathering about wiki technologies, deployments and adoption. Come along, share your story

Please sign up on http://www.TorontoWikiTuesdays.com

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