A Design Wiki at Work
"This week, after scouring the Web for design wikis, Linda became discouraged and started a wiki for designers."
In the previous article, Linda talked about wiki fundamentals. This week, after scouring the Web for design wikis, she became discouraged and started a wiki for designers. Want to learn more? Read on...
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A Dearth of Design Wikis
I've already provided you with wiki fundamentals and the reasons to use a wiki. But, last week I also promised to provide a list of design wikis for you this week. Unfortunately, I discovered only a handful of design wikis, and most of them had little to do with graphic or Web design. The wikis offered in those two fields include:
- Wikibooks Graphic Design: An open content list of graphic design books.
- History of Graphic Design Wiki: Provided by Otis College of Art and Design.
- Wikimedia Commons Graphic Design: A category within a larger wiki.
- Wikiversity Web Design: One category among many.
- Free Web Design Tutorials and Web Design Help Wiki: A nice little go-to site for basic coding.
- Toolbox IT Web Design: Articles posted in Toobox IT's environment.
While I am sure that many other wikis exist that are generated by local designer/developer communities, they are few and far between.
What to do? Create a wiki. This week's article focuses on that wiki development, along with an appeal for some cooperation from my DMX readers!
Creating the Wiki
Wiki Software
Since there are so many wiki software choices, I simply chose a free wiki located on the first page of my search (how scientific!). Wiki Spot's software is located on their servers, which means I did not need to add software to my server nor did I need to create a domain name (although I could if I wanted to do so with this software – but, as you'll soon learn, this wiki will soon be out of my control if all goes well...).
The set-up for Wiki Spot was simple, although – if you want to create your own wiki here – they demand that you respond to the creation email within 30 minutes. Otherwise, I believe you may need to begin the registration process over again.
Once I responded to that notification email, I was sent to this page:
You may not be able to read the information above, but the first guideline is to read this page. And, the next guideline asked readers to read about how to create a wiki and how to design that wiki. Once you register at this new wiki, you can learn more about how to contribute through the information written below. The new wiki is located at http://graphicdesign.wikispot.org/
Linda Goin
Linda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.
Accolades for her work include fifteen first-place Colorado Press Association awards, numerous fine art and graphic design awards, and interviews about content development with The Wall St. Journal, Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, and L.A. Times.
