The right level of detail (MediaWiki, APIs)

the right level of detail brianna@modernthings.org

i ♥ web apps...

(I use a lot of wikis)

...but...

they're so needy!

some web apps help users manage data well. the good:

the bad:

LinkedIn groups

(why can't I get all group news in one email?)

the ugly:

this was fine when I read my wikis every day, but no longer.

I need... filters!

and... summaries!

what kind of problem is this?

usability

user communication

marketing

user marketing communication usability

luckily, we can build our own solution...

...because we have APIs!

an example: MediaWiki.

api.php mediawiki.org/wiki/API

mwclient Python library for accessing MediaWiki API

(affordable web hosting)

mwfeeds.modernthings.org Filter feeds for only edits that add a new H2 heading.

So instead of THIS:

I can just have the items that add new topics. woot!

(Pipes could probably do it too. No API needed.)

pipes.yahoo.com

Summary example on one of my favourite “occasional” wikis:

so I want something like this:

Hi! Here's what happened in geekfeminism.wikia.com this week. * 243 edits were made in the article space. Wow! That's 34 edits every day. * 22 editors were working this week. The top 5 busiest people have been Thayvian (131 edits), Skud (75 edits), Elky (9 edits), Hypatia (3 edits) and 78.105.109.196 (3 edits). Thanks everyone! * 77 different articles were edited, including 25 completely brand new pages. Woot! Top 5 articles this week: * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/EMACS_virgins_joke * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Ubuntero_gendered_name * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Trigger_warning * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Stallman * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_women_in_Open_Source And all the new articles: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Troll * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Concern_troll * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Stereotype_threat * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Defcon_comic_strip_incident * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Emasculation * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Dress_a_day_blog * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Concern_trolls * http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Stallman

30 minutes of hacking later:

todo: generalise, hook into email/RSS, better faster stronger

but really... how easy is that?!

credits ● Title – CC-BY – jared - http://www.flickr.com/photos/generated/2056145757/ ● Mouth open – CC-BY-SA – bradleygee - http://www.flickr.com/photos/icanchangethisright/3690065403/ ● The good – CC-BY – pinksherbet - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/2160471914/ ● The bad – CC-BY-SA – yogi - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yogi/65938277/ ● The ugly – CC-BY – isforinsects - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethwoodworth/2714717353/ ● Filter – CC-BY-SA – daveyll - http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveyll/332723930/ ● Summary – CC-BY- Tom T - http://www.flickr.com/photos/scraplab/3195233814/ ● Digging – CC-BY – woodleywonderworks - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3377221745/ ● Map mashup – CC-BY – caterina - http://www.flickr.com/photos/caterina/12204207/ ● Surprise – CC-BY-SA – bensonkua - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensonkua/2754312951/ ● Web logos and screenshots – most are copyrighted with all rights reserved. everything else is mine & licensed CC-BY-SA!

thanks! brianna@ modernthings.org identi.ca/pfctdayelise brianna.laugher.id.au/ blog

The right level of detail (MediaWiki, APIs)

by Brianna Laugher on Jul 21, 2009

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