Wiki Build!

I've started a collaborative building experiment at Dalton (167, 168) tonight, called Wiki Build! I think that that this will be a very fun and interesting project. I hope that you will all stop by to check it out, and consider contributing! In a nutshell, Wiki Build is an experiment in "open source art", inspired by the many wikis throughout the world wide web.

I've created a group which is called, appropriately enough, "Wiki Build". The group is open invite and free to join. ANYONE is welcome to join this group, come to the fairly large Wiki Build land in Dalton, and contribute to Wiki Build by building new objects or editing existing objects that were contributed by other builders. The first iteration of this project will mostly serve to help us all learn HOW it should work, so there are only a few simple rules for contributers right now, which you're all welcome to help me revise. I feel that these simple ground rules will help the project to flow smoothly.

First of all, each build, or iteration, will last for a predetermined length of time. For now, we'll make that 30 days. Each build will have ONE "anchor object" that can not be edited (although it can be added to). For the first build, I've chosen a wooden sailing ship in a small harbor as the anchor object. The purpose of this anchor object is to set an overall vague "theme" for the build, which contributions should build upon. At the end of the 30 day period, we will take a bunch of pictures, have a party, etc, and then wipe out this iteration. Then, everyone will be welcome to rez a new "anchor object", and the group will vote on which object to start the next build with. By the way, Wiki Build's first contributor has already built a dock linking the wooden sailing ship to the land. I hope this is a good example of how the project will work.

The second rule for this project controls HOW objects are to be contributed. It is important to keep in mind that Wiki Build is NOT a sandbox, but a collaborative community build. With this in mind, any prims that you contribute must have certain permissions set, which will allow other group members to revise them (and yes, even remove them) at will.

You must have the Wiki Build group active when building, so that your objects will be associated with the right group. You must also turn on the "share with group" check box on each prim. Finally, you must turn on all three checkboxes under the permissions for the next owner. When you set your prims up in this way, it will allow anyone participating in the project to revise them. At this time, it is not required to DEED the prims that you contribute to the group. Simply turning on "SHARE with group" should be okay.

The final rule is that all contributions must be wholly within the property line of the Wiki Build land, BELOW cloud height, and COMPLETELY PG in nature, as Dalton is a PG sim. That's it for rules, for the time being. I'd like to use the first iteration of this project mainly so we can all explore HOW we should structure it. I'd like to figure out a lot of things from this iteration.

First of all, I'd like to figure out if there is even any interest in collaborative building projects. I'd also like to figure out what kind of ground rules we need, and what roles and permissions the group will need when 1.12 is released. For example, under what circumstances can you edit or remove someone else's work? Can you just do it? Should you talk with them first? Should there be a "core team" of some sort? Also, how will we deal with grief? I'm sure that LOTS of questions like this will pop up during the next month. We'll have to have some meetings and decide what the answers are together.

Finally, a few notes on the land. The current Wiki Build lot is a little larger than 1/4 sim. This leaves a lot of prims to be desired. If we run out though, that's okay. We can edit things to make them more prim-efficient, or even remove things that aren't as important to the build as we had thought. We will have to work together to figure out the right protocols for this as well.

Also, I will get a donation box up soon. If there proves to be a lot of interest in Wiki Build, and donations can support tier on an island, I'll probably get one for us. I hope that a lot of people will participate in this project, and that we will all make a lot of new friends, and have a great time building together and learning from each other.

Sounds like a great idea... on my way over This is the sort of thing SL should be all about, not casinos and shops, IMHO.

Lewis

I would join this project if I could log in. Well, maybe later

Was there, but crashed right after saying hi... Though this will give me time to sort trough all ideas I got.

Sounds like good stuff!

Oh it is, its amazing, especially when you create something, then someone comes along and 'tweaks' it somehow to make it look even better than you started.

As everyone can work on everything, it's a great way for collaborative building and learning from each other, by people who are actually there for a purpose rather than dealing with the sort of things that usually go on in sandboxes.

Lewis

Well, I popped by just now, and you were asleep on a bench, and then they took the grid down, so there wasn't much time for building, but I look forward to coming back.

Yeah I had to pop out briefly, then by the time I came back the grid had gone down.

I hope I'm not still 'in stasis' in-world... my avatar arse is gonna be hellish sore by the time I log back in, sitting on that wooden bench.

Lewis

Below is a first draft of Wiki Build's information/rules. Please feel free to critique them (A LITTLE. I don't want to revise this too much until we've got some experience under our belts). I will be placing the final copy of this in an information kiosk at the build location.

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Wiki Build Information and Rules

** NOTE **
READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT BEFORE CONTRIBUTING TO WIKI BUILD!!! Thanks


WHAT WIKI BUILD IS ABOUT

In a nutshell, Wiki Build is an experiment in "open source art", inspired by the many wikis throughout the world wide web. It's kind of like a traditional wiki, except in 3D. It is a build created by all of its contributers, and ANYONE is welcome to add to, edit or delete from the build. The goal is that we will have a lot of fun building collaborative projects in an open ended way, make a lot of friends, and learn a lot of new things about building from each other. Each build, or iteration, will last for a predetermined length of time. For now, we'll make that 30 days.

Each build will have ONE "anchor object" that can not be edited (although it can be added to). For the first build, I've chosen a wooden sailing ship in a small harbor as the anchor object. The purpose of this anchor object is to set an overall vague "theme" for the build, which contributions should based upon. At the end of the 30 day period, we will take a bunch of pictures, have a party, etc, and then wipe out this iteration. Then, everyone will be welcome to rez a new "anchor object", and the group will vote on which object to start the next build with.


IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT EDITS

Due to the collaborative and open nature of Wiki Build, your contributions could possibly be edited extensively or even deleted entirely! If this makes you uneasy, you may not enjoy Wiki Build. Feel free to just hang out and watch for a while before jumping in with both feet if you'd like.


JOINING THE GROUP

Before you can contribute to Wiki Build, you must join the group. To do this, choose the "SEARCH" button at the bottom of your screen, and under the "GROUPS" tab on the window that comes up, search for "Wiki Build". The group is accessible via open enrollment, so just click "JOIN NOW".


CONTRIBUTING NEW OBJECTS

Go right ahead! Feel free to contribute new content anywhere in the build. There are a couple of basic things to keep in mind when you do, though. The first is that your objects MUST have their permissions set correctly so that others can edit them. Make sure that you have the Wiki Build group ACTIVE while building, so that your objects will be correctly associated with the group. Next, make sure that you have the "SHARE WITH GROUP" check box checked in the object's properties. Finally, make sure that you have ALL THREE checkboxes under the permissions for the next owner checked (modify, copy and resell/give away). THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. OBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT EDITABLE WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE BUILD.

The second thing to keep in mind when contributing new objects is to try to work within the prevailing theme. For example, if you were to build a jet airplane in the middle of a 16th century village, you'd probably find your contribution deleted pretty quickly.


SCRIPTING YOUR OBJECTS

Don't lag my sim, and don't upset my neighbors! Also, please use only scripts with FULL PERMISSIONS (preferably scripts that you've written yourself). This is to ensure that others can both edit and learn from the scripts that you use in Wiki Build. Scripts which are not editable will be removed from the build. As long as you can follow these rules (and the general content rules below), please feel free to script your contributions in any way you'd like.


EDITING AND DELETING OBJECTS

Anyone may edit or remove any content in Wiki Build. Before you do so, however, please STOP AND THINK about the original contributor. It is VERY IMPORTANT for everyone to realize that Wiki Build is a collaborative building project, NOT a sandbox.

If you'd like to edit something because you feel that you could make it look better, an IM to the original creator along the lines of "I've been thinking about your contribution and I'd like to show you how to ..." will go a long way. If you'd like to completely remove/replace something, an IM to the creator letting them know where you're coming from and offering to work with them on your change is in order.

The bottom line is that Wiki Build isn't about perfection or isolation. It is about meeting new friends, having fun in a collaborative environment, and learning. While nothing technically PREVENTS you from making any changes that you'd like without talking to anyone, it won't make you any friends in the Wiki Build community. Please make sure that you COMMUNICATE, and if possible, COLLABORATE, when making changes. If you MUST make an edit without being able to speak with and preferably involve the original contributor, drop them an offline IM to let them know what you changed and where you're coming from with your change.

We aren't selling anything here, and we have nothing to prove to anyone. "Aesthetic quality" does not measure the success or failure of any Wiki Build project. If everyone who makes a change also makes a friend each time, I think that Wiki Build will be an incredible success.


CONTENT RULES

First of all, Dalton is a "PG" sim. All content contributed to Wiki Build must be "PG", as defined by the Second Life TOS and Community Standards. Contributed content must also not violate any laws. Finally, all content must be built entirely WITHIN THE PROPERTY LINES of the Wiki Build land, and BELOW CLOUD LEVEL. CONTRIBUTIONS THAT FAIL TO CONFORM TO THESE RULES WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE BUILD.


OTHER RULES

No selling of anything, period. No weapons, push or otherwise, period. No harassing others or otherwise acting like an idiot, period.


REVISIONS TO RULES

We will have to have some meetings as Wiki Build gains traction, and define our rules as a community.


DONATIONS

While Wiki Build is free to use, donations to help cover the cost of land are always appreciated. If you enjoy Wiki Build, please consider donating. Also, if we end up with enough donations to support an island, we will move Wiki Build to one so that we have a full sim to build on.

I'll be setting up a donation kiosk near the information kiosk soon. In the mean time, please feel free to send any donations to Shaun Altman directly. Also, when sending a donation, please leave me an IM letting me know who you are and what the size of your donation was.


HAVE FUN

Thank you for taking the time to read this document. It is the sincere hope of the Wiki Build community that you will enjoy participating in this project.

I have been so far

Lewis

Does the wiki building system have revision memory?

Wow. What a great idea.

I just dropped by the build and met Lewis. Looks very nice so far. Hopefully people will be able to join the group and help out soon. It looks liek a lot of fun.

This sounds like a neat idea.

But... how will abuse be handled? What's to stop someone from joining the group, going over to the land, selecting all the objects, and pressing the Delete key? Sure, the user would probably get banned if they did that, but that doesn't bring back the deleted build.

Will there be some sort of backup/revision system, like Baba mentioned above?

That is an EXCELLENT question. No, BUT.. I do have a web server. Can you think of a good way to make that, using llHTTPRequest(), which would be both hassle free and unfoolable?

I'm going to login to SL in a few minutes (currenly 4:35pm SLT on the 23rd) and should have a few minutes to chat. Your forum incidator says you're online. If you see this in time, meet me there! Maybe we can figure out some good ways of handling this stuff.

I'll think on it ;0 Maybe libsecondlife would be helpful.. Probably couldn't get something running real soon, but I know people are working on exporting to blender models and importing back in to SL.

Hmm yes, maybe a server process could login and record all of the object data a few times daily. That may or may not give revision control, but it would definately be good for a 1 button re-rez. I'll have to take a look at it. Or maybe one of the people who is familiar with libsecondlife would be interested in doing that.

Coming along rather nicely.... interesting to see how people keep adding things and then we add little bits around it to add to the overall atmosphere.

Interesting project... god you thought of it

Lewis