Wiki?

[mystere]

How about a documentation Wiki?

Your various blog posts are nice and all, but I'd like to have a place where we can all work on improving the documentation.

Of course, I don't think Wiki's are a perfect solution, because they quickly get out of date... but at least it's something.

 

[Titanous]

I second this request.

In fact, I wouldn't mind hosting/managing the wiki. Any objections, Ward?

 

[ppmax]

IMO Wiki's aren't good for documentation, which tends to be structured into chapters, sections, etc. On the scripts site we've been discussing the concept of "books" which are organized hierarchically and can be navigated easily. I also like the idea of a single, or small group of authors who are the primary gatekeepers of the content. Our book idea would allow comments on pages from users--but only the author retains the authority to add/modify/delete content.

 

[jroper]

Hi

The idea of a structured book appeals more than a wiki.

Can you post a list of chapters that you would like to see with a short synopsis of the chapter content.

Then it's a case of looking for volunteers to create the chapters.

Joe

 

[tomsyr]

On-Line book

I too have been giving some thought to writing an on-line book about FreePBX and PiaF. I'm not part of each team, but think that it would be a good opportunity to contribute back to the community.
I’m a bit biased to what the actual forum would be – I’ve found a documentation system that I ended up co-authoring a book on (yet to be published) called Plone.

Plone is a content management system that allows for specific users to create web pages and other users to add comments. I’m not doing justice to the system and its capabilities here, so if interested, check out http://plone.org

I have a site set up with Plone, which requires a special database and python, so there aren’t too many hosting providers - and it’s a bit more expensive, but I would pay for the hosting.
Anyone interested in being involved with creating this “on-line” book, please PM me.
TomSyr

 

[foneman]

Do my part

I would be willing to contribute chapters for this project. As I am not a "Programmer" by any means, I am a well versed user and as a reseller, i would be happy to contribute this. I have done a user guide that I am willing to contribute as well. I would welcome comments and suggestions on it too.

 

[drmurdoch]

Hi

The idea of a structured book appeals more than a wiki.

Can you post a list of chapters that you would like to see with a short synopsis of the chapter content.

Then it's a case of looking for volunteers to create the chapters.

Joe

Lots of wikis have "Chapters".

There is a vBulletin wiki that looks pretty good.

It's called VaultWiki

http://www.crackedeggstudios.com/vault/Special:WikiCodeList

http://www.crackedeggstudios.com/vault/The+Arsenal:CES+VaultWiki

or if PIAF.com decided to get a CMS like Joomla which has user integration with vBulletin, Dokuwiki could be used.

I think a wiki could be helpful.
It is certainly getting pretty hard to find key stuff in the forums.

 

[jroper]

As time permits, we have been lifting words of wisdom from a variety of sources - with the authors permission - into http://www.fonicaprojects.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

The contributions so far have been relatively non denominational, and may apply to any Asterisk, FreePBX combination, as well as other howtos, and scripts such as Opensips scripts, and AsteriskGUI installs - Tip: Don't try installing AsteriskGUI on an existing FreePBX install ;-)

Joe

 

[drmurdoch]

I heart PIAF

There are so many super smart and very helpful people here at PIAF.com. The spirit here is one of helping and not just leeching. In essence, a great community.

Setting up a PBX in a flash box is relatively easy. Making a great PIAF box takes some learning and work for non-professionals. Because PIAF almost makes running a PBX simple, many small biz type people are "going to give it a good college try" to get it to work for them.

I read so many great posts in the forums and I try to make notes about things ("Yeah, I'll do that when I get time ... that too!). I read alot of the posts. Others probably are not so keen. For myself and other PIAF hopefuls, much information is lost to follow up in the forums.

Such good info, so little structure.

It would be very time intensive (prohibitive) to create documents on all important things. Of course NerdVittles does an excellent job of highlighting key things, but the devil is always in the detail.

What possibly could be the future for better structured, easier to find, more detailed documentation ?

I think a wiki is a possible way forward.

I would like to point out that vBulletin forums (which I love) have a really cool option to integrate with Joomla ... called Jfusion. http://www.jfusion.org/

Once with Jfusion (licence: GPL), you can have automatically synced users and passwords and many other things with many different softwares.

(1) Wordpress (blog)(coming soon with v1.2)
(2) Mediawiki (wiki)(coming soon).
(3) Gallery2
(4) Moodle (eLearning)
(5) Magento (eCommerce)
(5b) OsCommerce (eCommerce)
(6) Elgg (social networking)
(7) Dokuwiki (wiki)
(8) Flyspray (Bug tracking)


On top of this, you can share users to more than one site ... ie. Pbxinaflash users might be synced with another future PIAF related site.

Other important features of Jfusion:
- has a Frameless mode (ie. you dont have to run other softwares in an iFrame) (important for google spiders, etc.).
- universal (all supported software) frameless is coming.
- sign in to one aspect of the software, you are automatically signed into all software. (eg. sign into the forums, you are signed into the wiki, and to the blog).

Just wanted to make PIAF.com aware of this possibility for future expansion. HTH.

 

[wardmundy]

Thanks for the heads up. We'll have a look. But keep in mind that new projects like this eat up enormous resources. So the issue always comes down to whether to invest that time in something like this or additions and enhancements to the distribution.

P.S. I chuckled in rereading this thread. You'll note there was a volunteer to develop and maintain a wiki. But he dropped out over a year ago to pursue other interests. While that's perfectly fine, it reinforces some of the problems with open source development. Of course, we could always seek out a corporate sponsor. We all know how well that works.

 

[drmurdoch]

The vaultwiki group, previously mentioned, are planning on supporting vBulletin 4.

vaultwiki is really interesting.

I love seeing wiki entries in the "New Posts" queries.

 

[ncg]

When I first put an asterisk pbx together in 2003 the voip-info wiki was an amazing resource - I could not have done it wothout it. Now that website feels stagnant, out of date, and in many cases incorrect - but perhaps because the readers have moved on to more targetted resources.

Now the relevant documentation available to me is less strctured than it was in 2003 (lucky that I have a better mousetrap now!), but on the plus side through this forum I have good personal access to gurus. (One of the great things about PIAF is that the leaders are also skilled communicators - unlike some other OSS projects from the past! Remember smoothwall anyone?!) So in my last install but one, the voip-info wiki's former role was taken by Joe Roper! Which is great and kind, but surely you are a busy man, Joe?!

With this community (and community spirit), I suspect a powerful and useful wiki documentation resource could be put together pretty quickly primarily by the userbase.

It would meet the need that Ward saw when the Knol was created, but would take it further and allow users to ensure that their knowledge was shared, not just their problems!

To the comment that a wiki would become outdated, I suggest that outdated documentation would be a nice problem to have! I also suggest that this community has the self interest and self confidence to deal with that problem if it occurs.

 

[ErikU]

I think a wiki is a fantastic idea. There is tons of info on these forums, but it can be very hard to find via search.

Users could simply update the wiki themselves when they figure out an issue. Minimal work for the admin... I think...

 

[blanchae]

Maybe we should utilize VoIP-info.org and add pages specifically to PiaF? It's already set up.

 

[blanchae]

Maybe we should utilize VoIP-info.org and add pages specifically to PiaF? It's already set up.

I took a look at voip-info.org and realize now why I rarely visit it anymore. It's wiki interface is clumsy and outdated. It is actually very difficult to use. Not to mention the organization of the wiki is extremely poor.

 

[tm1000]

I agree with having a wiki. I also agree with blanchae on voip-info. It's a very very helpful site but it always feels like you are walking into an office where someone has spilled their file cabinets onto the floor.

I didn't even know there was a knol until ward posted a few days ago in a thread I created.

 

[ncg]

Maybe we should utilize VoIP-info.org and add pages specifically to PiaF? It's already set up.

Good idea in terms of quick implementation, but I think there is too much crossover.

So many of the queries on this forum - the topics we would be documenting - are common to many other asterisk distributions. So there are already outdated sections for end points, trunks etc, which are major topics.

 

[drmurdoch]

A Wiki for the PBXinaFlash Community ! (For users, By users)

A Wiki for the Community !

I think the way to go now is:

• migrate vBulletin to Xenforo (avoid vB 4)
• use the wiki plugin (Xencarta)
• add Wordpress as the Blog (use the Wordpress / Xenforo single sign on).
• some basic stuff could be done with Pages in Xenforo (admins/mods only )