[SBE] Broadcasting 'Wiki'

[David R. Wilson]

Having used one for better than the past 10 years I will throw in my .02
worth.  A wiki is very useful for keeping track of history.  You can use
it as a live manual.  When many people are working together and need to
know the latest software change that was made, who made it and why, it
works great.  Having come from an auto plant background where 5 - 20
people might make a change to a robotic program and one documents it in
their pile of books, but no one else knows that change was made, it can
lead to an awful lot of confusion.

For the broadcast business, I use it as a live log.  I can go back and
see how long tubes have lasted, what the readings were as time goes by.
I can see what parts I used to fix something, where they came from, who
I talked to and contact info.  A text search in a list of manuals gives
me where to find manuals in a few seconds (instead of maybe looking for
days).  When possible I gather PDF files or links to them, so if I don't
have my laptop I can go to the web site and find the manual without
having to go find the box that the file was stored on.

Entering info or links is very easy.  Some wikis have an editor that
will do most of that work for you.  I generally prefer to edit the HTML
directly (which is very easy).  The training needed to show someone how
to use the software can be done in a few (10) minutes.

I have been using it as a transmitter log too.  It might seem a bit
detailed, but if someone wants to find out what was done to equipment on
a particular day, it is easy to find what is wanted.  The only thing
that needs a bit of thought is the original organization for the wiki.
you don't want the info your looking for to be scattered in 20 different
files.  It helps when people initial and date their revisions.

If I need to find out what changes have been made to the files, I have
my wiki set up with a revision control system.  I can go back 20
revisions and see how things changed over time.  If someone makes a mess
of the wiki, it is easy to roll it back a revision or two and fix it.

If you want to see some more, check out http://www.twiki.org
http://www.mediawiki.org

Examples: http://www.fedoraproject.org/
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiInTheNews#2008


Dave

David R. Wilson KU4B
Engineer for the Cromwell Group
Nashville Tennessee
WBUZ WPRT WQZQ


On Mon, 2009-10-05 at 13:35 -0400, Gary Stewart wrote:

> Some of us are old school.  We learned computers gradually over 15-20

> years at work and as needed.  I know what Wikipedia is, what would a

> “wiki” for broadcast engineering be?

> 

>  

> 

> Gary  Stewart

> 

>  

> 

>                                    

> ______________________________________________________________________

> From:sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of

> Russ VanderHorst

> Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 1:19 PM

> To: 'sbe member discussion mail list'

> Subject: [SBE] Broadcasting 'Wiki'

> 

> 

>  

> 

> Hi All,

> 

>  

> 

> Does anyone know of a ‘Wiki’ for broadcast engineering? If there isn’t

> one, I would be willing to start one (I believe that the software is

> free). If there isn’t one and anyone would be interested in helping

> with this project, please let me know. I believe such a site would be

> of great value to all broadcast engineers, especially one like me who

> is in the process of learning its art and science. 

> 

>  

> 

> Thanks,

> 

>  

> 

> Russ CBT

> 

>  

> 

>  

> 

>  

> 

> 

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