Wiki Rules, Guidelines, and Resources

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Last updated: Jan 09, 2019 by jr_fackler (Unlicensed)
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Table of Contents


Wiki Administrative Committee (WAC)

Guidelines and rules are established by the Wiki Administrative Committee (WAC), which will have about seven members, including the Supervisor of Analytical Systems, who will head the committee. 

The makeup of the Wiki Administrative Committee will be something like:

  • Supervisor of Analytical Systems, who will head the committee (David Houpt)
  • Technical & Analytical Services (TAS) Representative (Eric Moortgat)
  • Publications Representative (Shana Lewis)
  • Science Operations Representative
  • IT Representative (David Fackler)
  • Curation/Back Labs Representative (Katy Smith)
  • At Large Representative (Gary Acton)

Managers of the departments should be queried as to whom they would like for their representative. The At Large Representative will be selected by the Manager of TAS, and may be an external expert.

Rules

  • Jokes, pranks, or material that is offensive or inappropriate in any way are prohibited. The Wiki is a university web site intended for professionals, and is open to the general public for viewing.
    • Never add inappropriate content to any part of the Wiki, including pages that you may think are hidden. 
    • If inappropriate content is identified while you are viewing a page, please immediately notify the shipboard (JOIDES Resolution) Lab Officer, David Houpt, Brad Julson, Gary Acton, or any of the Wiki administrators at:
  • Account and account privileges and page permissions are controlled by the Wiki administrators, who may chose to freeze or remove an account or change access to pages as warranted. The WAC will meet to discuss specific cases should complaints or controversies arise.
  • The documents on the ship are the primary version. Therefore, editing should be done primarily on the ship.
    • If editing is to be done from shore on specific pages, the individual doing the editing
      • should either be given direct access to the ship documents or 
      • should notify shipboard personnel that specific pages will be revised on shore (offline) and sent to the ship as soon as they are completed.

  • Edited documents are immediately available for use on the ship. Thus, ensure that when you are done editing, the resulting document is in a state that is ready for viewing.

    • If not, revert back to the previous version of the document or seek assistance from other experienced Confluence users if you are having difficulties.

Wiki Requirements

  • The primary version of the Wiki will be on the ship, where it must run remotely because internet connectivity is poor between ship and shore and many Wiki documents, particularly images and movies, are large.

  • A publicly accessible, read-only copy of the Wiki will be available via https://wiki.iodp.tamu.edu.
    • Initially only the content of the Laboratory Manuals, Guides, Resources (LMGR) will be deposited here--to be amended as our communication needs change.
    • After the end of each cruise, a copy of the current Wiki will be exported from the ship and restored to the above location.
  • A sufficient number of active accounts must be available to allow IODP staff, Lab Working Group (LWG) members, and approved external scientists to edit Wiki pages. The wikis available on ship and shore for operational edits support up to 100 users.

Guidelines

Wiki Members and Users

  • You do not need a Confluence account to view the Lab Manuals, User Guides, and Resources space. It is open to the general public.
  • You do not have to be an IODP employee to have an account.  External scientists/technicians who want to contribute and are experts on one or more topics are welcome to request accounts.
    • For shipboard participants, please discuss this with the Expedition Project Manager (EPM), who will then request that an account be created by the Marine Computer Specialist (MCS).
    • External scientists will only have access to active pages while on the ship because the primary pages are stored there.
    • Other editing has to be accomplished offline and the material uploaded to the ship as discussed above.
    • It is always possible to have a technician export a page as a Word document for an external reviewer's needs.
  • If you are knowledgeable about a laboratory topic, want to contribute to the Wiki, contact the JR Lab Officer or David Houpt to arrange for the necessary collaboration.
    • In a typical shipboard collaboration a Wiki account will be established as above with content edited directly.
    • In a typical shore collaboration, content will be exported (PDF, Word) for markup and collaboration via email, with updated content being returned to ship for incorporation. 
  • If you have an account and are uncertain about how to proceed with adding, editing, or deleting content in Confluence, contact one of the Wiki administrators or an experienced Technician.
    • Getting started only takes a few minutes of training. After that, most topics on how to use Confluence can be easily found by searching on the web (just Google a few key words).

  • If you have an account but do not have permission to edit a page, which is the case for some pages (e.g., the main "Laboratory Manuals, Guides, and Resources" page) that may be overseen by specific individuals, and you have suggestions or would like to make improvements, contact a Wiki administrator or the person who is overseeing the page.

Resources

Example Wiki Pages

Basically, follow the style of those documents when creating new web pages. Some of the very basic formatting guidelines are listed below. If you have questions, ask one of the WAC or other experienced users of this wiki.

Style and Formatting Recommendations

  • If you are converting a manual that is a Word document into a Wiki page, first and foremost make sure you have the latest version of the manual.
    • The 375 versions of the documents are stored at IODP_SHARE\___Technical Documentation 375.
    • If you think you have a more current version, you should run a compare with the 375 version to be sure.
  • Use the default fonts and headings. They are more than adequate and simple to use. No personalized macros should be needed.
  • The typical page has a two-column page layout at the top and a one-column page layout for the rest of the document.
  • For the two-column page layout, place the Table of Contents in the left column and some image related to the topic in the right column.
    • The Table of Contents is a macro that can be found under the + pull down menu
    • Type “Table of Contents” above macro and make it Heading Level 1.
  • The Table of Contents can then be set such that only headers with level 1 to 3 appear in the TOC list, and the header "Table of Contents" can be excluded.
  • Images (figures) are centered and have an italicized, centered caption below them in the following format: Figure X. Caption text.
  • All figures must be numbered and all numbered figures must be called out in the text in the following format: "...select File in the Configuration window as shown in Figure X..."; "...select File in the Configuration window (Figure X)..."
  • Button, menu, and window names within the document should be bold and match the actual wording on the screen or device.
  • For web pages that originated from an existing manual or user guide that was a Word document, please create the following sections
    • Credits: This is where one provides credits to the original authors. Subsequent credits for changes made to the Wiki are recorded in the "Page History"
      • To ensure you are credited for your changes, please add a short comment in the comment box at the bottom of any page that is being edited.
        • Example #1 (from JR-6A Spinner Magnetometer User/Quick Start Guide: 
          • This document originated from Word document JR-6A_QSG_374_draft.docx (see Archived Versions below for a pdf copy) that was written by G. Matson (2013-05-25) and edited by B. Novak (2017-12-27). Credits for subsequent changes to this document are given in the page history.
        • Example #2 for a manual page originating within the Laboratory Manuals, Guides, and Resources wiki: 
          • This page originated and has evolved within this wiki. Credits are given in the page history.
    • Archived Versions: This is a bullet list of archived versions of the document. Typically, these are PDF documents, starting with the original version, which may have been printed from an original Word document. Subsequently, about once a year a PDF version of the wiki page should be printed and added to the bullet list of archived versions. The most recent archived copy should be at the top of the list with progressively older ones below.
      • To export a PDF version of a Confluence document, go to the upper right menu and selected the image with the 3 periods  (...) and then select "Export to PDF".
      • See for example, the bottom of the JR-6A Spinner Magnetometer User/Quick Start Guide page.

Citing Wiki Manuals

The recommended citation follows from examples for citing Wikipedia pages.  The suggested way of citing IODP wiki manuals is a hybrid MLA/AMA style, which should include the date the document was last edited and the date the document was accessed and should exclude specific links to the web page that can be broken or that may be specific to the shipboard or shorebased wiki.

An example citation is:

  • Laboratory Manuals, Guides, and Resources contributors. "JR-6A Spinner Magnetometer Quick Start Guide",  Laboratory Manuals, Guides, and Resources, International Ocean Discovery Program, 9 November 2018. Accessed 11 December 2018.

Credits

This page originated and has evolved within the Laboratory Manuals, Guides, and Resources wiki. See the page history for credits.

Archived Versions

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