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| (A DRAFT IN PROCESS) |
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| FOR RELEASE AFTER THE WIKICREOLE 1.0 LAUNCH, PLEASE DO **NOT** PUBLICIZE YET |
| [[PressReleaseGerman|Auf Deutsch]] |
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| After a year of hard work, a group of nearly 50 dedicated users and developers are proud to release [[Creole 1.0|WikiCreole 1.0]]. Creole is a common wiki markup language which does not replace existing markup, but instead enables wiki users to transfer content seamlessly across wikis, and for novice users to contribute more easily. This markup has evolved from all existing wiki markup, hence the name Creole: a stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages. The problem is that every wiki software has its own markup which makes it difficult to teach a generic wiki markup, as well as for people to use more than one wiki engine regularly. Having a common wiki markup also lays the foundation for wiki software to be developed to work across multiple wiki engines. |
| === ~WikiCreole 1.0 - a common wiki markup === |
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| Ward Cunningham, the founder of wikis, coined the term Creole, just like he coined the name wiki from the Hawaiian ~WikiWiki. He suggested this name at Wikimania 2006 in Boston, the international Wikipedia conference, where we presented our first empirical analysis on existing markup variants. Cunningham’s idea was to create a common markup that was not standardization of an arbitrary existing markup, but rather a new markup language that was created out of the common elements of all existing engines out there. |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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| Under this premise, existing wiki markup was extensively analyzed, and a subset of elements was compiled that would be as non-controversial as possible. Practitioners and wiki developers were then invited to come together in a workshop at [[WikiSym 2006]] in Denmark to introduce the idea of Creole and discuss how to proceed. There, workshop participants went through different markup elements which they wanted to unify and added them to a wiki set up for this purpose. Afterwards, there was enough data to suggest a first version of the Creole spec, version 0.1. Many participants of the workshop also agreed to implement Creole into their software. |
| Heilbronn, Germany, 4th July 2007 - After a year of diligent effort, a group of nearly 50 dedicated users and developers are proud to release [[Creole 1.0|WikiCreole 1.0]]. Creole is designed to be a common wiki markup language which augments existing markup to enable wiki users to transfer content seamlessly across wikis, a boon to novice and expert users alike. |
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| After the workshop, a wiki was set up with the workshop results. This wiki was used to give people that did not attend the Wiki Markup Standard Workshop the opportunity to discuss decisions made, and to be able to make their own proposals. A workflow was introduced that incrementally discussed and introduced these proposals into the spec. Discussion pages were used to talk about each topic. At the end of an iteration (4-8 weeks), a new version number was added to the spec. |
| Creole, taking its name from the field of linguistics, a stable language that originated from a combination of two or more languages. As every wiki software has its own markup definitions, the differences can make them difficult for novices to learn and experts to remember, thus a common wiki markup lays the foundation for development of cross-engine wiki software. |
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| Our decisions were consensus-driven meaning voting was discouraged, so there were opinion polls instead and later there was an attempt to reach an agreement. After many long months of cooperation, this working group finally reached a point where they were not able to find any more commonalities. They knew then it was time to freeze Creole 1.0 for the next two years to allow time for adoption. The ~WikiCreole wiki (www.wikicreole.org) now has extensive reasoning through documentation of the empirical analysis and discussions of the elements that back up the spec. Today, ten wiki engines support Creole and many more are planning to implement it in the coming months. Wiki engine developers implementing ~WikiCreole in their parsers give a clear sign to the community of their readiness to cooperate to draw us all closer together, making life easier for everyone in the wiki world. |
| The Creole name for a common markup was born from an idea of wiki founder Ward Cunningham at Wikimania 2006 the international Wikipedia conference. The goal: create a common markup that was not a standardization of an arbitrary existing markup, but rather a new markup language that was created out of the common elements of all existing engines. Under this premise the Wiki Creole Working Group analyzed existing wiki markup and compiled a greatest-common denominator subset of elements and presented its report. |
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| With the support of [[http://www.i3g.hs-heilbronn.de/|i3G]] (Interdisciplinary Institute for Intelligent Business Processes), Christoph Sauer and Chuck Smith have led the process with great help from the wiki developer community through its initial concept to 1.0. The i3G, located in Heilbronn, Germany, is trying to overcome the barriers between computer science, engineering and business, through their selection of content and personnel. They are also developing customized concepts for small and medium-sized companies to help optimize operational workflow and its representation for IT systems. |
| Practitioners and wiki developers were then invited to a workshop at [[WikiSym 2006]] in Denmark to learn about Creole and discuss how to proceed. WikiSym is a symposium (conference) series dedicated to wiki research and practice. Participants evaluated different markup elements for possible unification and added them to a wiki created for this purpose. The resulting data resulted in the first version of the Creole spec, version 0.1. Many workshop participants also agreed to implement Creole into their existing wiki implementations. |
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| ---- |
| In true wiki fashion, the report and data were published to a wider audience who were unable to attend allowing them to discuss the decisions made and add their own proposals. An iterative workflow was introduced that discussed and introduced these new proposals into the spec. Discussion pages were used to address each topic and at the end of each iteration (4-8 weeks), a new version number was added to the spec. |
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| Feel free to contribute to the press release if I left out anything important! |
| The working group's goal was to emphasize consensus instead of majority rule, so opinion polls were always followed by an attempt to reach mutual agreement. After many long months of cooperation, the working group finally reached a point of maximum commonalities. Creole 1.0 was then frozen for the next two years to allow time for adoption. The ~WikiCreole site (www.wikicreole.org) now has extensive documentation of the empirical analysis and discussions of the elements to support the decisions behind the spec. Today, ten wiki engines support Creole and many more are planning to implement it in the coming months. Wiki engine developers implementing ~WikiCreole in their parsers, give a clear sign to the community of their readiness to cooperate and draw us all closer together, making life easier for everyone in the wiki world. |
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| --[[Chuck Smith]] |
| With the support of [[http://www.i3g.hs-heilbronn.de/|i3G]] (Interdisciplinary Institute for Intelligent Business Processes; Heilbronn, Germany), Christoph Sauer and Chuck Smith have led the process with great help from the wiki developer community through its initial concept to 1.0. Through their selection of content and personnel, i3G, is trying to overcome the barriers between computer science, engineering and business. They also develop customized concepts for companies to help optimize operational workflow and its representation for IT systems. |
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| For more information, please visit http://www.i3g.hs-heilbronn.de/ |
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| Press contact\\ |
| Chuck Smith, i3G Institute - Heilbronn University\\ |
| T: +49 7131 504 474\\ |
| E: csmith(at)hs-heilbronn.de |
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| Digg: [[http://digg.com/software/WikiCreole_1_0_a_common_wiki_markup]] |
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