FamilySearch Wiki:Technical Meeting Agenda 9 November 2010

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Purpose of the meeting To forge solutions with other community contributors. To discuss content, technical issues, workarounds, community, site design, and strategy.

Agenda

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Discussion Items

From the Community

• GeoCommons, GeoHack

  GeoHack was implemented through the {{Coord}} template. GeoCommons was brought up as a place that data may be able to be extracted from for implementing embedded Google Maps. Thomas_Lerman 21:50, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

• Threads started:

• Embed code in Wiki to link maps/videos

  It was brought up about YouTube embedded in a Mediawiki article. I believe it is possible, but normally disabled. I do not think we really want to do this. I believe it was only brought up because of the question whether Google Maps (or others) may be able to be embedded. I am sure it is possible to do as I have done quite a bit embedding of maps onto other pages. The main two parts that would be needed would be an extension and then all of the data to draw the boundaries, clickable areas, text, etc. I could create an extension pretty easily, but the data is not easy task (GeoCommons may be a great help though). A big disadvantage to these would probably be that external search engines would need a separate link to be able to spider to the other pages. Thomas_Lerman 21:50, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

My point with Youtube was to show that there were ways to embed things onto the Wiki without a lot of owrk to pull the content off the other page and insert it onto the Wiki. That said, I just found this video, it's the first one I've seen to directly discuss how to use the Wiki. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-al2ljTAbk and was made by someone who also was selling a book as you'll see, and it's a basic user-generated video too. JamesAnderson 16:42, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

There is a Google Maps extension for MediaWiki. On the description page there is a list of some wikis that use this extension. For example Fort Wiki for example Category:Arizona All. Most (if not all) seem to use the extension to place markers on a map. However the syntax of the extension does allow for areas to be drawn Looks like it could be useful particulary as the pop up information balloons can be coded to include wiki markup and therefore allow links to other pages to be included. --Steve 17:42, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I realize that your were not suggesting embedding YouTube videos in the Wiki. I was just getting the impression that a couple of others did not view it that way. You are correct that it is pretty easy to embed a video. However, it is quite a bit more work to embed a map, set up borders, and clicking going to other pages on the Wiki. That does require bringing over quite a bit of information from somewhere. I also saw the Google Maps extension just after my last post. Thomas_Lerman 03:19, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

• Access Codes , advertisement rules.

  The discussion page for Access Codes has a fairly lengthy discussion including proposal for Access code templates. Advertising rules would include difference between "advertising" an organization that has sponsored article(s) even though they still may sell products/services and a company advertising their products/services directly on the Wiki. Thomas_Lerman 21:50, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

From FamilySearch Staff

• Redundant pages are inherently bad for the Wiki. Creating a page about county formation separate from the county page is confusing. Request permission to delete (State Name) County Creation Dates and Parent Counties pages. See Talk:New York County Creation Dates and Parent Counties page for further discussion.  DiltsGD 15:26, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

If these articles where expanded to be more than just a table of dates, but widened in scope so that they could be retitled (State Name) Historical Geography. Would that be a better solution? --Steve 17:52, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

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