Difference between revisions of "Introduction to eForams"
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In order to give rapid and cheap access to the current basic knowledge on foraminifera, eForams is presented here, a project to create an electronic encyclopedia exclusively for foraminifera, along the lines and with the software of Wikipedia project. The modalities of access, choosing collaborators, fixing server capacities etc. will have to be discussed and worked out. We would like in particular to have the workshop to comment on opportunities and ways of realization of an incorporation of taxonomic units in this project, and if yes, at what systematic level. | In order to give rapid and cheap access to the current basic knowledge on foraminifera, eForams is presented here, a project to create an electronic encyclopedia exclusively for foraminifera, along the lines and with the software of Wikipedia project. The modalities of access, choosing collaborators, fixing server capacities etc. will have to be discussed and worked out. We would like in particular to have the workshop to comment on opportunities and ways of realization of an incorporation of taxonomic units in this project, and if yes, at what systematic level. | ||
| − | eForams is driven by MediaWiki engine - software which is widely used in the free internet encyclopedia. One of the main advantages of MediaWiki is its ability to work on documents by using only web browser. Documents are stored on http-servers and available as web pages. Metalanguage used for defining documents layout is a very simplified version of HTML (the language of web pages). MediaWiki also keeps tracks of all changes and synchronizes cooperating editors. However, Wikipedias are freely available to edit by anyone, in particular cases, access and privileges can be strictly controlled by administrators. In our case, we have decided to limit the access for editing eForams. Nevertheless, every foraminiferologist interested in collaboration is welcome. We believe that the registration of all contributors should make this site more reliable. This way all information would be signed avoiding usual criticisms of Wikipedia including its open nature making it unauthoritative and unreliable (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia). Otherwise, eForams has all other benefits of Wikipedia, including multi-authorship, free access from all computers connected to the web, rapid publication, diverse coverage, and a local search engine. We are looking forward for your criticisms, inspiring comments and further contributions to eForams. The web site is already available at: http://www.eforams. | + | eForams is driven by MediaWiki engine - software which is widely used in the free internet encyclopedia. One of the main advantages of MediaWiki is its ability to work on documents by using only web browser. Documents are stored on http-servers and available as web pages. Metalanguage used for defining documents layout is a very simplified version of HTML (the language of web pages). MediaWiki also keeps tracks of all changes and synchronizes cooperating editors. However, Wikipedias are freely available to edit by anyone, in particular cases, access and privileges can be strictly controlled by administrators. In our case, we have decided to limit the access for editing eForams. Nevertheless, every foraminiferologist interested in collaboration is welcome. We believe that the registration of all contributors should make this site more reliable. This way all information would be signed avoiding usual criticisms of Wikipedia including its open nature making it unauthoritative and unreliable (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia). Otherwise, eForams has all other benefits of Wikipedia, including multi-authorship, free access from all computers connected to the web, rapid publication, diverse coverage, and a local search engine. We are looking forward for your criticisms, inspiring comments and further contributions to eForams. The web site is already available at: http://www.eforams.org/ |
We also present an illustrated [[glossary]] of morphological terms used to support the description of foraminiferal taxa, published as independent electronic paper in Cahiers de Géologie <http://palaeopolis.rediris.es/cg/fr> and to be incorporated in the same time in eForams. | We also present an illustrated [[glossary]] of morphological terms used to support the description of foraminiferal taxa, published as independent electronic paper in Cahiers de Géologie <http://palaeopolis.rediris.es/cg/fr> and to be incorporated in the same time in eForams. | ||
