It's a Wiki Wiki World

I am a constant user of the Wikipedia. In fact, whenever I have an itching to know about something, I usually consult it to get an idea first before plunging in to the more complex and in-depth information. Most of the times, the Wikipedia will already suffice and I just need to check on other sites just to verify the authenticity of its contents.

The Wikipedia is one of the successes of the wiki wiki world. It proves that wikipedia are indeed very useful and can be reliable too. So I thought to myself, being a Software Development Project Manager who handles documents most of the time, why not use a Wiki as a Software Development Documentation Tool? Before I go discussing this thought further, it is only fair to at least try to define what a wiki is [for those who have no idea as to what I am talking about].

In essence, a wiki is a simplification of the process of creating HTML pages combined with a system that records each individual change that occurs over time, so that at any time, a page can be reverted to any of its previous states. A wiki system may also include various tools, designed to provide users with an easy way to monitor the constantly changing state of the wiki as well as a place to discuss and resolve the many inevitable issues, namely, the inherent disagreement over wiki content. Wiki content can also be misleading, as users are bound to add incorrect information to the wiki page. [more]

Software Developers by nature are very clumsy if not just plain lazy when it comes to documenting their very own projects. I am also a software developer and one thing why I hate documentations is because I don't know how to put my thoughts into writing. I also found out that it is very hard to collaborate with colleagues when you are all working on the same documents. Still, these documents are required - it is a part of the Software Development Process.

Using a wiki solves some of these dilemmas in a very simple and straight-forward way which I will enumerate below.

• Availability. Since Wikis can also serve as a repository for documents, a documentator, in this case a developer, can access documents that he can pattern his work with in just a click of a link or button. Having a guide greatly helps.


• Everybody is a Proof Reader. Changes made in a wiki are readily available to all users of the tool. This enables faster verification of changes made and propagation of the status and changes in the documentation to all individuals involved.


• Tracking the Changes. Tracking changes in a wiki entry is very simple. And as easy as it is to see the changes, it is also easy to revert back the changes in an entry.


• Documentation is Team Work. Since this is a highly flexible and collaborative tool, it foster somehow, a sence of camaraderie and team work. A view that not only the creation of the software requires team work, but also the documentation part of the project.

Of course the final versions of every documentation should be transferred to the proper document template for Change Management. You can't just say to your client to visit your wiki for the documentation, right? And on top of that, it is only advisable that you only document using this tool if the information written will also be available to all the users.

I guess I am going to try this out myself on my upcoming project. GForge, a very nice collaboration tool that I am using already on my projects has a wiki plugin. I can try it out there.

Now say wiki multiple times as fast as you can! :P

A Not So Holy Holy Week

When I was still unable to reach the faucet in our kitchen, when everything seems so big and mysterious, I remember a time in every year where I was forbidden to watch the television nor play loud music. It is the time of the year where everything seems to stand still in time and a blanket of sorrow covers the land... Well, that was then. Just a pigment of an old memory doomed to be lost forever. I remember Holy Week as "holy" back then. Everywhere we go, I see old folks gathered around a replica of the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ chanting a very long prayer over a monotonous tone,"pabasa"as we Filipino call it. There were no children in the streets playing, everyone was either inside their homes or went to visit their provinces. But what is the Holy Week really? According to the wikipedia,

Holy Week is the Christian week from Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday. Each of the days of Holy Week has its own traditions of services in the West. Believers are encouraged to follow in their prayers with readings from the Gospel the account of each of the actions from the time of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the crucifixion and death of Jesus on Good Friday and the resurrection on Easter Sunday. While each day has special mass celebrations in the Western churches, the week's most elaborate services are on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. In the Reformation, emphasis was taken away from the Passion and placed upon the resurrection of Jesus, but contemporary Protestant Churches, as well as the Roman Catholic Church, hold the three days between Good Friday and Easter to be the holiest days of the calendar.

There you have it. It is supposed to be the holiest days of the calendar! Even holier than Christmas or my birthday :) But what do people do now during these seasons? The "pabasa" becomes rap or ballads, people are heading to the beaches if not to higher grounds. There are people who do go to the grottos and churches and pray there. But most of them are just there to socialize. For them, it's a little time away from work, a time to be with friends and have fun. Hmmm... We even have our special entry in the wikipedia regarding Holy Week!

Philippines

In this largely Roman Catholic nation, Holy Week, known as Simana [Semana] Santa, is treated as one of the most important religious festivals of the entire year. At Mass on Palm Sunday, Catholics carry "palaspas" or palm leaves to be blessed by the priest. [read on]

I am not a holy man, nor am I a good follower of the Catholic Church. In fact, I only hear mass during Christmas, weddings, and my birthday. But I also don't wreck havoc to the meaning of Holy Week. My motto for the week, If you can't do it the way its supposed to be, then don't do it at all. Of course if someone had invited me to go to Boracay, this would had been an entirely different post :)