Blogs from WikiToLearn

Bells and whistles from the WikiToLearn Community

Wiki, what’s going on? (Part 24-Badges and books)

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Books, badges and new functionalities are coming!

Hey WikiToLearn-ers! It has been a while, but now “What’s going on?” is back.

This last period was really difficult for all of us but we never forgot of WikiToLearn. In spite of personal commitments and exams, the members of our community kept working day after day and now we see the results!

Electromagnetism is now ready!

In the first episode of “Meet the authors” we have come to know Dan, a long term contributor of ours. It is now a pleasure to announce that his book about electromagnetism is ready! Dan is one of the most active editors in our community and on our website he wrote several books on the italian portal: analysis, physics I, mechanics and electromagnetism! Kudos Daniele for your strong dedication to the project and for your contributions!

We have badges!

The tech team never stops, the platform is always at his best and our sysadmins work hard to provide you great services. When we had problems we were able to solve them very quickly and to get back on our feet! In this period

our devs worked on a long-term requested feature for our website: badges! Yeah, now WikiToLearn has badges! Since our project was born we were asked a way to certify an imported or reviewed book and to give its author/reviewer the proper merit. We are very happy to announce that this feature is now ready! When you donate a book to be imported, a proper tag will be associated to it on the website.

Professors always asked us a tag to certify their books authority. To accommodate this request now we have the “Reviewed” tag. Are you the author of a specific book and you would like it to be certified? Now with WikiToLearn you can! One step further to guarantee high-quality content and to monitor revisions on our dynamical textbooks!

Let’s celebrate!

We never forget where we belong: that’s why we remind you that during this week Akademy2017 is taking place in Almeria! Akademy is the annual conference of the KDE community. WikiToLearn was born under the KDE umbrella and still today we fell part of the KDE family. This year WikiToLearn is represented at Akademy by Vasudha, a GSoC student of ours working on Ruqola. Today we remember Akademy with extreme pleasure: two years ago, during Akademy2015 our project was officially born!

Since the first official announcement to the public, so much happened. We can consider ourselves satisfied for the hard work we did and for the initial outreach we had. People feedbacks pushed us to work better and better to improve functionalities and to satisfy users’ needs. In this period we had the occasion to spread the word about WikiToLearn and we could obtain substantial involvement in our projects. We are extremely grateful to all the members of our community for events organized, books donated for importation, reviews and creation of new material on the platform.

For us now it’s time to work even harder. During these two years we came up to realize what we were doing properly and what has to be modified. In the next few months we are working on communication and style improvements to enlarge our community.

Content creation and usability are the two main issues we are facing right now.  Any kind of user should be aware of what the platform offers and should be encouraged to write on it. WikiToLearn collects dynamical textbooks and in the incoming future this innovative feature of our product has to become our strength point!

 

We are working for you, WikiToLearn-ers! Stay tuned, spread the word, join.wikitolearn.org and start sharing your knowledge in a completely innovative way!

 

Wiki, what’s going on? (Part 22-Throw back time)

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A glorious flash back to one year ago

WikiToLearn is doing great recently, but where were we one year ago?

Exactly one year ago I was about to have my first experience with WikiToLearn. When I left Milan, this day one year ago, I only knew I was going at CERN (Geneve) to start working at this project called WikiToLearn…

I didn’t know what a Sprint was neither what exactly I was going to do at a WikiToLearn-Sprint. I wrote a course on complex analysis (ITA) and I got it imported on the website: the thing I didn’t realize was that I became a WikiToLearn-er in that precise moment.  So, I left Milan having seen the other members of the community only once and I didn’t know what was my role (probably because I didn’t have one) but I was extremely enthusiast for this opportunity.

On this day, one year ago I discovered a beautiful world. I started discovering the open source world without knowing anything about it. Our week at CERN was extremely insane! We woke up at 8:30AM and used to work until midnight. When we were done with our work and we should had gone to bed, we met at CERN’s cafeteria and had glorious moments till late night: what happens at the Sprint, stays at the Sprint.

I could say so many things about the Sprint that a blog post wouldn’t  be enough. I met special people whom I am still in contact with and I am really happy to see when I have the occasion. Back then, my journey in the open source world began and I simply don’t want to stop now.

Since then I worked every day of my life at WikiToLearn. I understood what my role in the project is. Simply, I became part of a new family.

This blog post is somehow different from the others of the “What’s going on?” series, but it is necessary. One year ago, when I wrote the first episode I didn’t expect it to become a series. Actually I didn’t expect WikiToLearn to become so fundamental in my life too. If you have ever read a “Wiki, what’s going on?” episode, be aware that this is where everything started.

There is no better way for you to understand what I felt (and still feeling) than become part of the Wiki-Fam. Come join us at join.wikitolearn.org and change the world with us!

 

Wiki, what’s going on? (Part21-Guess who’s back)

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“Wiki, what’s going on?” is back again and has a lot to say!

It’s exams period and many of us are studying for our exams. You should already know where to look for good material to ace your exams: WikiToLearn!

It’s been a while since the last episode came out and we have several things to talk about.

Let’s start with the most important one: WikiToLearn India Conference 2017! I am very pleased to announce that the first conference entirely dedicated to and organized by WikiToLearn has been a great success! I did not take part in the conference personally, but I’ve only got positive feedbacks about it. These days our social pages are sharing blog posts of people who attended the conference, don’t miss them to have a direct validation of these words!

I am positively impressed by the huge number of people who joined the conference and by the quality of the talks organized. From what I heard and read, I am also very pleased about the hype surrounding WikiToLearn during conference days.

It is somehow surprising to note how the project is growing and the global interest in it. The location, the number of volunteers, the great quality of given talks and the possibility of dialogue between audience and speakers are fundamental for the success of a conference. I could not be more happy seeing that #WTLIndiaConf had all these points!

Talking about numbers and statistics, it is encouraging to see the number of active users growing as well as the number of registered users on the platform. Exams period indeed: study with WikiToLearn, improve the quality of the material you are studying on and pass your exams (almost) effortless!

Our tech team is working on minor improvements to give you the best WikiToLearn day after day. We are working on an official document to help us during the test phases of new releases. Become an official WTLdeveloper and help us find and fix bugs!

Recently, we have also been to FOSDEM. No talks delivered, but excellent opportunity to spread the word about WikiToLearn in an international event. We spoke with several people involved in academia and open education. Two complete books were donated to WikiToLearn and are about to be uploaded on the site.

Our project happens to interest more and more people and this is amazing. Spread the word about WikiToLearn and become part of the family. Create books, share knowledge!

Part of the core group is planning its presence at OSCAL. With WikiToLearn1.0 perfectly running and WTL2 set up for the (upcoming) future, we have a lot to share.

Hopefully we are taking part in more and more events to make WikiToLearn known and to find new, willing, collaborators. The WikiToLearn family is waiting for you!

This episode ends here… Hope to see news from you, WikiToLearn-ers!

 

Wiki, what’s going on? (Part19-XMas is coming!)

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Christmas with the WikiToLearn community

 

Let’s start with important things. Last Sunday the Milan local group had a special dinner to celebrate the incoming Christmas holidays. For sure we have to thank Spinnski: food was great! During the dinner we had Secret Santa: you receive a gift, given by whom? According to fate. It was funny, and we had lot of laughs for some funny gifts.

Ok, let’s get back to business. We are working to get more collaborations concrete, especially from the institutional point of view. WikiMediaCH, Rete della Conoscenza (Italy) and Imperial College London are among the most important “institutions” we are going to collaborate with. The test group is working harder and harder to get a (adjustment) stable release by Christmas, let’s say our Christmas gift for you! Nothing will apparently change for you, but the real show is in the infrastructure.

Stay tuned, we have great plans for the new year. The first thing you have to wait for is WikiToLearnConf India2017, happening in Jaipur 18-19 January. The first WikiToLearn global event is coming: call for papers are open, join and share Knowledge!

Probably you will read the next “Wiki, what’s going on?” episode in the new year. Hopefully great work is incoming and we hope to impress you more and more! Let me take this occasion to wish you happy holidays, from the whole WikiToLearn community 😀

 

Wiki, what’s going on? (Part 18-Making it real)

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WTLGoinOn

 

WikiToLearn1.0 action plan is getting real

 

Release the new version and start working to improve it : done.

Ok, done! Now let’s start talking about it, spam it, find new users and grow more and more!

Yes, more or less this is the work we are doing in these weeks with our team.

Unimib is funding posters, which we are using to start a new promotional campaign for WikToLearn! Promo team is working on these new info-graphics and you are going to love them. Unimib students, stay tuned and get ready to spot our posters all around you.

We are working hard also from both institutional and more informal contacts: new collaborators are coming. The team is organizing and taking part to new events in the incoming future; stay tuned, more people are going to talk about us and you’ll appreciate our efforts! We are also planning a series of new talks to present the new release and to get more and more people involved in our project.

We are also working on agreements with different universities and institutional centers such as GARR, Imperial College and UCL.

Christmas is coming, if you have ideas to celebrate it with our community contact us! WikiToLearn1.0 is going to celebrate its first XMas 😉

C’mon, new year with the new WikiToLearn is coming: the moment is now!

Share your knoledge, share freedom!

wtl1-0