Excellent.  Does this mean they show up in wikipedia and answers.com?
The quote says 'it's public wiki site'.  The bang for the buck is 
getting them into wikipedia.   

The dilemma is that 'formalized process' we wonks always think is 
so valuable and which leads us to believe we have to control the 
servers when really, we just need to be scrupulous with the 
record of authority.  At the very least, copy them over to the 
wikipedia site or make sure the links to the ROA are in there. 
Remember, people may not follow the links and they believe what 
they read first and often.   Intelligence analysis requires we 
compare and contrast alternatives and be ever conscious of our 
own mental models that are filtering our perceptions, and resulting 
in flawed analyses.   When the definitions sit side by side 
in a wikipedia page, rather than having the 'authoritative' 
definition, we see the alternatives.  Of such comparisons 
come innovation and better perspective, thus, better decisions.

For example, is an XML schema without methods really an '
object-oriented data model' or is that begging a technology 
to increase desire and therefore reach, and to improve the 
chance that implementations will use a technology that they 
otherwise would wisely not apply at that level of the application?

len


From: Chiusano Joseph [mailto:chiusano_joseph@b...]

The US federal government is doing this for enterprise architecture:

http://www.fcw.com/article90386-08-24-05-Web
"Federal architects ready glossary of terms" (released 8/24/05)

Excerpts:

- "The federal Chief Architects Forum has posted working draft
definitions of 175 enterprise architecture terms on its public wiki
site."

- "Volunteers from industry and government are working to define the
most common architecture terms, from "application" to "Extensible Markup
Language schema." "Having support helps," said Ira Grossman, chairman of
the forum."

- "Because the wiki is a public site, people can immediately start
commenting on the definitions, but a formalized process will be set up
in the next two or three months, Grossman added. Further rounds of
rewriting, editing and reviewing still need to be completed, he said."

- "The project's goal is to gain consensus among government architecture
practitioners on the exact meanings of some commonly used terms. "We've
got to be talking the same language; by that I mean have the same
vision," Grossman said."

The Chief Architects Forum (CAF) public wiki is at:
http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ChiefArchitectsForum%20
Link to the Glossary (from Wiki home page): 
http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Enterprise_Architecture_Glossary_O
f_Terms

I contributed the definition of "Reference Model", and perhaps some
others inadvertently.:)

Joe

Joseph Chiusano
Booz Allen Hamilton
O: 703-902-6923
C: 202-251-0731
Visit us online@ http://www.boozallen.com
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:len.bullard@i...] 
> Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 10:50 AM
> To: XML Developers List
> Subject: [xml-dev] Improving Standards and Specifications 
> with WikiPedia
> 
> In a recent discussion about sensor specifications, I pointed 
> out to one editor that it would be useful if the glossary 
> definitions in the spec were copied into WikiPedia where they 
> would instantly be available to interested parties.
> 
> Since a considerable number of editors hang out in these 
> parts, what say you?  Sometimes we don't always know which 
> definitions are being promulgated in standards or specs that 
> don't directly affect us but are consonant or dissonant with 
> work we are doing.  Wikipedia is neat way to find out about 
> the conceptual overlaps and to correct and converge, or at 
> least, expose the conflicts and determine when bifurcation is 
> warranted.  
> 
> The answers.com widget is a very handy one to have, and as 
> each spec or standard contributes it's definitions to 
> wikipedia, the overall value of the webAsLibrary goes up.
> 
> len
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org 
> <http://www.xml.org>, an initiative of OASIS 
> <http://www.oasis-open.org>
> 
> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription
> manager: <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php>
> 
>