TRU Wiki:About/Why

Flaming-wiki

Why Wiki?

To provide an online space that is simple, accessible, and lightly managed.

To share and document our work. Make it readily retrievable.

To promote iterative and open processes. See (Recent Changes), (Page History), etc...

What is it used for?

For things that use text and media.

For documentation, course information and materials, multi-authored and ongoing writing, and just about anything else.

Why are you calling this KUMU?

While "wiki" is the Hawaiian work for "quick", "kumu" means many things in that language: including "teacher", as well as "starting place" and "gathering place".

Special Features

Embed code for every page. So Sandbox:Test_Course on Kumu could be viewed in any web environment. Such as a WordPress space, a Learning Management System (such as Blackboard and/or Moodle), or the the TRU website. (WordPress also has [a special plugin] for even more precise rendering of MediaWiki pages.)

The "book creator" creates clean and formatted PDF or EPUB versions of assembled content in the Kumu space on the fly.

Namespaces and subpages. Automatically generated indices. Example. UBC Course Space.

Special:UploadWizard - guides copyright compliant media sharing.

InstantCommons - allow the usage of any uploaded media file from the Wikimedia Commons. Excellent media and page metadata (stats, citation, etc...).