"Blog This" or "Wiki It"

[craigcmehil]

With all the talk of Blogging 101 in SDN and BPX and Why I have/haven't created or modified a wiki... lately I wonder if everyone has grasped the basic of "Do I blog it or do I Wiki it?"So what's the difference between me writing a blog about something or writing a Wiki entry about something?

Well first the basic difference is the Wiki is designed to grow and the blog not. So does this mean you shouldn't blog it? Of course not, but you should consider to Wiki it!There's an unwritten standard here in the Community, Blogging 101 in SDN and BPX gives some of the golden rules but as for the standard well that's something a bit different and those of you who started off blogging on "SDN" back when I did know that standard pretty well - we after all created it!

Since then we've been joined by thousands of more users as well as hundreds of more bloggers gone are the days where it was easy to read through each and every blog whether it related to my areas or not, gone are the days where when someone posted a blog you didn't like you could comment tell them and have no worry that it would happen again, gone are the days that our blogs were Please subscribe to our new links and even better gone are the days of static content as well as gone are the days that we "developers" are left on our own to hack away, now we are joined by another group of excellent individuals that present challenges to us and offer their understanding Embrace Change are now in our community and we should be happy for the explosion of new content and new thought.

With all of these changes over the years (wow I wrote my first SDN blog back in June of 04 happened to be about PHP and SAP, together at last?! as well) now we live in a new Community one with new players each and every day one that needs to open itself up to new thoughts and ideas one with a strong foundation but as you go up and out into each of the branches it can get a little shaky (kind of like yesterday in Germany with Hurricane "Kyrill").

So how does one adapt to this brave new world? Well first and foremost one has to think and remember back to the days when you first started and how overwhelming it all seemed, back to the days before we had a Wiki when you had limited choices for updating or sharing your content.Well now that you are thinking about it, think back to all of those blogs you've written and ask yourself how many of those could (if you were do them now) go into the Wiki for others to expand on instead of sitting here as a blog where the best that can happen is long drawn out comments that end of forcing you to write a whole new blog as the comments have evolved into a whole new topic? I found at least 10 (e.g. BSP/HowTo: Generate PDF Output from a BSP.) of my own blogs that if I did them today I would put them straight into the Wiki, whereas blogs like this one (e.g. or How I started with SAP Web development...) I would leave as a blog.

Let's throw out an idea here,SDN or BPX Blog - a weblog written for the purpose of sharing an idea or thought, personal experience or that of real life dealing with business, technology or SAP or Industry related. News, thoughts, ideas and a way of doing something. Generalizations and theories are here.

SDN or BPX Wiki entry - a creation of content concerning the "how to" of this or the "how to" of that, step by steps and how to achieve a specific goal. Specifics are here.

Again just an idea, does it address the concern of quality? I think so as it encourages a different approach and at the same time makes clear a concept of "blogging on SDN or BPX".

Now are those the only two options? What if I "blog it" and "Wiki It" what if it fits into both? My sharing an idea a way of doing it and then adding it to the Wiki so others can expand it and make it better? That works as well!Is this something you have to do? Not at all, this is something you may do - SDN and BPX does not "force" anyone to do it a certain way we leave the decision up to the community and you are the community therefore you decide.

So how does one "Wiki it" if you should chose to do so, well it's quite easy in fact easier than when you want to "Blog it", oh and I'll share this little bit before I go further.

It happens to be something that is really annoying to me, the mails I get saying "What about points" and they close the mail with "Points are not that important" come on, if you want the points just be honest I can live with it! My 20K jacket is awesome and the 30K bags are even cooler Rich will have his in the mail soon! So as everyone can see in the screen shot the Wiki has points as well! We will give points for good contribution based on community response just as we do for all contribution here.

Updated! - You all know now that points have a much greater purpose and we no longer send out t-shirts, etc.  

In the Wiki we just made it even easier for you to "say" something, notice also in the screen shot the tab "Notify Moderators" check that out it gives you the chance to notify us (good or bad) about a page or changes to the page - use it! Have you used the Wiki yet? Have you changed or added to the Wiki yet? What are you waiting for? Oh wait not sure how to use it? How about we go through a short and simple little exercise and not only will you learn more about the Wiki but you will also get something for your trouble - can't beat that deal right?So how do you "Wiki it"? It's actually quite simple and for that I'd like you to click the follow link then do the follow steps.

1. Click this link
2. Now click the tab that says "EDIT"
3. Go into the list of "test pages" and type "YOUR NAME - My Test Page"
4. In the previous step be sure to replace "YOUR NAME" with your actual name
5. Now find your Business Card URL and highlight your name, click the little icon (looks like a globe) and choose "external link" see it? Good now enter your Business Card URL there.
6. Now hightlight the words "My Test Page" and click the same icon again, this time type "Your First Name" followed by Test page (e.g. Craig Test Page) in the alias field at the top.
7. Save the page

What you should have is something like this.

1. Now click the link and it will open a new page with your current title (e.g. Craig Test Page) with the area for you to fill in your content
2. Add some content (anything it's only a test) and save the page
3. If you click the "bread crumb" at the top back to the page before

You'll notice the little plus sign is gone and your link is now a normal "wiki" link.Now why do I want you to do all this extra work for a "test" page well because I want to help you learn the Wiki and since I'm so generous I will give everyone that does this "2" points just for doing this little exercise. Add your name and on the 1st of each month I will update the points for everyone who has done (this is why I need the Business Card URL) remember only one entry per person and no cheating!