Scope and Vision for the Wiki

[BradM]

Having spent a little time with Google Maps, Wikipedia, and other
sites looking at the region surrounding Pawtucket, I became curious
about the scope of interest of folks who might either look to PawWiki
for info or contribute to its growth and stability.

Several points came to mind.

Geography: Pawtucket is so close to Providence that it is a part of
the Providence Metro area. Pawtucket sits on the border of Mass, and
likely creates a larger community that includes folks and businesses
from Mass.

Dining, Entertainment, and Shopping are typically a big focus of wikis
like RocWiki. Where do Pawtucket folks go for those services.

Maybe it would be instructive to try to create a visions statement,
mission statement or the like for Pawtucket wiki and see how these
matters impact them

[John]

Hi, Brad. Been busy and wiki has taken a back seat.

Yes, I too have questioned whether or not Pawtucket requires it's own
wikispot. RI is a small state and perhaps it could be served by just
a few, i.e Providence area, South County, Newport (Aquidneck Island),
etc.

As you can see I've gotten no help on the wiki from other in
Pawtucket. I somewhat chalk it up to poor advertising. I'm not
sure. This is the first wiki I've been involved with. The folks I've
spoken to personally have mentioned they feel the wiki markup is
someone difficult to master. Blogging and/or commenting on a blog is
pretty much straight text.

As for your question on dining, entertainment, and shopping, dining in
Providence is world renowned, although there are good restaurants in
Pawtucket, too. A different class perhaps. Shopping? Malls in
Providence and North Attleboro. Not much in the way of shopping in
Pawtucket other than locally owned Mom and Pops. Entertainment, well
Pawtucket does have a active music scene and it's trying to grow it's
Arts and Entertainment.

The idea of the wiki came from a discussion a few of us had regarding
the poor City website. That there was no place for Pawtucket
residents or visitors to go and find pertinent/relevant/accurate
information. That's what I hoped th wiki to become. The goto place
for anything Pawtucket. If that's not the concept I apologize for
wasting your time. Your efforts have helped greatly in planting some
seeds. I'll continue to work on growing what we've started.

Thanks again...John

[BuffaloBobWiki]

No waste of time John, I think a local wiki can serve a useful
purpose. I have suggested to WikiSpot the idea of interwiki includes
that would help smaller wikis with a lot of the infrastructure stuff.

I was right with you on the three-way split of coverage for RI.

Again, I think it might help to try to put down some mission/vision
statement - put it on the wiki and get some input.

I have come to believe it is "build it and they will come" - or as I
have said "to build a community, first you have to build the wiki"

Maybe the answer is to build the infrastructure (got to do it anyway)
for a Providence wiki - then everything Pawtucket has a place within
and draws from non-Bucketanians who have info or experiences there.
Plus your Bucetanians get info about the broader area the depend on
for arts, entertainment, dining, etc.

If you like to try that, I would be willing to pitch in there as well.

Brad

[John]

Brad, I like that idea. I'm reviewing the InterWIki talk page now.
So, as I understand it you're suggesting we build a
Provideenceri.wikispot.org (or suggest someone do it), build that
structure and then when I want to enhance Pawtucket's wiki, I can have
the limited restaurant info we would have, but also a like to the
Providence and/or Newport one?

I suggested Providence, Newport, South County, but I'm now wondering
whether it should really be a Rhode Island one with links from those
that are interested, i.e. Pawtucket. RI is so small it's probably not
all that useful to duplicate effort. We are seeing that in these
economic times with attempts to regionalize services, i.e. schools,
fire departments, etc.

John

[BradM]

You could have just a Providence Wiki with all the Pawtucket stuff in
it. My town of Webster and neighboring towns are a little bigger than
Pawtucket in population and land area. They are just part of Rochester
Wiki.

All the restaurants, business, non-profits, etc can go on the
Providence wiki. It may turn out at first to be mostly Pawtucket,
because you and a few other friends, etc are doing the work.

You could keep the Pawtucket wiki to orgnanize links to all the
Providence stuff of particular interest to Dabucketanians. And it
would be a smaller, more manageable, "boutique" wiki - maybe local
politics, sports, community groups,etc. With the interwiki links you
can go back and forth.

In any event, you can still keep on trrucking with your Pawtucket
stuff with the idea fo not trying to address neighboring communities
until you go up one level.

More later.

Brad