What is Miami Wiki?
Miami Wiki a free, editable, community-centric website for the city of Miami and Miami-Dade county. The Miami Wiki project is part of a national effort through Code for America's "Race for Reuse" Program, and we hope to give Miami a greater presence combining technology and civics.
A Wiki? As that the same "wiki" as in Wikipedia?
Yep! A wiki is a collaborative website that anyone can edit. Wikipedia - the website - is based off of those same principles.
That's... interesting. But what's the goal of this thing?
The vision for the Miami Wiki website is to develop civic engagement through technology by increasing collaboration, local media, open data and knowledge sharing across the city. Through the wiki - a linked set of webpages that anyone - even people who aren't web developers - can edit and expand, we hope to feature local history, media, opinions, interesting characters and everything else related to Miami and Miami-Dade County.
That sounds awesome. How can I help?
Since wikis work better with large groups and I'm only one person, we are in need of editors and subject leaders to help expand the website. Feel free to create pages for any Miami-related subject you feel passionate about on this website. By adding to the website, you will be helping people around you become more informed citizens. It's straightforward adding pages on the Miami Wiki website, and any page can be edited as well.
Great. So, uhm, how do I add or edit pages?
Editing pages is a snap! Go to any existing page and click on the "Edit" button. The page you'll see will turn into a giant text editor, and you can add or edit information. (Note: If you plan on adding or editing a lot of pages - and I hope you do - feel free to create a user account first.)
Adding pages is easy too! Just search for the page you want to create by using the text box. If it's not there already, click on the "Create this page" button. Don't worry if you don't have the page perfectly formatted - the collaborative nature of a wiki means that other people can help fill in those missing pieces.
But doesn't that mean anyone can edit the pages to add nasty things / delete pages / etc?
Not necessarily. There is a record of any change made, so we can revert to old versions if newer changes are inaccurate or abusive. There are other safeguards we can put in as well if it gets bad; but that's down the line.
