Thesis/Glossary

Apache a popular open source web (HTTP) server.

blog a publicly accessible journal published online using specialised software, where entries are presented in reverse chronological order, usually written by a single author, or a small group. Most blogging software supports RSS, which allows readers to subscribe to a blog, and automatically receive updates.

CamelCaps a method of joining words together by capitalising each word before removing spaces between words. Commonly used by programmers, and in some wiki systems.

CGI Common Gateway Interface. A technology used by web servers to allow the server to communicate with an external application, allowing the application to respond to a user request.

click-stream a list of links or web pages a user follows while browsing the Internet

CSS Cascading Style Sheets. A document used to store formatting information for a HTML page. CSS facilitates the separation of content and formatting.

CSU Charles Sturt University.

digg a social bookmarking website presenting science and technology news. Users may vote news items up and down, varying the popularity of the item.

extreme programming an incremental software development methodology, emphasising the need for the software and developers to be adaptable, to be able to respond quickly to changes during the development lifetime.

gift culture a community where goods and services are given away in exchange for favours or respect.

GNU Recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix. A free operating system and related tools and applications.

group-think the act of conforming to the shared opinion of a community, without a significant attempt to consider alternatives

Hacker an enthusiast. Specifically, in this document, a software developer. N.B. While this is the original meaning of the word, today it is often corrupted to mean someone who breaks security.

hook a software construct whereby a module may request to be called to handle an event

HTML Hyper-Text Mark-up Language. A document format used for writing and formatting web pages.

HyperCard a powerful and flexible programming environment written by Apple Computers.

IP address Internet Protocol address. A unique number assigned to all devices (typically computers) connected to the Internet. This number facilitates the forwarding of information on the Internet to the correct destination.

ISP Internet Service Provider. An organisation who provide Internet access.

JavaScript a scripting language commonly used for performing simple tasks within a web browser.

MIME type Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions type. A part of an Internet standard used for specifying information (typically file) formats. The MIME type specifies a content type and subtype. The major types are application, audio, image, message, model, multipart, text, and video.

MediaWiki database-backed wiki software developed closely with Wikipedia and its community. Probably the most popular and recognisable wiki engine.

MySQL a popular open source database management system.

namespace in MediaWiki a namespace is an abstract virtual container allowing articles to be grouped such that articles from different namespaces with the same name do not conflict. In MediaWiki namespaces are for separating different types of content, such as help content, personal content, templates, and images. Namespaces are by a phrase placed before a colon in the full identifier of an article, eg. Help:FAQ.

NPOV Neutral Point of View. A Wikipedia policy stating that 'all articles must be written from a neutral point of view, that is, they must represent all significant views fairly and without bias' (Wikipedia Contributors 2006k).

open-content works not produced for profit and released for distribution and improvement by others at no cost. Such works are often written collaboratively.

open source open-content source code publishing, where the source materials used in generating the end product are also released. Most commonly refers to open source software, where the source code is released along with the finished product.

PageRank A method for determine a numerical approximation of the reputation of a web page, used by Google search for raking search results.

Perl the specification for a level interpreted programming language sharing features with C, and AWK well suited to processing text files.

perl a software implementation of the Perl specification.

PHP PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. A popular open-source programming language commonly used for writing web applications.

PIM Personal Information Manager. Software that combines features such as notes or todos, calendars or communications (email/instant messaging/telephone/fax), as an organisation aid to the user.

podcast a collection of files (typically audio or video) distributed on the Internet using the enclosures feature of RSS to "push" the files out to subscribers. Podcatcher or aggregator software allows users to subscribe to RSS "feeds" which signal the software to download new files as they become available.

RCS Revision Control System. Software used to manage multiple versions of files (such as documentation or program source code). Such a system typically allows a user to review or revert to previous versions, as well as track changes and related meta-data (contributing user, date etc.)

RSS Really Simple Syndication (most common meaning). A specially formatted file published on the Internet, containing a series of entries. These textual entries usually contain a summary of available content, such as blog items, news items, or podcast items. End user software is used to automatically collect up-to-date versions of these files, and present the contained summaries to the user. An "enclosures" feature allows the inclusion of a file (typically audio or video) with each entry.

seeding creating the initial set of pages in a wiki, providing an initial structure and guidelines for users.

Slashdot A popular technology news site, with a large and active community. The Slash software used on the site contains a moderation system used to rate and filter the often hundreds of comments posted in reply to each news item.

social bookmarking web based collaborative repository of Internet bookmarks (URLs or links). Such repositories typically support some sort of rating or commenting mechanism to help visitors find and manage bookmarks.

Special Page a set of dynamic pages in MediaWiki, facilitating functions such as deleting pages, searching, moving pages, logging in and out, and various administration functions.

spider or crawler. Automated software typically used by search engines that and downloads web pages, using links in pages downloaded to find new pages to download.

SQL Structured Query Language. A programming language designed to provide an interface to database management systems.

user sub-pages Sub-pages are a feature of the MediaWiki software where pages may be created logically "beneath" another page. For example, a page titled Animals may have a sub-page called Animals/Dogs. A user sub-page is a sub-page beneath a users personal page in the "User" namespace.

wiki 1.a website allowing collaborative authoring, where users may add edit and remove text (or possibly other media) in a single central repository of "pages". 2. software that facilitates such functions.

Wikimedia A not-for-profit organisation co-founded by Jimmy Wales. Wikimedia maintains several web sites including Wikipedia, Wikinews and Wikibooks.

Wikipedia A free open-content multi-lingual encyclopedia run my the Wikimedia foundation.

WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get. A phrase used to describe the ideal in document editing, that the content will appear on the printed page (or other final format) as it does on screen (during editing).