Daniel and I met recently to share ideas about the Wiki page and discuss how we think it can be improved as a resource for developers, implementors, as well as the overall community. We both think the Wiki is a great resource, but at this current time it seems to be a little cluttered; difficult to navigate; and contains content that is redundant, stale, or inaccurate regarding the most recent versions of OpenMRS.
As a community, we need YOUR input. Below of some questions to help guide the discussion about the Wiki:
How do you think the Wiki could be improved?
What features do you wish were available?
What do you think should NOT be on the Wiki?
What are some challenges you face when using the Wiki?
How do you think the navigation schema could be improved?
What terminology is no longer relevant to current iterations of OpenMRS? For instance, since we’re using GIT, references to SVN are outdated.
What else is on your mind (about the Wiki)? Get it out!
Who does Donald Trump’s hair? (Asking for a friend…)
Lastly, we both think there is a ton of information NOT on the Wiki that would be invaluable to our community as well as new implementers of OpenMRS. We want all of you more involved in documentation! You have a lot of knowledge and experience that needs to be shared. You could possess the solution to a problem that another user has. You can help OpenMRS improve at an even faster rate! Your brilliant ideas could revolutionize implementation of OpenMRS worldwide!
As a community, we should feel empowered to share our thoughts and ideas in a way that’s constructive for the benefit of each other and the community as a whole.
I think the wiki its great but, the biggest problem I see is that is way too outdated. I seen documents from over 5 years ago. There is no quick startup on how to get openmrs installed. There is a doc that explains what you need installed but, I think we need to redo that one. Also what roles does openmrs need and how people can get started. I do understand some roles take time, training and trust but, at least a starting point. I’m willing to help at least on updating some of this stuff. Can I create a page and just putting updated docs them someone can decide where they should go to?
@chagara- i agree with you about the outdated but also the need for content curation in a way that allows us /newbies/ non developers or implementers to know where to go.
As far as roles, maybe we start with
newbies
analysts
developers
implementers
health care teams
i think that it would be great to put a page up with the updated docs and then we can curate them as we go… Thanks for that offer
I spend a few hours and It looks like this type of information is in the wiki but, in different spaces and all over the place. Before I make any changes then we need to decide where this part will be located and then decide what needs to be moved under that page. I don’t want to start moving pages and cause a ruckus.
I would love the documentation to be versioned alongside the code or module that it documents. For example in a similar way than what is done for the official AngularJS doc.
I know that Read the Docs does something along those lines. To be investigated…
Perhaps should we also force modules’ README.md to refer to wiki pages, so that each release would offer the opportunity to review the README file and figure out whether the content of its links are out of date.
Just took the words out of my mouth. Module usage documentation, best practices, code examples belongs in version control with the code. Not sure how it can be extracted and brought together into a coherent document format
Documentation on interaction with other modules, platform and ref app architecture and strategy etc that are higher level belong to the wiki.
I’d love to get some more input from non-devs as well.
@chagara great point about holding off on restructuring. We’re currently in the phase of gathering ideas and will only restructure when we have a solid plan in place that way we don’t interfere with anyone’s current projects. Also, there are over 900 nested posts in the Wiki, FYI.
@r0bby is right that the welcome page should be left alone and if it were to be edited in any way, it might be last.
Keep it coming everyone! Great constructive feedback so far!
