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Welcome to WhatNotWiki

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In the dark, quiet, stillness of night - well past the Witching hours - the necessary arcane tasks and
preparations were complete ... symbolic codes hidden on the server, database
instantiation complete ... the summoner slumped back, resting his head on the chair, as his
hand streched out to make one final squeeze on the trigger ...

Submit

"click"

  ...
 ...

system@whatnotwiki:> MediaWiki has been successfully installed.

system@whatnotwiki:> Errors=0

His objective achieved, he let escape a quiet, "phew!" Easing to his feet, he huffled off to bed, himself.

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So Here We Are! ... Now What?

Let's get started!

I have always viewed computers as tools that can provide leverage for accomplishing tasks that might otherwise be unachievable. As such, I've employed them to some advantage in areas of diverse scope and range - some simplistic or mundane, some complex or tedious. As technology developed, I continuously explored new applications to increase the application of leverage.

Various circumstances placed me in the position of a "user" of software developed by others - I was not positioned as a programmer, and missed (just barely) the possible joys of being a "Hacker" (programmer subculture) in the boom time. Instead, I pursued other studies and objectives, looking to computers as tools in those endeavours, using and adopting (and adapting) the constantly expanding wealth of commercial applications to my benefit.

I made no significant modifications under the hood, but I did learn to keep a machine well tuned and capably of running the latest software. I upgraded my hardware every 18 months or so, and used it at the limits of performance. Perhaps I was a user of power, if not a power user.

While I ran the latest and greatest software, I was always frustrated in the limitations inherent in using tools created by someone else, which never exactly conformed to my vision of "how it should work." Nonetheless, my machines provided effective tools in diverse endeavours. To summarize a few:

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Proliferation of Technology Trees Obscures the Forest

The now almost ubiquitous insertion of technology into our daily activities offers us potential leverage of astonishing scope. It also threatens to overwhelm - with too many branch and too many trees threatening to obscure the vast potential of the forest.

This merits some consideration, a concerted exploration, and development of more detailed plans for apply leverage - rather than being carried away.

I started this wiki as a repository for collecting, and (hopefully) organizing the tools and potential within the existing and ever expanding wealth of technology bits of information - a centralized repository of knowledge, ideas, observations, instructions, facts, ideas on information technology: "InfoBits."

It may incorporate and include, in some loose but cohesive organization, elements concerning information and knowledge in the context of:

• creation

• accomplishments

• characterization

• tools

• business

• personal

• communication

• artistic

• academic

• education

• design

• development

• modelling

• management

• knowledge

• records

• activity

• financial

• regulatory

• entertainment

• remembrance

• production

• work

• construction

• reporting

• privacy

• property

• social

• rights

• responsibilities

... at least to start with. That's the long-winded raison d'être. Some alternative attempts at more concise statements of purpose follow. I try to be flexible.

Statements of Purpose

Purpose... in Principle

Create a collection of (useful-hopefully) information (notes, findings, experiences, frustrations, ideas) concerning information and knowledge management, including:

• working with computer systems,
• computer systems that work,
• algorithms for intelligence,
• intelligent algorithms,
• philosophy and metaphysics,
• science,
• art.

Principle Purpose

This space exists in Wiki form (using the MediaWiki framework), because the structure and utility of Wiki's are beautiful and beautifully suited to the Principle Purpose. In the spirit of the original wiki - Front Page still up and running WikiWikiWeb, contributions from any and all interested parties are welcome and would help to build up a resource of larger utility and greater robustness - in the Wiki fashion).

This space also serves as an experiment in wiki creation and utility in collecting, organizing, and using knowledge and information. I'm a novice wikian - but knowledge and information management intrigues me, generally, and wiki's as tool intrigue me specifically. Which is to say, more directly, that this space serves to:

• test/demonstrate wiki format for knowledge collection,
• experiment with knowledge/information management tools,
• study/learn mechanics and schemantics of website wiki creation, use and management.
• a live laboratory of managing information and knowledge collection, presentation, and retention.

Which is to say (I think) I'm not sure what will happen, or how. But this seems like a good place to get started with jotting down some ideas, and that's what's happening here.

Philosophical / Social / Economic - Perspective

Open - Source, Information, Ideas, Communication

• Open software works. OpenSource
• Open Government works. Open Government
• Open education works. Open Education
• Open data works. Open Data
• We should all be more open.
• This site is shared with that philosophy.

Knowledge should be shared - for the benefit of common.

In philosophy, ethics, and political science the common good (also common wealth or common weal) is a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all or most members of a given community.
The good that is common between person A and person B may not be the same as between person A and person C. Thus the common good can often change, although there are some things — such as the basic requirements for staying alive: food, water, and shelter — that are always good for all people.
Common good

What Wiki

• WikiKnowHow from WhatNotWiki - Practice, Procedure, Lessons (Learned, Lossed, Etc.)

• Tools And Technique - Useful contructs for constructing stuff.

Wiki Not - Insight into Errors

We learn from our mistakes far more than from our successes; nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Error-Warning-Detour]

What Now - Superious Revelations

[Random Bits]

Now What - Serendipity

• MediaWiki - The number one in wiki software, powering Wikipedia ... and MainPage
• Drupal - The Backbone of dgbutterworth.com (but not the wiki)

Linux and Beyond

• GNU/Linux -- what it is!

flavors I've tried to love:

• • Ubuntu
  • Mint
• Learning Linux
• Setting Up Linux

Characters Fonts Titbits

Scratch Pad

- Stuff to say but no place to say it.