User talk:Peterblaise

Why not have "fiction" at wikibooks?

 * > Jimmy wrote: ... Fiction is absolutely not
 * > appropriate for Wikibooks ...
 * from http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/textbook-l/2007-June/001107.html

Huh?

At http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page search for "fiction" and see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=fiction&go=Go showing 458 results for "fiction" at Wikibooks.

But, I find no "fiction" page at Wikibooks: "Warning: You are recreating a page that was previously deleted.".

Can someone explain? You're joking, right?

What could "wiki" and "books" mean, after all?

From Google define:wiki


 * - A website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively.
 * - A collection of websites of hypertext, each of them can be visited and edited by anyone. “Wiki wiki” means "rapidly" in the Hawaiian language.
 * - online collaboration model and tool that allows any user to edit some content of webpages through a simple browser.
 * - A wiki ... is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content. Wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website (see Wiki software).

From Google define:book


 * - a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together); "I am reading a good book on economics"
 * - physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together; "he used a large book as a doorstop"
 * - ledger: a record in which commercial accounts are recorded; "they got a subpoena to examine our books"
 * - a major division of a long written composition; "the book of Isaiah"
 * - script: a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance
 * - a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are made; "they run things by the book around here"

Yet the front page says "wikibooks = TEXT books ONLY"?!? What could "text" or "textbook" mean, and why not have them in the name of the wiki after all if it's going to be limited to "textbooks"?

Google define:text


 * - the words of something written; "there were more than a thousand words of text"; "they handed out the printed text of the mayor's speech"; "he wants to reconstruct the original text"
 * - a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon; "the preacher chose a text from Psalms to introduce his sermon"
 * - textbook: a book prepared for use in schools or colleges; "his economics textbook is in its tenth edition"; "the professor wrote the text that he assigned students to buy"

Google define:textbook


 * - A book used in schools or colleges for the formal study of a subject.
 * - 1. a book used for instructional purposes, especially in schools and colleges. Cp. trade book. 2. as in a textbook in style and content, as a textbook definition of literacy.
 * - means a standard book about a branch of study (curriculum subject).
 * - Systems Architecture, 3rd edition by Stephen Burd; handouts covering additional/supplemental material
 * - a book prepared for use in schools or colleges; "his economics textbook is in its tenth edition"; "the professor wrote the text that he assigned students to buy"
 * - casebook: according to or characteristic of a casebook or textbook; typical; "a casebook schizophrenic"; "a textbook example"
 * - Textbooks are defined as "a manual of instruction, a standard book in any branch of study". They are further defined by both the age of the person who is to study the text and the classification of the subject matter itself. Textbooks are published by specialty printers to serve every request for an understanding of every subject that can be taught. It is a big business that requires mass volume sales to make the publications profitable ...

Huh? Misnomer? Why not change the name of wikibooks to Wikiralph if the title is not going to describe and relate to the contents? I call for moving the "textbook" contents of wikibooks to a new namespace or enhanced, smart categories under wikibooks, like wikibooks:textbooks as a subset to allow wikibooks to become the BOOK library it promises in it's title.


 * Wikibooks:textbooks
 * Wikibooks:fiction
 * Wikibooks:nonfiction
 * Wikibooks:nonfiction:more
 * Wikibooks:nonfiction:more:and-so-on
 * Wikibooks:unplublished manuscripts
 * Wikibooks:...and on and on.

Book category wise, http://www.lib.upm.edu.my/clas.html has a nice short listing - only 84 book categories! But, what was wrong with the 3 digits in the Dewey Decimal System? See http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/dewey.html ... and some endless challenges or discussions at links like http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/%7Elandc/fulltext/LandC_33_2_Wiegand.pdf - nothing perfect, buy why not try? Why not have such a bifurcated namespace scheme on wikibooks? We might as well get started now rather than wait for someone to create a separate Wikilibrary that includes periodicals, audio, video and so on!

I'm sure there are many, many schemes for organizing books by content. Yeah, yeah, I know about http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Main_page, but really, "mobile phones" is a category? Are we idiots who've never been inside a real library? It seems to me that the challenge is to proceed with both energies - contributing books and organizing them at the same time. Waiting for one task to be complete or perfect before doing the other seems impractical. I guess we need to do both at the same time - upload our books of any category while at the same time, moving them around the virtual shelves so they can be found by their content ... and title and author, of course. We are expanding "search" to facilitate searching by the classical: ... right? After all, these are the 3 card catalogs in our old-fashioned libraries, right? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_catalog. Let's get to work! ;-)
 * author
 * title
 * subject

-- Peter Blaise Peterblaise 15:02, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

PS - Doesn't anybody vet out the potential meanings of new words in the public lexicon before getting started and publishing new web pages and products? The same shenanigans are happening with "wikimedia" versus "mediawiki" versus the "foundation" versus "meta" and other combinations of those words. Which word represents a product and which represents the source identifier? No one really knows how to keep them straight! Wasn't there an on-line questionnaire recently trying to vet out the meanings of the names, and all this years after the fact of introducing the names the public?