Goals

The following goals define the functions toward which we are developing our wiki. We believe this is tool is the best tool to achieve these ends, and that it only requires our committment.

Document Sharing Users can upload documents and share them with each other and the public Each document gets its own page. By typing {{document}} at the top of text, you categorize that page as a document. You can add additional categories (as suggested in the edit window). You can see all pages in the document category by looking at the documents page. We add a bibliographic entry, and different authors may add brief summary analyses brimming with keywords to help searching. A global search (in the top right) will find keywords in page titles or texts. Document pages are stable links, so you can link back to the wiki on other websites. Please read our social contract about respecting the rights of authors, given that many products produced by public agencies or under public grant agreements are part of the public record. By creating a redirect page you can easily cite a document page in text. Increase Collaboration Users can craft text together, provide updates on status, and respond to each others work. Collaboration cannot be forced, but we can make it more probable by increasing the flow of information. You can search for projects in the same watershed, in similar ecosystem sites, or search more generally for people working on similar topics. As you develop products or presentations, consider posting a digital record here, or embed video. By making your work more transparent, you increase the leverage of your work, making it more productive. Funding programs expect your efforts to draw strongly from the best available information.

Synthesis of Evidence Users can edit topic pages that cite efforts and documents that summarize existing knowledge and document competing postulates. Topic pages are used to summarize collective knowledge. Anyone can edit a topic page, within bounds set by our social contract Before creating a new page, search for your topic, or look at topic lists on relevant ecosystem pages. Provide evidence for your observations and claims by uploading and citing documents. If you want to present a line of reasoning that will not be edited, then upload a final product or memo as a document. Peer Review Using edits and discussion pages, any user can simultaneously provide commentary on a page or document You can paste document text into a wiki page. Reviewers can place comments into the text, or provide more extended comments in the talk page. An anonymous user can be created temporarily and distributed among a review team to provide blind review. You can break very long documents into several sub-pages. Comments are cumulative, and do not need to be combined. Reviewers can respond to other reviewers, rather then just creating conflicting reviews in isolation. Adaptive Management This community based synthesis of evidence and concerns provides the idea basis for adaptive management planning The River Delta Adaptive Management Strategy provides an experiment in using the wiki to support adaptive management. An effort page describes our conceptual framework and identifies a hierarchy of topic pages that define current evidence and assumptions. A wide range of users can interact to define uncertainties--stakeholders can present their evidence. A community of practice can instantly review and comment on programmatic assumptions.