Therefore, we have set up an extension on OWW that allows one to easily generate some simple line, bar or pie charts by simply introducing some wiki code and comma separated values.

The charts are generated automatically via the Google Charts API and therefore any changes made to the values within the wiki code values, will generate a new chart, on-the-fly.

We have set up a page with some very simple examples on how to produce such charts. There is more info at the official extension’s page at Google Code.

If you happen to be looking for something more complex that can handle not only data points but also equations, then you are looking for another feature we also support via gnuplot. You can find more info on this feature/extension here.

OpenWetWare will be presenting a poster and also a demo of how we use MediaWiki software to produce an environment that enables collaboration and sharing of scientific information among life science researchers.

So, what exactly is WikiSym?

WikiSym is the foremost conference devoted to using, developing and researching wikis. In our fourth year, only WikiSym brings together organisations that use wikis to meet face to face with leading and emerging vendors, active researchers and leading wiki consultants.

WikiSym 2008 explores and extends our thriving wiki community, building on the past 4 years to again bring together researchers, practitioners, and technical writers to gather, discuss, share best practices and develop knowledge .

For more details on the OWW poster/demo please visit “our” page on the wiksym2008 wiki.

Let me go over some of these new features so that you can take full advantage of them. Keep in mind that some of these features are only available for OWW community members. If you are not yet an OWW member, feel free to join us.

The Quick Nav
The quick nav is a cool dropdown select menu that displays your last 15 or so moves around OWW. This comes in handy when you are bouncing between pages. Just click and you’re there.

Bookmarking tools
We’ve added a few little icons that link to bookmarking tools like Connotea, CiteULike and del.icio.us. This will allow you to quickly save the revision of the page you’re currently looking at with all the relevant content required by these bookmarking services.

The Feedback box
As a way to further interact with our visitors and community, we’ve set up a quick feedback box that allows anyone to let us know their opinion regarding a specific question we happen to display within that box. It’s just a matter of typing in your short comment and click! It’s that simple.

 

Invite a friend
We are always interested in having new and interesting people join OpenWetWare. Therefore, we’ve set up a quick invite box that allows current OWW community members to invite their friends/colleagues to join.

We are cooking up the next batch of cool features… Do you have any ideas or suggestions for features you’d like to see developed/implemented on OWW? Let us know!

The article demonstrates the usefulness of the LaTeX extension for MediaWiki by enabling this great syntax to be used online in a collaborative environment such as a wiki.

It just happens that the LaTeX extension referenced in the article was written by Austin Che, a member of OpenWetWare’s steering committee. Which means that we’ve had a LaTeX enabled wiki for quite a while now

If you don’t know what LaTeX is, I’d first suggest a read at Wikipedia’s LaTeX page.

If you’ve got a grasp of what LaTeX is, I’d recommend you head over to OWW’s LaTeX page where you’ll find information on the advantages and disadvantages, software for writing LaTeX, PhD thesis LaTeX templates and more…

It takes a little digging, but the website is really sweet simply because it gives you the feel that, for any given protocol, you are looking at something that works. It’s been tested, validated, and in many cases even commented on and modified by any number of additional people.

Jonathan makes a good point here where he mentions that you are looking at something that has been tested, validated and in many times worked on collaboratively by a group of OWW members.

What Jonathan doesn’t mention is that although OWW is a great resource for protocols, there are other great features like the materials section, indexed reference sources and above all, a large community of researchers from all over the world.