2006-12-29-the-challenge-of-web-20-documentation-wordpresss-immense-codex.html

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layout: post
title: 'The Challenge of Web 2.0 Documentation: WordPress''s Immense Codex'
date: 2006-12-29 00:56:38.000000000 -08:00
categories:
- technical-writing
- wordpress
tags: []
status: publish

published: true
---

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<p>What happens when you have the ultimate open-source application, used by thousands, with tasks simple and complex. Everyone contributes to a wiki or some other collaborative tool -- and the result is a giant mess where no one can find anything except by keyword searches.</p>
<p>This is the predicament of the <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page" target="_blank">WordPress Codex.</a> Initially it may have included only one section, but it grew, and grew, and grew. And WordPress is still new.</p>
<p>Let's say you're just starting out with WordPress. Would you be intimidated by ... "The Codex"? Here's the home page of the Codex.</p>
<p><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page" target="_blank"><img id="image131" src="https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/wordpressdocumentation1.gif" alt="wordpress " /></a></p>
<p>I had to actually use the Snagit scrolling window capture to grab that. It's immense.</p>
<p>What is the solution to organizing massive amounts of user-contributed information? As Web 2.0, open-source applications, and user communities proliferate, these questions will become more pressing. This is essentially WordPress's own wikipedia. I think that ultimately such large databases of information will only be searched by keywords. So each post/entry should have ample keywords. (Microsoft Word seems to offer its help documentation by keyword as the default.)</p>
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<p>However, there's another technique -- one that hasn't been explored. WordPress allows you to do some single-sourcing in ways that might prove to be very useful. Each post or page has a unique ID. Similar to server-side includes, you can call and compile the content from a post/page ID onto a different page -- essentially single-sourcing your documentation.</p>
<p>Perhaps help administrators can select sets of documentation appropriate for different types of users -- beginner vs. advanced, developer, designer, etc.</p>
<p>I will be exploring this more later.</p>
<p>I'm actually not sure what the Codex runs with. I assumed it was WordPress, but it functions similar to a wiki. I've never actually contributed to it, though I've used it dozens of times.</p>