View source for How can I participate

There are 5 primary ways to contribute, and at least 5 or 6 types of content:

==General ways to contribute==

===Add new pages===
Creating a new page is [[Help:starting a new page| easy]]; you just need something to say.  As you look at the types of content below, you might immediately recognize some area to which you want to contribute.  You can also check [[Special:WantedPages]] for a list of missing pages / broken links - places where one article wants to link to another, but that second article is missing.  Adding even a small draft article here makes the site much better.

If you prefer to start with a page that is missing or needs help, the [[Special:SpecialPages]] link (always available on the left navigation pane) has some reports that will show were help is needed.

This is a great area for someone who thinks of themselves as a writer, but is also great for someone who just wants a place to put notes and reference material from their discovery of the Wardley Mapping technique.

===Edit existing pages===
Some people will find that they are good at creating good first draft articles, but that they are not good at finishing them into nice, complete articles.  Others will write nice complete articles, but won't remember to add good categories or links to other related articles.  Even if an article is well written, complete, well linked, and well categorized, over time, it may need some clean-up.

This is a great area for someone who enjoys editing as much or more than writing, or who likes to fix things more than they like to create something new.

===Help organize the structure===
The encyclopedia becomes much more interesting when the articles are properly cross-referenced, indexed, and have some kind of logical structure.  As the number of articles grows, the need to improve this organization (and explain to others how it works) grows too.  There are a number of useful tools built into this wiki to help with this, but they need an organized mind to put them to good use.  Look at the [[Help:Formatting]] section, or at other help pages on [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents| MediaWiki] to learn about links and categories.  You can also look at [https://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia] for examples of how information is organized using this type of wiki.

===Help automate the site===
Templates are magic tools to help do many things in a fast, repeatable, simple way.  If you like connecting rules together to help automate some process, this might be an interesting area for you.  It doesn't require any really programming skill, but a programming / engineering mindset is helpful.  Follow the help link on the left, and start researching how templates work.  Then create a few useful templates here, and publish some help articles on how to use them.

===Help beautify the site===
Colors, graphics, icons, and I don't know what else we might need, but most of these pages could use a face lift.  The site is heavily text oriented, but I am sure there are things that can be done to improve it.  Look at Wikipedia to see what is possible / works well, then see what you can do to help us improve the appearance of our site!

==Types of Content==

===The Reference Guide===
The [[:Category:Reference Guide]] is a collection of useful data, definitions, groupings, etc. that are used with Wardley mapping.  The easiest way to contribute here is to look for anything that [[Simon Wardley]] has written that involves a list of things, or things that require a definition or categorization, and create a page with that list.  Then look for where he has expounded on any element of that list, and add that content (possibly as a linked page, or as a paragraph under a header in the original list).  Several pages have been created already, but are incomplete.

This is a great area if you are currently reading Mr. Wardley's book or blog, and want to capture some detailed explanation in an organized place.  Learn how the <nowiki> <cite> </nowiki> feature works, and you can link your content back to the original blog post!

===The Component Maturity Database===
The [[:Category:Component Maturity Database]] is a place to document the current maturity level of a component.  If you have taken the time to analyze a component in the industry, you can write a page about that component with your reasoning (and hopefully some links to references).  Sometimes the maturity level of an individual component is debatable; it is good to summarize the debate (whether resolved or not) on the page, so others looking for information find the whole story.  Over time, this should become a rich source of information about component maturity, and might even partially fulfill the role of [[Spend Control]] in Mr. Wardley's ideal corporation.

This is a great area if you are doing mapping projects on your own, and want a place to collect links / reference about a particular components maturity, and expose your thinking to the open source community to help validate / improve your thinking.

===The Cookbook===
[[:Category:Cookbook]]

===Example Maps===
[[:Category:Example Maps]]

===Help Content===
There are actually two different types of help

====How to use the wiki software====
This website is powered by [https://www.mediawiki.org MediaWiki], which is the same software that powers [https://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]. The '''''Help''''' link in the left navigation pane links to the MediaWiki help pages.  Those pages are generally about how to edit a page, how to do formatting, etc.  Most of the instructions / advice offered there will apply to this site, so it is a great place to learn about basic and advanced features of this site.  We can also host those pages here, so readers don't have to leave the site to get help, and so that we can modify those pages in any way that is helpful to our site.

This effort mostly involves reviewing our existing help namespace, cutting relevant pages from MediaWiki and pasting them to the matching location here, and then editing them to fix any incorrect references.  Or, you can write your own instructions.  Create a new page like you would any other, but put '''Help:''' in front of the page name, so it becomes part of the help system.

This is a great area from someone who is more interested in how the wiki works, teaching, and writing instructional guides.  It is also a good task for someone who wants to learn more about how a MediaWiki site works.  Copying text from MediaWiki and editing it to make it look and work right here is probably not a good task for someone who gets easily frustrated or bored researching and fine-tuning links or formatting codes.

====Styleguides for Wardleypedia====
As the encyclopedia grows, we will have many writers contributing new pages, and editing raw content into nicely written and formatted articles.  Each of the four major volumes will have a different look and style, but within each volume, we will want a consistent organization of the information, so the entire volume feels like a single piece.  To help writers with this, we need general style guides for the whole site, and specific style guides for each volume.  [en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia] has some guidance on writing for their site.  It may not be exactly right for us, so no need to adopt it completely, but that might be a nice starting place to see what a style guide could cover.

This is a great area for someone who enjoys the process of writing, editing, and publishing.  You will want to learn a little about how readers will use each volume, and then help us define and describe a nice way to present those pages.