This page has been superseded by the features listed at http://mixins.projects.unamesa.org/Wikispaces+project for the initial prototype. This page should however not be deleted, as it might be needed for future reference.

Features and implementation:

We will be using the Hesperion textbook "Where There is No Doctor" as an example of such a digital supplement.
Each digital supplement would essentially consist of two components:

• an online component, provided by Wikispaces
• an offline component, provided by TiddlyWiki

Features are separated into technical features and "todo" items for integration vs new features or configurations for specific use cases.

See also the TiddlyWiki Wikispaces prototype

Technical integration

• Formatting - support for all wikispaces markup
• Tags - get access to tags for pages

Additional User Interface features and issues

Online component:
The online component will take the form of a Wikispaces space, with some key differences:

• A splash screen for each space, allowing the user to choose language and localization (still tentative about the splash screen)
  • The content will be customized for the user's language preference and localization wherever possible. Providing this sort of content would most likely require a huge effort.
  • The user will be able to change the language and localization once past the splash screen as well.
• A layout customized to increase usability and navigation
• Navigation by:
  • Chapters as in traditional text .tags might be used for this if there was a consistent nano-format in place (i.e. tags with a certain prefix; e.g. "chapter:5.2")

• by tags/topics, to improve access to relevant information

• How large will the individual "content packages" be (e.g. one page per chapter/section/paragraph)?

• >> => relevant for:
• >> * transfer to tiddlers
• >> * scope of discussions
• >> * scope of individual notes

• Private note taking features, available when logged in. A user can choose whether to share their private notes or not.
  • The user should be able to associate notes with specific parts of the content, and ideally when viewing content that has notes associated with it the user should be made aware of this and provided with an easy way to bring up those notes. Ideally we want to operate on a granularity level lower than chapters for associating notes with content.
  • Question: per-note publication flag; what if multiple authors have provided public notes; how to present those notes (popups?)

• The discussion feature will be maintained and used for both discussion of the text, and feedback and corrections for the authors. How to separate these, and keep them from getting messy?
• History feature will be made less prominent as it's relevance will be primarily to changes in the source text. How will users be notified of such changes? RSS/Email.

• In addition to the offline component provided by TiddlyWiki, users should be able to download sections of choice as PDF files or another easily printable format. How to integrate the extra contents (notes, discussions) there (e.g. as an appendix)?

Offline component:
The offline component will be provided by TiddlyWiki, with the ability to import content from Wikispaces and synchronize changes between the two.
Features will include:

• A GUI customized to be intuitive to first time wiki users
• The ability to import and synchronize:
  • either the entire text or particular sections of text (filtering by chapters, pages or tags)
  • optionally import the discussion associated with the content .How to achieve threaded discussions without relying on users manually applying the correct markup?

• optionally import their own user notes if any

• The offline component should provide the ability to "discuss" the content and to "annotate" it with private notes, to parallel the features offered by the online component.
• Several templates should be offered for each digital supplement when appropriate. For example for "Where There is No Doctor":
  • A general readers version
  • A health workers version
  • A content collaborators version for those actively participating in improving the text
• The offline component may offer interactive features in excess of what is available in the online component. Client-side storage and processing probably allows for easier syndication and aggregation of (targeted) content