Universal Edit Button

Last updated
Universal Edit Button
Original author(s) Travis Derouin
Initial releaseJune 19, 2008
Platform Cross-platform
Type Browser extension
Website universaleditbutton.org/Universal_Edit_Button/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Universal Edit Button is a browser extension that provides a green pencil icon in the address bar of a web browser that indicates that a web page on the World Wide Web (most often a wiki) is editable. It is similar to the orange "broadcast" RSS icon ( Feed-icon.svg ) that indicates that there is a web feed available. Clicking the icon opens the edit window. It was invented by a collaborative team of wiki enthusiasts, including Ward Cunningham, Jack Herrick, and many others.

Contents

History

The first version of the button, created in 2007 UniversalEditButton.png
The first version of the button, created in 2007

The concept was first conceived during the 2007 RecentChangesCamp in Montreal, Quebec. After the next RecentChangesCamp, coding began by Travis Derouin, Brooke Vibber and other programmers, the button was officially launched on June 19, 2008. [1]

Conversations on this idea started at RoCoCo (a RecentChangesCamp) in Montreal in 2007, [2] and discussions continued on the AboutUs wiki. [3]

Description

A screenshot from WikiIndex.org showing the Universal Edit Button in action UWEBinaction.png
A screenshot from WikiIndex.org showing the Universal Edit Button in action

The Universal Editing Button (UEB) is intended to enable an internet user to quickly recognize when a website—such as a wiki—may be edited. According to the UEB's creators, "it is a convenience to web surfers who are already inclined to contribute, and an invitation to those who have yet to discover the thrill of building a common resource. As this kind of public editing becomes more commonplace, the button may become regarded as a badge of honor. It serves as an incentive to encourage companies and site developers to add publicly-editable components to their sites, in order to have the UEB displayed for their sites."

Tim Berners-Lee's initial vision for the web was a read-write medium. [4] However, as the web matured, very few web sites offered users the ability to write or edit. The web became primarily a "read only" medium. In the 2000s, wikis spread the concept that the web could be editable. The success of Wikipedia, and the increasing utility of wikis like wikiHow, AboutUs.org, Wikivoyage and Wikia demonstrated the possibility that open editing could create usable information resources. [5]

Implementation

The plug-ins on the browser side recognize the specific form of the alternative link specification in HTML fragment: [6] 

<linkrel="alternate"type="application/x-wiki"title="Welcome to edit this page!"href="wiki?edit=myEditLink"/>

The href part tag species the edit page that corresponds with the page being viewed. Every server that is capable and willing to support the user editing can include this fragment and this way enable the button. Hence the button support can be relatively easily added to various web applications if the source code is available. The tag does not put any requirements on the details about the editing session itself and simply brings to the page where the user would also come by clicking on Edit tab (or similar). The button is normally used in the user editable pages, so no maintainer-only credentials should be asked to start a valid editing session. If only registered (logged in) users can edit, the button should bring to the register/login form.

Plug-ins are currently available for Firefox, Opera, Epiphany, and Chrome. [7] [8] [9] [10]

Supported websites

Websites supporting the Universal Edit Button include wikiHow, AboutUs.org, Wikimedia (including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and all other Wikimedia projects [11] ), MediaWiki software, DokuWiki, MoinMoin, PhpWiki, Socialtext, TWiki, the Creative Commons wiki, Foodista, Wikia, PBworks, WikkaWiki, Memory Alpha, Wired's How-To blog, WordPress (as a plug-in [12] ), and many others. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] Currently,[ when? ] the project's website lists over 80 other websites that have implemented support for the button.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiki</span> Type of website that anyone can edit

A wiki is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or limited to use within an organization for maintaining its internal knowledge base.

TWiki is a Perl-based structured wiki application, typically used to run a collaboration platform, knowledge or document management system, a knowledge base, or team portal. Users can create wiki pages using the TWiki Markup Language, and developers can extend wiki application functionality with plugins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MediaWiki</span> Free and open-source wiki software

MediaWiki is free and open-source wiki software originally developed by Magnus Manske for use on Wikipedia on January 25, 2002, and further improved by Lee Daniel Crocker, after which development has been coordinated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It powers several wiki hosting websites across the Internet, as well as most websites hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, Wikiquote, Meta-Wiki and Wikidata, which define a large part of the set requirements for the software. Besides its usage on Wikimedia sites, MediaWiki has been used as a knowledge management and content management system on websites such as Fandom, wikiHow and major internal installations like Intellipedia and Diplopedia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DokuWiki</span> Wiki software

DokuWiki is an open source wiki application licensed under GPLv2 and written in the PHP programming language. It works on plain text files and thus does not need a database. Its syntax is similar to the one used by MediaWiki. It is often recommended as a more lightweight, easier to customize alternative to MediaWiki. The 'Doku' in DokuWiki is short for Dokumentation which in German means documentation.

The following tables compare general and technical information for many wiki software packages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mantis Bug Tracker</span> Bug tracking system

Mantis Bug Tracker is a free and open source, web-based bug tracking system. The most common use of MantisBT is to track software defects. However, MantisBT is often configured by users to serve as a more generic issue tracking system and project management tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semantic MediaWiki</span> Software for managing structured data in MediaWiki

Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) is an extension to MediaWiki that allows for annotating semantic data within wiki pages, thus turning a wiki that incorporates the extension into a semantic wiki. Data that has been encoded can be used in semantic searches, used for aggregation of pages, displayed in formats like maps, calendars and graphs, and exported to the outside world via formats like RDF and CSV.

Notable issue tracking systems, including bug tracking systems, help desk and service desk issue tracking systems, as well as asset management systems, include the following. The comparison includes client-server application, distributed and hosted systems.

A personal wiki is wiki software that allows individual users to organize information on their desktop or mobile computing devices in a manner similar to community wikis, but without collaborative software or multiple users.

LyricWiki was an online wiki-based lyrics database and encyclopedia. In March 2013, it was the seventh largest MediaWiki installation with over 2,000,000 pages including 1.5 million songs. Prior to its shutdown, users on the site could view, edit, and discuss the lyrics of songs, which were also available for purchase from links on the site. Users were told to be mindful of copyright while contributing, and copyright violations were removed upon request. All the lyrics on LyricWiki were licensed through LyricFind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikia Search</span> Defunct free and open-source web search engine by Wikia

Wikia Search was a short-lived free and open-source web search engine launched by Wikia, a for-profit wiki-hosting company founded by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. Wikia Search followed other experiments by Wikia into search engine technology and officially launched as a "public alpha" on January 7, 2008. The roll-out version of the search interface was widely criticized by reviewers in mainstream media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of wikis</span>

The history of wikis began in 1994, when Ward Cunningham gave the name "WikiWikiWeb" to the knowledge base, which ran on his company's website at c2.com, and the wiki software that powered it. The wiki went public in March 1995, the date used in anniversary celebrations of the wiki's origins. c2.com is thus the first true wiki, or a website with pages and links that can be easily edited via the browser, with a reliable version history for each page. He chose "WikiWikiWeb" as the name based on his memories of the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" at Honolulu International Airport, and because "wiki" is the Hawaiian word for "quick".

PBworks is a commercial real-time collaborative editing (RTCE) system created by David Weekly, with Ramit Sethi and Nathan Schmidt, who joined shortly thereafter as co-founders. Based in San Mateo, California, United States, the company operates on a freemium basis, offering basic features free of charge and more advanced features for a fee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RecentChangesCamp</span> Unconference focused on wikis

RecentChangesCamp was an unconference focused on wikis, held from 2006 to 2012. It was named after the "recent changes" feature that is found in most wikis. RecentChangesCamp followed an Open Space model in having a program that was determined onsite by participants.

A wiki hosting service, or wiki farm, is a server or an array of servers that offers users tools to simplify the creation and development of individual, independent wikis.

Fandom is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics. The privately held, for-profit Delaware company was founded in October 2004 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. Fandom was acquired in 2018 by TPG Inc. and Jon Miller through Integrated Media Co.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wowpedia</span> Warcraft fictional universe fan website

Warcraft Wiki is a fan wiki about the Warcraft fictional universe. It covers all of the Warcraft games, including the MMORPG World of Warcraft. It is both a specialized wiki built around the Warcraft universe and a collaborative space for players to develop and publish strategies for Warcraft games. It was officially announced on 25 October 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foswiki</span> Enterprise wiki

Foswiki is an enterprise wiki, typically used to run a collaboration platform, knowledge base or document management system. Users can create wiki applications using the Topic Markup Language (TML), and developers can extend its functionality with plugins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VisualEditor</span> Rich-text editor for MediaWiki wikis

VisualEditor (VE) is an online rich-text editor for MediaWiki-powered wikis that provides a way to edit pages based on the "what you see is what you get" principle. It was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation in partnership with Fandom. In July 2013, it was enabled by default on several of the largest Wikipedia projects.

References

  1. ↑ Cleaver, Martin (2008-06-19). "The Universal Edit button launches today". WikiSym. Archived from the original on 2009-02-23. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  2. ↑ "RoCoCo". RoCoCoCamp.info. 2008-04-30. Archived from the original on 2009-03-15. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  3. ↑ Discussions on the AboutUs wiki Archived 2008-10-06 at the Wayback Machine  — AboutUs.org
  4. ↑ Tim Berners-Lee (2005-12-12). "So I Have a Blog". Decentralized Information Group (DIG). Archived from the original on 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  5. ↑ "About the Universal Edit Button". UniversalEditButton.org. Archived from the original on 2009-03-07. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  6. ↑ "Documentation, how to implement the button on the server side". Archived from the original on 2011-05-21. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  7. ↑ "Firefox plug-in". Archived from the original on 2011-06-10. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  8. ↑ Opera plug-in [ permanent dead link ]
  9. ↑ "Epiphany plug-in page". Archived from the original on 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
  10. ↑ "Chrome plug-in page". Archived from the original on 2010-10-06. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
  11. ↑ "Wikimedia announcement". Blog.Wikimedia.org. 20 June 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-03-07. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  12. ↑ "WordPress plugin". UniversalEditButton.org. Archived from the original on 2009-03-27. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  13. ↑ Gohr, Andreas (2008-06-20). "plugin:ueb". DokuWiki . Archived from the original on 2009-03-08. Retrieved 2009-06-11.
  14. ↑ Niall Kennedy (June 28, 2008). "Socialtext announcement". SocialText.com. Archived from the original on 2010-07-27. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  15. ↑ "TWiki announcement". TWiki.org. Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  16. ↑ "Creative Commons announcement". CreativeCommons.org. 2008-06-22. Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  17. ↑ "PBwiki announcement". Blog.PBWiki.com. 20 June 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  18. ↑ "WikkaWiki announcement". Docs.WikkaWiki.org. Archived from the original on 2009-03-14. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  19. ↑ Wikis Rally Around Universal Edit Button Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine — Webmonkey
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