MaplePrimes - answers and comments on Question, Invitation to Join the Maple Global Network on LinkedIn

Maple Wiki

alec — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:13:22 Z

For me, the problem with that is that I have to join LinkedIn for that, which I don't want to do. It is similar to joining Yahoo that we had to do earlier for a few Maple related groops started there by Carl DeVore.

Another possibility (that I personally prefer), is to post in Maple Wiki. One doesn't have to join any commercial organizations for that, and it is independent from Maplesoft.

By the way, it would be good if Maplesoft added a link to Maple Wiki somewhere on its site. That could attract a few more people interested in wiki to it.

Alec

One Maple group is enough

Chris Roung — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:56:05 Z

I don't like the idea of another forum on the same subject. Just a single go to source to find answers - mapleprimes.

Complementary Maple Groups -- Avoiding Duplication

Fred Chapman — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:07:34 Z

Alec, thanks for making clear the differences between the various online Maple communities. It is certainly important to understand the unique purpose of each one.

Chris and Alejandro, thank you both for pointing out the danger of having too many places to post Maple questions and answers. For that very reason, I will steer LinkedIn group members to MaplePrimes for Q&A about Maplesoft products.

In general, I agree with all your concerns. The Maple community is too small to splinter into separate groups without a good reason. Furthermore, none of us can afford to waste our limited time by duplicating the efforts of others.

I started the Maple Global Network group on LinkedIn to fill an obvious void -- there was no international Maple group on LinkedIn. There were already Maple and MapleSim groups to serve the local needs of Italian users, but there was no international Maple group until I started one. We now have 46 members!

I knew about MaplePrimes and wanted to avoid duplicating what already exists here. I am trying to steer the LinkedIn group in directions which are complementary to MaplePrimes. I do not want to compete with or attempt to replace MaplePrimes.

I was unaware of the Maple Wiki, but I know about it now. One of the things I propose to do if I build an independent website for the Maple Global Network is to "direct traffic" -- to have a well-organized directory of Maple resources which clearly explains where to go for each kind of resource. I can mention MaplePrimes and the Maple Wiki, for example.

As for the role of Google Apps in the Maple Global Network, I'm still thinking about that and discussing it with the group on LinkedIn. I was going to require people to open LinkedIn accounts before signing up for Google Apps accounts (as a way to authenticate the membership), but perhaps I will reconsider that policy and offer the services in an a la cart fashion -- some members may be interested in one but not the other.

Nothing is set in stone at this point. I appreciate your comments, which are definitely helping me to evolve my plans in a better direction.

Thanks again,

Fred

Frederick W. Chapman, PhD (Waterloo), MMath (Waterloo), BA (Lehigh)
Research Mathematician / Mathematical Software Specialist / Maple Expert
Full Credentials & Freelance Consulting Services: linkedin.fwchapman.info

I agree

jakubi — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:24:13 Z

another forum on the same subject is not a good idea. The purpose of a wiki is different and complementary. Quite a number of proposals have been made about its contents by members of the Mapleprimes community as you can read here.

Differences

alec — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:42:06 Z

There are differences between MaplePrimes, LinkedIn, and Maple Wiki.

MaplePrimes site is good if you have a quick question and need a quick answer.

LinkedIn Maple network is not a question answering group, it is a network of professionals working with Maple, who either has an account on LinkedIn or wants to have such an account. The main purpose of it to get to know each other and to work on some joint projects together.

Maple Wiki is also not a question answering group, it is a wiki. Currently it is rather small, and duplicating some of mine and other people's blogs here, but if more people participate, it could me more valuable.

The advantages of a wiki comparing to this site is that everything is editable, all the time, while on this site some people can't edit anything after it was posted, and some other people can edit their own posts if they were not replied to. Also, from my point of view, both math and Maple examples look better in Maple wiki comparing to this site.

Originally I was pessimistic about wiki (and I don't even want to provide a link to my original post about the wiki idea), but being a pessimist, as it is well known, has a nice side that in any case you are either right, or get pleasantly surprised. Thus far, even with much less people actually working on wiki rather than talking here about that, I would say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Alec

Another difference

jakubi — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:07:13 Z

is about organization of the material and easiness of access. Quite frequently it takes me a long time of search to find interesting posts to MaplePrimes that I have read time ago. In a wiki, the same material can be continuously reorganized and interlinked with related documents and index/reference pages making possible a much more direct access.