This is the first edition new *Wikibooks periodical newsletter*. It's goal
is to give general information about current Wikibooks developments. This
first issue will mention several things from the relatively recent past on
Wikibooks,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
*New Developments *
The *Free High School Science Text* group from South Africa has started a
couple of new books, FHSST Biology,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FHSST_Biology , FHSST Physics,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FHSST_Physics , and FHSST Computer Literacy,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FHSST_Computer_Literacy , and they have more
planned. The project has the goal of providing free science textbooks to all
of South Africa. Of course, we know that eventually the books they create
will be used in other places as well. The FHSST,
http://www.nongnu.org/fhsst/index.html , has a large group of contributors
organized and already working. They were doing primary development offline
and then uploading the information, but leader Mark H,
http://www.nongnu.org/fhsst/4_team.html , has decided to try out the
Wikibooks development tools for their Biology book, developing it online
from the very start.
The FHSST folks are also working with two other organizations to develop
lesson plans related to the textbooks.
http://www.tuxlabs.org.za/
http://moodle.hmo.ac.za/
We hope that the FHSST books and related materials will set the stage for
other adventuresome educators to begin organized efforts to develop
educational materials on Wikibooks.
Wikibooks is now experimenting with a method of focusing effort called
the *Collaboration
of the Month*,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Collaboration_of_the_Month . The idea
is to identify a certain book each month for the community to rally around
and work on together.
*Wikistats*,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/wikibooks/EN/Wikibooks_EN.htm.
This page gives statistics about Wikibooks.
*Book organization software enabled* – Developers enabled wiki software that
automatically creates links from daughter pages to parent pages. It also
allows easy link-making from parent pages to daughter pages. Format links
from parent pages to daughter pages like this: [[/Daughter page]] To take
advantage of this feature, place subpages after slashes in the page titling
scheme. For example, a chapter on trees in the Plants section of a general
biology book: /General_Biology/Plants/Trees On the Trees page, the site
automatically creates back links to the Plants page as well as the
General_Biology page. Is that cool or what?
*Wiki Junior* – Wikibooks is developing a series of nonfiction children's
books called Wiki Junior,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior . The
currently under development are:
* Big Cats,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_Big_Cats
* South America,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_South_America , and
the
* Solar System,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_Solar_System
*The Wikibooks Newsletter* – this is an experiment in communication and
rallying of the troops, inspired by Linspire founder Michael Robertson's
"Michael's Minute" weekly newsletter.
*Most Active Books*
*Cookbook,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook
*Jokebook,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Jokebook*
Recommended Reading**
**How To Build A Computer,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Build_A_Computer
***World History,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/World_History
*Seven Habits Study Guide,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Seven_Habits_Study_Guide
*In Other Languages*
Administración de tiempo (Spanish),
http://es.wikibooks.org/wiki/Administración_de_tiempo
*Wikibooks in the News*
*'''Jimmy Wales on Slashdot''' – When Jimmy was interviewed on
Slashdot
recently (
http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/04/07/28/1351230.shtml?tid=146&am…);tid=11),
he expressed that one of the things that he is most excited about
within
the world of Wiki is changing the world of education in the developing world
with the creation of free educational materials on Wikibooks.
*http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php?channel=27&id=93976 Panel
on Open Source
*Think Tank & Issues of Debate*
'''How should the textbook hierarchy be organized?''' With
slashes, colons,
dashes … "Wikibooks founder" Karl Wick suggests slashes, as the site
automatically recognizes slashes as indicators of page structure, and now
has software enabled that creates automatic links on daughter pages to
parent pages (see New Developments).
'''How can Wikibooks involve more educators?''' If you are an
educator,
please give us feedback as to what would help you to use Wikibooks in the
classroom or as a development tool, or give examples of how you have used
Wikibooks materials in your classroom.