Now that we’ve unveiled the new SQLServerPedia.com wiki for SQL Server training, I want to talk about what makes a good wiki article.
A good article doesn’t sell anything except good techniques. When I read a magazine article, watch a TV show or sit through a presentation, I want a clear delineation between education and sales. I don’t like product placements. I can tolerate the fact that Aston Martin is paying to be in the James Bond movies, but I’ll quit watching if he ever says anything like, “Thank goodness I was driving the new Aston Martin DBS, or else they’d have gotten away.” Advertisements don’t belong inside educational content. Yes, Quest Software is paying the bills for SQLServerPedia, but this content is for education. Any sales-y looking content in articles will not be tolerated - whether it’s for Quest or any other vendor.
A good article links to other articles. Instead of just tossing out phrases like “rebuild your indexes” or “don’t put too many indexes on a table”, a good article links to other articles giving in-depth explanations from one topic to another. When we write or edit articles, I want to encourage authors to search the wiki for related articles that already exist and make sure to link to ‘em when appropriate.
A good article links outside the site to great resources. Even Wikipedia knows you can’t get everything you know inside Wikipedia: most articles include a lot of links at the bottom of the page pointing to more resources. Likewise, we’ll promote the same style at SQLServerPedia, encouraging authors to link to high-quality resources.
A good article links to knowledgable people. If we’re talking about SQL Server storage, we should link to experts on the concept who frequently write about it. When I talk about storage and virtualization, I link to Scott Lowe’s blog. He’s a great writer, but he’ll probably never write for SQLServerPedia, because he doesn’t focus on SQL Servers. However, that doesn’t mean that our readers wouldn’t gain from reading his blog. More than that, we can link to experts who are on Twitter, which gives our readers a chance to see inside the minds of the people who are developing and advancing the features they use.
A good article doesn’t rehash commonly available content. If people want a walkthrough of Books Online content, there’s plenty of SQL Server sites out there already. A good SQLServerPedia article explains the reasoning behind best practices, talks about when it to do something different, and gives real-world expertise in a fun way.
A good article points to code that’s easy to reuse. When we talk about backing up databases or defragmenting indexes, we want to link to the SQLServerPedia Code Library section and put the code there. That code can live and grow under the watchful eye of Jason Massie, the Code Editor.
A good article includes screen shots when it adds real value. I’ve seen a few SQL web sites where the author puts up a screen shot after every single instructions. “Right-click on the server name, and your screen will look like this…” That’s great for people who want to learn a system they don’t have access to, but we’re writing for professionals here, not people getting college degrees by mail. We want to convey the most information possible in the least time possible.
A good article includes video and a slide deck. Now I’m just talking crazy pie-in-the-sky, but I’ll put it out there. When I’ve got a presentation that I can donate to the cause, I’ll record a copy and put the video and the slide deck in the article. If you’d like to give that presentation to your local user group, go for it. We’re all about educating the community, not keeping knowledge hidden away under baskets.
The hundreds of articles in SQLServerPedia aren’t all there yet - heck, a lot of them are a page long or less. But holy cow, I gotta tell you, it’s a lot easier to launch a wiki when you’ve got a big start, and it makes the editors’ jobs easier.
And on another note, here’s a couple of reactions to SQLServerPedia from the web:
- Denny Cherry talks about the SQLServerPedia launch
- Marlon Ribunal calls SQLServerPedia “the best community-owned SQL Server training resource.” I love the SSP badge! I’m waiting on our graphics department to produce web badges, but hey, they should piggyback off Marlon’s work.
