Difference between revisions of "Template:Latest news"

From LIMSWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
m (Increased image size.)
(Updated news.)
Line 1: Line 1:
<h2 style="font-size:105%; font-weight:bold; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:50%;">August 25, 2014:</h2>
<h2 style="font-size:105%; font-weight:bold; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:50%;">January 5, 2015:</h2>
[[File:Information overload1.jpg|left|220px]]'''Have you ever experienced information overload?''' Maybe you were like the person in this image at one point, baffled by too many choices and not enough organization. Yet as society continues its march towards further digitizing and storing content and data, finding exactly the information you want becomes increasingly daunting. Organizing and presenting large amounts of information well is now a desirable trait, whether it's a programmer developing a user interface and query tools for [[laboratory informatics]] software or a teacher creating an online course using a learning management program like [[Moodle]].
[[File:Faraday-Daniell.PNG|left|180px]]'''Happy New Year, dear LIMSwiki users!''' Though every year — let alone every day — is a mixed helping of the good and bad, we hope 2014 brought a few reasons to smile. The wiki in 2014 was not so much about a few big additions but numerous small additions and changes, which is typical for this kind of publishing format. We continued maintenance, completed a few small projects like making a [[LIMSWiki:Glossary]] of the non-vendor content and adding information about the [[LII:The Practical Guide to the U.S. Physician Office Laboratory|U.S. physician office laboratory]]. At the end of the year, we also quietly began working on a much more ambitious project that will eventually change how we present vendor software and their publicly known features in a more intuitive way. (We'll give you all more details once we're ready to begin implementing the changes on vendor records.)


We've also tried to be cognizant of this problem when determining how to present information in this wiki. The front page has evolved to better and more appealingly organize data access into little "portals" or jumping-off points. But even that becomes increasingly daunting as wiki content continues to be added. This requires a more thoughtful approach using built-in and third-party tools for the wiki software. One recent attempt to organize information involves the use of [[MediaWiki]]'s category tags to better effect. I personally create 18 broad categories that all or most of our non-vendor wiki content falls under. The results of that effort can be found at the '''[[LIMSWiki:Glossary]]''' page. Some may find those categorizations too broad; however, articles can have more than one category. I want to use these 18 categories (with the potential for more later) to cover the entire non-vendor article base. Additional category tags can be applied to further granulate those categories, including crossover. For example, [[electronic data interchange]] may be categorized under the glossary category "Software and hardware terms" and [[hospital information system]] under "Software systems," yet both share the category tag "Health informatics."
2015 will likely bring other additions, including more articles on [[Informatics (academic field)|informatics]] topics, industries affected by [[laboratory informatics]], etc. Of course, we'll continue to diligently maintain existing content and update it to the best of our ability and resources. As always, if you want to contribute neutral, cited content, you can always [[Special:RequestAccount|request an account]].


Another attempt to organize this wiki's content is via the MediaWiki [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Collection Collection] extension. This allows users to render wiki content into a digital book-like structure. We have a live example with the '''[[LIMSWiki:Publications|The Complete Guide to LIMS & Lab Informatics]]'''. The upside is a user can learn about a topic from a curated collection of wiki content. The downside is the content is static, meaning like traditional published documents a new copy must be made to contain updated content. However, we've included live links to the contained articles on the wiki page.
Have a good 2015, and stick around. There's always more to come here.


As we continue our efforts to add more content, we're hoping tools like the glossary and Collection continue to make approaching the wiki's content less intimidating, alleviating the worries of information overload. We'll also continue to evaluate the front page and how it can be used to better make content easier to find.
[[User:Shawndouglas|Shawn Douglas]] ([[User talk:Shawndouglas|talk]]) 12:53, 5 January 2015 (EST)
 
[[User:Shawndouglas|Shawn Douglas]] ([[User talk:Shawndouglas|talk]]) 12:53, 25 August 2014 (EDT)
<br />
<br />

Revision as of 17:53, 5 January 2015

January 5, 2015:

Faraday-Daniell.PNG

Happy New Year, dear LIMSwiki users! Though every year — let alone every day — is a mixed helping of the good and bad, we hope 2014 brought a few reasons to smile. The wiki in 2014 was not so much about a few big additions but numerous small additions and changes, which is typical for this kind of publishing format. We continued maintenance, completed a few small projects like making a LIMSWiki:Glossary of the non-vendor content and adding information about the U.S. physician office laboratory. At the end of the year, we also quietly began working on a much more ambitious project that will eventually change how we present vendor software and their publicly known features in a more intuitive way. (We'll give you all more details once we're ready to begin implementing the changes on vendor records.)

2015 will likely bring other additions, including more articles on informatics topics, industries affected by laboratory informatics, etc. Of course, we'll continue to diligently maintain existing content and update it to the best of our ability and resources. As always, if you want to contribute neutral, cited content, you can always request an account.

Have a good 2015, and stick around. There's always more to come here.

Shawn Douglas (talk) 12:53, 5 January 2015 (EST)

Retrieved from "https://www.limswiki.org/index.php?title=Template:Latest_news&oldid=19146"