Wikiversity:Organization

This page is created to organize discussion of how Wikiversity is organized, overall. There are many places where this topic has been discussed in the past; as this is written, no general consensus has been obtained, and so no organizational policy exists, though certain principles appear to be in common usage. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 14:46, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

See Colloquium/archives/April_2009 for some prior discussion.

/Examples
For examples of organizational problems and solutions, see the subpage linked from the section title.

Proposed organizational concept
Encyclopedia has
 * Some systematic method of organization is essential to making an encyclopedia usable as a work of reference. There have historically been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopedias: the alphabetical method (consisting of a number of separate articles, organized in alphabetical order), or organization by hierarchical categories. The former method is today the most common by far, especially for general works. The fluidity of electronic media, however, allows new possibilities for multiple methods of organization of the same content. Further, electronic media offer previously unimaginable capabilities for search, indexing and cross reference. The epigraph from Horace on the title page of the 18th century Encyclopédie suggests the importance of the structure of an encyclopedia: "What grace may be added to commonplace matters by the power of order and connection."

We have roughly organized Wikiversity alphabetically, similarly to an alphabetical encyclopedia. However, for learning efficiency, a different structure may be used. It has occurred to me to consider adopting an "outline of knowledge," that would provide a predictable place for every topic that we might have an educational resource on. A broad outline is described in Propædia, as a basic structure, which could be expanded as needed. What is listed in the Propedia, and the like, might be Portals. Portals would show highly notable topics explicitly, with less notable topics being linked from subpages.

I've been operating on an ad hoc, rather spontaneous, intuitive concept of organization, but to share the organizational work, it must become more objective and predictable. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 23:34, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

/Process
The subpage covers how to rename and move resources to support Wikiversity Organization.