Help:Contents

From SystemsWiki

It is my intention, though you know how intentions go, to use this page to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about SystemsWiki.org. Thanks to Jorge Taborga for inciting me to do this.

[edit] New to Wiki / Start Here

Help:Editing

[edit] Categories

Every page will eventually have one or more categories which will enable people to pull all the pages in a category of interest. While a page may be in several categories a page should not be in a category and one of its subcategories is generally the case. The category Model will be in every model page, and the category Simulation will be in each simulation page regardless of the lower order category the page is categorized.

SystemsWiki
- Archetype
  - Category for Each Archetype
- Domain
  - Various Subject Domains...
- Help
- Model
  - Various model categories
Moodle
Presentation
Systems Thinking
- Systems Science

[edit] CLD/SFD Diagrams

The majority of the Causal Loop Diagrams and Stock & Flow Diagrams on this site were created with Vensim PLE. Vensim PLE is actually a simulation package, and a very good one at that, though it was used for CLDs & SFDs because of the level of control it provided over the diagram components. Oh, and did I mention that it's free for personal and educational use?

To get the diagrams into a graphic file I select the graphic in Vensim PLE, copy and paste it into Microsoft Paint, and then save it as a .jpg file. To make sure the file is the same size as the graphic I first reduce the size of the drawing area in Paint to something smaller than the graphic will be. Then when I paste the graphic into Paint is makes the area just big enough for the graphic. This way there's not lots of white space around the graphic itself.

In mid November '09 I started using MapSys for all my Causal Loop Diagrams and Stock & Flow Diagrams. In my opinion it produces a nicer looking graphic, and I can export the diagram directly in any one of several graphic formats, which saves me several steps for each graphic. It is also a very nice simulation package, and very reasonably priced.

[edit] Create a Book

It seems as though a book, as related to a Wiki, would be an intentioned path through a selected set of content. A path that one might like to traverse more than once, or have someone else traverse.

If you would like to create a book from some cross section of the content of SystemsWiki, in .pdf format, or even have it printed, you can do so by going to Pedia Press, Books from almost any Wiki and follow the instructions.

From my testing it seemed quite easy and it would appear that you could actually create a book using pages from multiple Wikis. I managed to create a test book and download it in .pdf format in just a few minutes. Seems like a marvelous utility.

If you create a book which you consider others may find of value, we'd be delighted to include it on this page.

Madrigal, Maya (2009) Systemic Science (13mb). Created from Wikipedia
Pedia Press

[edit] Extensions Installed

[edit] File Types/Extensions

There are several file types found throughout SystemsWiki.org and they are defined here for your reference:

.gif - graphic format file
.itm - ithink simulation model file
.jpg - graphic file format
.mdl - Vensim PLE file
.msys - MapSys file
.pdf - Adobe protable document format
.png - graphic file format
.smm - Simgua simulation model file

It is expected that additional file formats will be added as needed and this list will be updated at that time.

[edit] Graphic Files for Models

White Space. When creating model images for Wiki pages lots of white space around them isn't of much use. Though it seems the process is a bit different for creating images from different simulation packages. As we discover what works we'll we'll post notes here of what we've found.

Variable Names. A convention that seems to work well is to use all lowercase file names of 6 to 8 characters in length, then you avoid any case problems when you're trying to get the image to display. If there are several graphics for use in one Wiki page then labeling them somename1.png, somename2.png etc and name the model files in the same manner helps keep track of what goes with what.

Display Format. The following format seems to be working well for displaying images.

[[file:your_file_name.png|center|frame|<center>Fig. </center>]]

[edit] Jing

Jing seems to be the most versatile utility for capturing images of most anything, adding annotations as needed, and then saving them as .png files for upload to SystemsWiki.org.

[edit] MediaWiki

[edit] Page Footer

I've started adding a footer at the bottom of every page which provides links to other interesting items in SystemsWiki.org. If you edit a page that doesn't have a footer please include the following.

[edit] Productivity Tools

There is a set of tools I use on an ongoing basis without which I believe I'd be only partially as productive on the computer as I am at present. If you have others you'd like to add to the list, please provide them.

Comapping from Comapping.com. Its the only true real-time collaborative mind-mapping tool I've found to date. If you need to have several people online modifying a diagram having a conversation on the phone or over Skype this is it. Sure beats working on something and passing something around for changed, or trying to merge changes from a number of people.
Jing from JingProject.com which is really a segment of TechSmith developers of Camtasia. I use Jing for screen capture, screen capture annotation, and development of screen movies up to 5 minutes in length. There is a free version with only marginally limited capabilities though the paid version is most reasonably priced for what it does.
Prezi from Prezi.com. An online presentation facility that has to be experienced to be understood. Just go there and view a few of them and you'll understand. There's no way to adequately describe the facility, believe me!
Skype from Skype.com. This seems to be the most widely used chat/voice connect facility. For a quick exchange it's far better than email, and if it needs to turn into a voice connect that's just a click away.

[edit] Simulation Software Preference

Over the years I've used numerous Simulation Software packages. They all seem to have advantages and disadvantages for one thing or another, and I don't even want to go there. Presently I'm quite fascinated with MapSys and Simgua for the following reasons:

MapSys seems to be the easiest package to use for creating Causal Loop Diagrams and Stock & Flow Diagrams when you want to explain the models being created. MapSys allows one to exporting the drawing directly as a graphic in any one of several formats. This saves several steps over other packages if you want to use the graphics in other media.
Simgua is the easiest thing to build models with I've ever seen. You simply define the components and their relationships. The software takes care of drawing the diagram for you. Now rather than spending a great portion of my time actually drawing the diagrams, I spend most of my time contemplating the relationships in the model. I have found this very advantageous. That I have little control over the diagram was initially quite annoying -- though I got over it. Simgua is my preference when I simply want to investigate the relationships and implications associated with a model.
Simgua allows you to publish models directly to the web so others can run the simulation over the web, and the only software required is a web browser. This makes it real easy to share models.

[edit] Tracking SystemsWiki.org Changes

There are two levels of changes that occur within this site, 1) New Pages, and 2) Recent Changes, which consists of all the page edits and the New Pages added. These two options are selectable from the navigation list on the left of every screen. Once you select one of these items you also have the option of subscribing to an RSS or Atom feed for the selected item. When viewing an individual page you can look at the page history and compare any two versions of the paper in a side by side list, which will make it easy to see what the changes were.

[edit] References

Additional Resources
Online Courses * Content Guide * Bookmarks
Feedback to Gene Bellinger