Semantic Properties

So as you know if you have been reading my blog I have been trying to set up a semantic wiki based on all the production work of British director producer Dirk Maggs.

So far the progress has been good in that I have the wiki working, I have the semantic extension also working, which is very good as without it I wouldn't have a semantic wiki would I?

The problem I have now hit is this I have to define all the different properties of the different items of information that I want to code up.

Some items are easy others less so, I did a quick paper check on just how many items I think I need to have properties for and it's over twenty!

I also have to work out how to encode all these into a semantic template so that it makes it easier later on to enter the data. As I have to do every production that Dirk has done since 1987 that's a lot of productions, as some years he was very productive, others less so but I think you get the general idea that there is a lot of information that needs to be put into the wiki so any thing I can do to make the process easier has got to be good news hasn't it?


So I will report back as and when I make any progress.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Updates and all that

It's been a while since I reported on the various projects that I do here and there on the Internet so as I have some free time, I thought that I would do an update on what's been going on or not as the case may be.

The sad fact is that having started a new job with a new company the process of learning new systems and new ways of doing the same tasks has been a bit, well actually, very traumatic and at this time I still don't know when things will settle down, I am assured by those in the know and also those that have gone through this sort of thing that yes indeed it will get better, I just want to know when!

Anyway enough of my troubles and struggles

The main Dirk Maggs Production website has been updated with his last audio production, which was on 1 st April 2009, I did not get chance to hear this live or on playback, which is a bit sad.

I have also done lots of small corrections all over the website that only I can see the results of, but I know that the website is better for them, honest!

On the pod cast front nothing has happened apart from the hosting site loosing everything!

which was a bit of a worry, the good news is that the backups worked, well they did for me and my pod casts are back up, but due the the stuff that I said earlier, I have not had the time to do any more, and to be a bit honest I don't know if I want to do any more at this time, as I have found that talking to a microphone is a very intimidating experaince, maybe I will have to find a book or a website that could help with getting over this problem?

The DMP wiki's both 1 and 2 are still no further forward at this time, but are still working well with what they have, so that's good.

The James Follett website has had a few internal changes that make the site a bit smaller without cutting down on the content, talking of content there has been no new content now for several years as James appears to have stopped any work on novels, radio shows or whatever, but you can see him on the Internet newsgroups winding up lots of very gullible folks, and it's always fun to see some of them walk right into it!

So that's how the projects stand apart for the last project and that is the Dirk Maggs website book.

This book is still stuck in edit hell and I have not got any further forward with it, and as so much time has gone by it is now very much out of date.

So I have decided that the best thing to do is to freeze it where it is and archive it and start on a new version or edition, which at this time without looking it up could be edition 4 or 5.

So my plan for later this year is to get on with the new edition and not have an index or two in it until the main work is complete, as you can always add an index later can't you?

Wikis & Books

Wikis & Books

As you may or may not know I have more than one wiki that I am playing with. One is the new James Follett Wiki (JFW) the other far older wiki is called DMP and has over the years been restarted on more than one occasion, mainly due to errors on my part that resulted in me destroying the database and all the backups! (don't ask)

At one stage the DMP had been about 1000 pages in size at this time its around 600, but then I have not worked on it for some time, in fact it is one of those projects that I only seem to work on when I remember that I have got such a project!

The size that I think DMP will get to is at this time 2000 to 2500 pages as the subject of the DMP is Dirk Maggs the radio director that I have spoken about many times here before. In fact I have also spoken about the DMP here many times normally when all was going well and not so well.

Now DMP is a project that for the reasons I have given above will not be updated on its software or the database that drivers it, as I have lost too much too often.

The DMP is again like the JFA a closed wiki very closed in fact I have at this time no intention of allowing anyone access to it even Dirk Maggs, not because there is anything in it that is libeler's but because I used it to create the main Dirk Maggs site, and also because it is the main data-bank for Dirk Maggs. I have used once so far to write a book on all of Dirk's works form 1988 to 2006 it cam e to a 300 page A4 book!

Yes I can tell you I was surprised at how long it was. I reckon that Dirk will be active in radio for at least another 5 to 7 years before he decides to go and do something else, so at the rate of productions that he does a year I think the book could end up at a 1000 pages! how mad is that.

The book is not for sale as it break every copyright law there is, eg there are photo's that I just don't know who owns the copyright to, there are articles that I do not have permission to use. But and this is the big but as this book is based on the website and the DMP from early 2006 the idea was to have a paper record just in case the website or the DMP vanish, which if my passed experience is anything to go by could happen at any moment. So I have a paper copy and the file that made it is stored else where in more than one location.

I also think that the book would not sell very many copies as it is too specialist, just how many folks want to know which actor started in a radio show that has never been heard since it was first broadcast back in 1989?