Universal Edit Button

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The Universal Edit Button

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[edit] What is this?

The Universal Edit Button is a green pencil icon in the address bar that indicates a web page is editable. It is similar to the orange "broadcast" RSS icon that indicates there is an RSS feed available.

To see the universal edit button in your browser, install this Firefox extension, (installation notes). In time, we expect web browsers will support the Universal Edit Button directly, as they have done for RSS feeds.

[edit] Why the Universal Editing Button matters

The Universal Editing Button (UEB) allows a web surfer to more quickly recognize when a site may be edited. It is a convenience to web surfers who are already inclined to contribute, and an invitation to those who have yet to discover the thrill of building a common resource. As this kind of public editing becomes more commonplace, the button may become regarded as a badge of honor. It serves as an incentive to encourage companies and site developers to add publicly-editable components to their sites, in order to have the UEB displayed for their sites.

In these ways, we hope that this button catalyzes the acceleration of the editable web, and helps accelerate society's trend toward building valued common resources.

For more explanation of the Universal Edit Button, you can listen to a podcast by Ward Cunningham (inventor of the wiki), Mark Dilley (AboutUs.org), and Peter Kaminski (SocialText).

[edit] Background

Tim Berners-Lee's initial vision for the web was a read-write medium. Yet as the web matured, very few web sites offered users the ability to write or edit. The web became primarily a "read only" medium. Everyone web surfed but few got to enjoy web editing.

Over the years, wiki practitioners and other edit-friendly folks spread the idea that the web should be editable by anyone at any time. The success of Wikipedia, and the increasing utility of wikis like wikiHow, AboutUs, wikiTravel and Wikia demonstrates that open editing creates high quality information resources. "Read only" sites are increasingly adding the ability for anyone to participate. Wikis appear in enterprise software products and in consumer offerings such as those from net behemoths like Google. As the Internet becomes more editable by the day, web users are becoming more adept and creative in the tools that allow information to be shared.

[edit] History of the Universal Edit Button

Conversations on this idea started at RoCoCo (a RecentChangesCamp) in Montreal 2007, and discussions continued on the AboutUs wiki. At the Palo Alto RCC in 2008, a handful of people explored the idea, got excited with auto-discovery, and helped spread the idea.

Many ideas were suggested and designed by wiki editors for the Universal Edit Button icon, as evidenced in the logo for this wiki. The current icon was selected from a suggestion made by Ward Cunningham at the start of the discussions. As the adoption of this Universal Edit Button grows, the web editing community may decide to modify the icon. In the meantime, our goal is to promote a button that works across platforms (wiki to start with), is independent of any particular language; and is simple, yet evocative of what it means to be able to edit.

For more information or to get involved, please check out the Community Portal

(that page also links to how to implement it on your website, and the Firefox plug-in)

[edit] Sites with Universal Editing Button

[edit] Wikis, Wiki Engines, Wiki Farms

[edit] edit this list

(roughly in implementation order)

wikiHow	the how-to manual that you can edit
Ward's wiki, the Portland Pattern Repository	the first wiki
WikiIndex	a place to help new wiki folk find wiki communities they are interested in
WikiAngela	Angela Beesley's (co-founder of Wikia) wiki
FortWiki	documents the historical forts, camps and stations that provided security and protection for the U.S. and Canada
AboutUs	an editable guide to the Web organized around domain names
Wikimedia	Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, and other Wikimedia Foundation Projects
MediaWiki.org	the wiki for the open source MediaWiki software which runs this site and many others
Wiki-Translation.com	discussing the impact of the wiki phenomenon on the world of translation
Kamelopedia	a wiki for the Kamel software
MoinMoin 1.7	a WikiEngine
Oddmuse	a WikiEngine
pbwiki.com	a WikiEngine and Wiki host, Open Source
PhpWiki	a wiki about the PHP programming language
Socialtext	a wiki host
ArborWiki	a hyperlocal collection of information about Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and other places in Washtenaw County, Michigan
FanHistory'	a wiki directory about fandom and its history
TWiki.org	a wiki engine
wiki.creativecommons.org	a wiki about the Creative Commons family of licenses
pageoftext.com	a page on pageoftext.com called universal_edit_button
pageofcreole.com	a page on pageofcreole.com called universal_edit_button_creole_style
Agree2	a wiki-like repository of Agreement Templates
JSPWiki sandbox	an official feature of JSPWiki 2.8
MindTouch Deki	Open source collaboration & integration
DokuWiki	a wiki engine
Wikispaces	wiki host
PBwiki	wiki host
Whole Wheat Radio	a wiki for Whole Wheat Radio, a grassroots online radio station originating from Talkeetna, Alaska.
SmallBusiness.com	the wiki-resource for small business
Confluence	an enterprise wiki
LinuxBasics.org	an online community that helps people to get Linux® installed and running
WikiSpielwiese.de	using the Plugin for DokuWiki
OpenSocial Directory	a free resource for the OpenSocial Community
Wikia	a wiki host
IkiWiki	a wiki compiler, it converts wiki pages into HTML pages suitable for publishing on a website
Nico Nico Pedia(ニコニコ大百科)
XWiki.org	both a generic platform for developing collaborative applications using the wiki paradigm and products developed on top of it
Keiki	The Free Parenting Guide
Travellerspoint Travel Guide	a travelers' guide to the world
ICANNWiki	a wiki for the ICANN community
Comindwork	online tools for knowledge-intensive collaboration
Suomencup.net	The Definite Guide To Finnish Cup Football
Mahalo.com	Human Powered Search
Classic Fantasy & Science Fiction	a database of classic fantasy and science fiction stories
Venicewiki.org	the city wiki of Venice, Italy
Enciclopedia României	the wiki of Romania
WikiPlus(ウィキプラス)	Wiki-based CMS to build a business website
WikiFur	an encyclopedia of furry (anthropomorphic animal) fandom
ScribbleWiki	wiki host
theDIYpal	the home improvement site that anyone can add to or edit
Memory Alpha	The canon Star Trek wiki
OpenGuides	Collaborative city guide project/software
Elektonik wiki	More informations about Elektronik (German)
Add your site here!

[edit] Other Platforms

[edit] edit list

Weblog	WordPress plugin
Message Board	Toledo Talk, local message board with wiki features
Comparison charts	Narabe, ならべて, user editing comparison charts service. English and Japanese versions
Conference CFP	Widget Summit, expose a call for proposals page inside schedule and session listings
Midgard CMS	CMS framework
Hatena(はてな)	hosting websites widely with wiki-like features, Hatena::Group(はてなグループ), Hatena::Bookmark(はてなブックマーク), Hatena::Diary(はてなダイアリー)
Tabulas
SiteBuilder	IT services
Drupal CMS	Available in the Admin Links module