2011 UK Census

Why is that? Well, that is a question we would ask you?

So far contributions from users have been minimal. Why? Well, maybe we have not explained the purpose clearly enough. Or perhaps it is not obvious how it works.

Or maybe there are other issues.

If so, and if you have comments or questions about how the wiki works and what we want to achieve with it, then please ask questions as comments in response to this blog post.

The purpose of the wiki
To try and address the first point, let's talk about the purpose of the wiki.

Put simply, this is an area where we can gather and store any and all information about the 2011 UK Census. This can be anything from short, simple, popular information right through to more extensive or detailed content that defines a technical, statistical or methodological aspect of the Census.

So we are talking about commentary, definitions and all manner and forms of supporting information and metadata.

The aim is to create an evolving and developing resource of information. One that matures over time into an exhaustive resource that anyone can use to extract authoritative slices of supporting information or metadata to support the use of Census data or products.

So some examples of content might be a page or section that covers a straightforward topic - with an introduction, links to related blog posts or user questionnaire results, and links to other external web resources.

Other sections may offer areas to address in detail some functional aspects of Census data or products during the discovery and development period. These areas can document user requirements, the planning and issues identified, how they might or have been addressed, the methodology used and the tools and techniques implemented. Census personnel, partner developers and users can all contribute view, facts and information to such a section.

Another section may provide an area to develop over time the detailed specification of a web protocol, data structure or format. Such content can be developed in conjunction with users to ensure they include and consider user need, to help develop and refine the specification, and to ensure that all factors are considered, represented, and explained.

All areas of the wiki can be added to or edited by registered site users so that everyone can join in and help to generate a collaborate store of content. All pages keep a complete list of the edits made and the users that made them, so that all changes are audited and can be tracked and restored to earlier versions.

Some users may wish to contribute new or updated factual information, while others may simply want to edit the content to improve the presentation and language used to describe the subjects in order to help ensure it is easily understood by a wider audience.

In addition to providing the content, or editing it to correct errors, users can add comments to each page just to ask a question or start a point of discussion which can be continued as a forum thread.

The wiki is set up with the following basic section structure

[[tab Wiki navigation]]
Wiki home

1 Census milestones

6 Suggested topics

Output Working Group (OWG)

Glossary
Sortable list of all wiki pages
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Edit this menu
[[/tab]]

but this can also be edited by users.

If you have topics that you want to suggest that you think should be covered, but which you do not want to create content for yourself, then use the Suggestions page to edit and list them.

So, hopefully this explains what we want to use the wiki for. If not, then ask us some questions about it.

Please take a look from time to time, and use the menus on the right to see the latest new and updated pages.

Use the Help section to get help and tips with how to edit pages, and if you have any questions then add them as comments on this page, or use the Contact page to ask us.

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