Organizing information flow: Operations Wiki Gregory J. Marr Operations Specialist Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, BNL

September 24, 2007WAO Communication within BNL Collider-Accelerator Operations Operations documentation has, mostly, transitioned from paper to web (html, pdf files) Some information flow is well established –Web/database “elog” records for recording shift operations, machine tuning history. –Operations Procedures Manual (OPM) covers radiation, environmental & electrical safety, emergency response, etc.

September 24, 2007WAO Communication within BNL Collider-Accelerator Operations Other web documents serve various purposes –Training modules –Reference documents, troubleshooting guides –Daily/weekly/monthly/yearly updates of information pertinent to current operations

September 24, 2007WAO Motivation Web documents tend to stagnate –Documents orphaned when author moves on –No central oversight to assign updates –Difficult to keep up with information that changes on various timescales –Readers have no avenue for correcting errors they find Haphazard organization of files –Mix of personal and common directories –Little directory structure overall Cross-references, if offered at all, become stale.

September 24, 2007WAO Wiki: a dynamic, collaborative system of documents Most familiar example: WikipediaWikipedia Server-based software uses PHP to render web pages from MySQL database User interfaces via web browser, to read or edit pages (“articles”) –Uses a pared-down form of markup Database retains history of all revisions Full text search of articles included

September 24, 2007WAO Wiki features, continued Organizational tools include: –Categories for grouping articles –Various listings of pages “Namespaces” provide high-level organization in the database –Indices

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September 24, 2007WAO Advantages Large user community Low-maintenance software Page history, accountability –Anonymous edits are disallowed Easy tools for grouping information in multiple ways Easy navigation and cross-referencing Documents become collaborative efforts, representing a sum of knowledge Dual-purpose training tool –Useful reference for new operators as a glossary, overview of systems & accelerator concepts, etc. –Assigning new operators articles to write encourages learning, fosters interaction with system experts and colleagues

September 24, 2007WAO Disadvantages No WYSIWYG editor (yet) –Learning curve for new users Requires involvement from entire operations group Requires oversight, periodic review –Needs a person to oversee growth and development of the Wiki, encourage use.

September 24, 2007WAO References J. Niedziela, et al., “Dynamic Collaborative Documentation at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Collider-Accelerator”, proceedings of the 2007 Particle Accelerator Conference, Albuquerque, NM, pp (2007).Dynamic Collaborative Documentation at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Collider-Accelerator Required software –MediaWiki.orgMediaWiki.org Wiki source code Documentation, help forums –php.netphp.net php scripting language –mysql.commysql.com MySQL database