2006.igem.org:Community Portal

iGEM is growing a highly diverse community. From around the globe, iGEM teams are forming, and may top the 40 mark before the registration deadline. As team members, advisors, and supervisors fill out these teams and begin to participate within the iGEM wiki, we can expect a large number of users to visit this site.

While discussion continues about whether or not iGEM should be standalone from OpenWetWare, we should still consider how to give iGEM it's own identity and life. How can we make this community site relevant?

Wiki primer

Never used a wiki before? Here's what you need to know.

Portal Sites

[http://2006.igem.org/Ambassador_portal Ambassador Portal]

<other portals>

Discussions

<Idea sandboxes. No shoving please.>

iGEM Wiki and OpenWetWare

• Ahessel 12:19, 28 Feb 2006 (EST): The iGEM wiki is going to be a central destination for iGEM teams, but does it need to be outside of the larger and more active OpenWetWare? I'm new to the iGEM team and MIT, so I need to better understand the issues surrounding this decision.
• RS 13:19, 1 March 2006 (EST): A skeleton pro/con list has been added below. Please add to it and comment on it.

Advantages of merging with OWW

1. It will connect the iGEM community more strongly to the general synthetic biology research community since a decent number of them are on OWW. Thus, people in the community will be more accessible to and have more access to the iGEM participants.
2. It makes a lot of the tools and basic wiki how to pages available to iGEMers. Like the [http://openwetware.org/wiki/OpenWetWare:Getting_started OWW getting started tutorial].
3. It serves as a mechanism for allowing past iGEMers to continue to be involved even once they've finished their project. A lot of iGEMers continue in research in biological science or engineering ... so they can still be a part of the OWW community once they have finished in iGEM. Thus, you might be able to retain their expertise and advice for future competitions. (With a separate iGEM wiki, they have less of a reason to go back to the wiki after they are done).
4. OWW has a pretty active community base and a lot of useful extensions are being written for it which would be useful to iGEMers. Instead of replicating them on a separate iGEM wiki, we could just immediately take advantage of them on the OWW wiki.

Disadvantages of merging with OWW

1. iGEMers might feel less of a sense of ownership since only a node of the wiki is dedicated to iGEM rather than the whole thing as is now.
2. iGEM might lose some branding by merging with OWW.
3. High level administrative matters (like the potential inclusion of access controls should they become available in mediawiki software) would have to be coordinated with a larger community (OWW instead of just iGEM).

Wish List

Need or want something? It's all in your head until you share it here.

• Logo for iGEM wiki - how do I make the default away?
• Logo for iGEM 2006
• Brochures, posters, other swag
• Poster templates for schools to advertise for iGEM team members

Fun

Don't forget, the iGEM experience is meant to fun as well as educational.

• [http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/boat.htm Anamorphic sidewalk art] - striking! More examples [http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/boat.htm here].

• Support [http://www.doctorsteel.com Dr. Steel's] quest for world domination. The plans on the blackboard in his laboratory are hilarious.