[ANN] Balisage 2010 Contest - Solve the Modern Tower of Babel

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

Balisage 2010 Contest - Solve the Modern Tower of Babel

As part of the Balisage 2010 Conference[1], MarkLogic[2] has put forth
a challenge in the form of a contest. The goal of the contest is to
encourage markup experts to review and to research the current state
of wiki markup languages and to generate a proposal that serves to
de-babelize the current state of affairs for the long haul.

Wikis: Solve the modern tower of babel

Contest Description: In the past few decades, as a planet, we've
succeeded tremendously in standardizing a number of technologies (yay
us!). Wiki technology (other than its underlying use of web
technologies as a platform) is not solidly in this list. There is a
lot of content available today in a variety of wiki syntaces. This
syntax is not standardized. Some argue it shouldn't be. Go beyond the
existing debates, diatribes, and arguments. Put us on a practical
track to fixing this and ensuring we will have access to this content
for the long haul.

To enter, you must propose a set of concrete steps (organizational,
social, and/or technological) that will enable wiki content
interchange, a real WYSIWYG editor, and/or wiki syntax
standardization.

Entries will be evaluated based on criteria that includes:

 * How well does the entry understand the current state of the art?
 * How well does the entry identify key stake holders and actors
   (including history, motivation, and so on)
 * Is the entry clear on its objectives? (The summary allows for some
   variance here).
 * Is the approach/vision elegant, clever, or mind-changing?
 * Are the set of steps actionable and implementable?

Guidelines, rules, and prize:

 1. Please no more than 10,000 words.
 2. Entries should be submitted by July 15th to:
    balisage-2010-contest at marklogic dot com
 3. Author(s) retains copyright and grants MarkLogic a non-exclusive
    license to publish the winning entry.
 4. The winner will be announced on August 3rd at the conference and
    will take home a choice of

      * Apple 15" (i5) MacBook Pro,
      * Apple MacBook Air, or
      * USD $2,000

 5. The winner will be strongly encouraged (but not required) to give
    a brief summary (~10 minutes) of their winning entry at the
    conference on August 3rd.
 6. Employees of MarkLogic are not eligible.
 7. Judges decision is final.
 8. Contest-related questions may also be submitted to:
    balisage-2010-contest at marklogic dot com.