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Fig. 7. Template and article pages as generated by WSL
exists more sophisticated tools for brainstorming than FreeMind, but we value
popularity, simplicity and cost as main selection criteria.
Another important remark is that of scalability. Although it is not the aim of
scaffolding to offer a complete wiki map but just a blueprint, large projects can
require large scaffoldings. This can lead to cluttered WSL maps. Fortunately,
FreeMind offer view-like mechanisms that permit to filter map nodes based on
content and relationships. Testing stakeholders can filter those nodes based on
containing the string “test” , whereas template-minded stakeholders can restrict
the view to those nodes related with a template.
As for visual DSLs, they are still scarce compare with textual DSL ([11] for an
overview). Our insight here is that the context where the DSL is to be deployed is
generally overlooked in DSL publications. Our experience is that DSL success not
only depends on finding the right abstractions but also on producing minimum
disturbance to existing practices. FreeMind was chosen on these grounds.
8 Conclusions
We introduced the notion of “wiki scaffolding” as a way to capture the contextual
setting for wikis deployed in an existing organization. While wikis for virtual
communities create such setting as they go along, corporate wikis know this
context at the onset. We introduced a DSL for wiki scaffolding that abstracts
from the technicalities that go in setting those parameters down to wiki code.
By capitalizing on FreeMind as the conduit for WSL concrete syntax, we expect
non-technical communities to benefit from the scaffolding. Anecdotical evidences
suggest that the benefits of the DSL go beyond speeding up wiki deployment
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