Toward a Minor Tech:Wiki-to-print

From cloud to crowd. -- TITiPI slogan

This newspaper is made with wiki-to-print, a collective publishing environment based on MediaWiki software, Paged Media CSS techniques and the JavaScript library Paged.js, which renders a preview of the PDF in the browser. Using wiki-to-print allows us to work shoulder-to-shoulder as collaborative writers, editors, designers, developers, in a non-linear publishing workflow where design and content unfolds at the same time, allowing the one to shape the other.

Following the idea of "boilerplate code" which is written to be reused, we like to think of wiki-to-print as a boilerplate as well, instead of thinking of it as a product, platform or tool. The code that is running in the background is a version of previous wiki-printing instances, including:

• the work on the Diversions (https://diversions.constantvzw.org) publications by Constant and OSP (https://constantvzw.org, https://osp.kitchen)
• the book Volumetric Regimes (http://data-browser.net/db08.html, https://volumetricregimes.xyz) by Possible Bodies and Manetta Berends (https://possiblebodies.constantvzw.org/, https://manettaberends.nl/)
• TITiPI's (http://titipi.org/) wiki-to-pdf environments (https://titipi.org/wiki/index.php/Wiki-to-pdf) by Martino Morandi
• Hackers and Designers' (https://hackersanddesigners.nl/) version wiki2print (https://github.com/hackersanddesigners/wiki2print) that was produced for the book Making Matters (https://hackersanddesigners.nl/s/Publishing/p/Making_Matters._A_Vocabulary_of_Collective_Arts)

So, wiki-to-print/wiki-to-pdf/wiki2print is not standalone, but part of a continuum of projects that see software as something to learn from, adapt, transform and change. The code that is used for making this newspaper will be released as yet another version of this network of connected practices.

This wiki-to-print is hosted at CC (creative crowd). While moving from cloud to crowd, CC is a thinking device for us how to hand over ways of working and share a space for publishing experiments with others, to invite people in who we don't know, but without aiming to speak to an undefined anyone.

We're asking ourselves: How can CC be available AND unstable, public AND being paid for, free to be used AND situated, a production environment AND in transformation?

While surfing these contradictions, we are working on the collective guidelines for engaging with this server.

Visit https://cc.vvvvvvaria.org to have a look around, or contact us at info@varia.zone if you would like to be part of the creative crowd.