Since 2020 I have become enamored with using MediaWiki for setting up robust information repositories to assist communities working on biological challenges. MediaWiki provides an amazing open-sourced solution for interleaving structured-data with human-entered prose which allows communities with aligned interests to co-create content as a public good. I have been relying on the generous MediaWiki user community to teach myself to install, host, and manage wikis along with adding bells and whistles through various extensions. An important part of this journey was learning the basics of Lua, MediaWiki's built-in scripting language, and Cargo a powerful MediaWiki extension that manipulates structured data to build infrastructure to connect preexisting databases to the front end of functioning wikis (with as little Rube Goldberg machining as possible). I was initially inspired to embark on this journey by the internet's reigning champion of myrmecological information—AntWiki.
HopperWiki
A global repository for orthopteroid insects with special focus on the broad themes surrounding locust and pest grasshopper management. In collaboration with Mira Word Ries and Dr. Arianne Cease.
WhiskerWiki
A repository to aid field biologists, specimen preparators, and other enthusiasts in identifying small rodents and shrews in the USA. In collaboration with Laura Steger.
