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CryptoDox: Encyclopedia on Cryptography & Info

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the soemthing-to-learn-about dept.

xorgb writes "CryptoDox is an online encyclopedia on Cryptography and Information Security. The data is being made available under the GNU Free Documentation License. The site is powered by MediaWiki and in the few months that it has been online it has got some good articles on the basics of cryptography. It is currently looking out for contributors to enhance its database of articles. Check it out!"

3 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Planning to submit? by GC · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you're planning to submit to crytpography documentation I would recommend you contribute to the already extensive Crytpography Project on Wikipedia: Cryptography WikiProject

    The project in the article is rather limited, conflicts with other worthy projects, and made me feel that I was browsing the amazon cryptography book section, what with all the amazon adverts on it.

  2. Compatible licensing means room for both by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You make a good point, but in this case I don't think that the other project really detracts too much from Wikipedia in the long run -- they use the same license on their content, so that they could borrow from each other.

    I would hope that the CryptoDox people would at least start by using what's been written in Wikipedia, and that Wikipedians would feel free to borrow back improved content that was worked on at CryptoDox.

    I think this is similar to the greater argument between a totally open, encyclopediac-style information source, and a more specialized source with slightly higher barriers to entry. (Not an 'expert system' per se, but just because it's dedicated to a particular topic, it means that only people interested in that topic will probably join.) I think there's room for both, and by using compatible licenses, both can benefit.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  3. WikiProject Cryptography by clap_hands · · Score: 3, Informative

    Disclaimer: I started the English Wikipedia's Cryptography Project page:

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject _Cryptography

    CryptoDox seems to be doing the same thing: creating an encyclopedia about cryptography using MediaWiki. To be honest, I don't really understand why this guy wants to do it outside of Wikipedia -- I've asked him, but he's never given any reason for it . Still, he's quite welcome to do what he likes, of course, and since he's now using the GFDL (he was using Creative Commons Non-Commercial last week), we can copy material back and forth between Wikipedia and CryptoDox. So, if you're into crypto and fancy helping out, feel free get involved with either project -- it's a win for both.