Manual:Introduction
Welcome to the Manual for compiling in Vaniquotes - version 1.1
Introduction
Note: This is a beta testing manual. Together we can all make it a finished product
The compiling methodology that we have developed at Vaniquotes is actually very simple. There are a few procedures that need to be followed in order to optimize the compiling process and to facilitate the technical cleanliness of the site. This manual is being developed to assist the training of volunteers to compile quotes from Srila Prabhupada. The manual is not a stand alone for the training and instructing of individuals in any area of work performed within Vaniquotes. The manual acts as an assistant for the compilers to remember and become more familiar to different aspects introduced via one of the Vanitutors during training sessions.
To become a competent and well-prepared compiler, one needs to receive personal training from one of our Vanitutors. In order to be able to bring about logical conclusions and achieve and maintain a level of quality and consistency necessary for his/her work within the whole framework of Vaniquotes one will need to become autonomous in their decision making. Depending on the competency of the individual this can be done after a few tutoring sessions of 1 to 2 hours, and around 20 to 40 hours of practice.
It is also helpful to have continual association on a peer to peer level in order to develop greater insights into the compiling process in Vaniquotes, as well as to develop various intellectual analysis and processing skills. This is predominantly an intuitive process, so with enthusiasm and a few tools, the possibilities are truly immense.
When you find things that you are doing in the compiling process that are not stated consistently, are unclear, or even omitted in the manual, please give us the feedback so we can improve it. This manual is also a collaborative endeavor and as more devotees become expert in the compiling process the skills they develop can be shared in the manual.
The Vanipedia core team thanks all the vaniservants for their services offered and wishes you all an enlivening experience associating with the brilliance of Srila Prabhupada's deliverance of the eternal wisdom of the Absolute Truth found within his teachings.
The ideal
The mission of the Vanipedia project is to create a systematically organized online encyclopedia of Srila Prabhupada's teachings.
Our "ideal" for the compiling process is to create a global facility for any person who so desires to assist in collaborating with others to create a unique resource of all of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. Vaniquotes is the first creative petal being developed in the Vanipedia project. It is a comprehensive mapping of all of Prabhupada's teachings. The more pages we have in Vaniquotes, the richer the articles in Vanipedia will be, the more comprehensive the compendiums in Vanibooks will be, and the more variegated and inclusive the Vaniversity online courses will be – and all representative of the siddhanta of our disciplic succession.
We envision developing many small teams of devotees compiling and thus stimulating nice association (sanga) around the study of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. We want those teams to serve dynamically and attain a high level of performance as a group. This will be achieved via clear communications, good organization, and effective training. Each individual will be encouraged to productively contribute to the whole process and to share that with others.
Information about Vanipedia's mission and vision is found here.
Our simple philosophy behind compiling is this:
- We accept that in modern times there has been no greater exponent of Vaisnava philosophy, and no greater social critic who explains this contemporary world AS IT IS, as Srila Prabhupada.
- We accept that Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee directly empowered by Lord Sri Krsna to engage living entities in loving devotional service to God, and that this empowerment is proven in his unparalleled expose on the Absolute Truth found within his teachings.
- We accept that Srila Prabhupada wanted his teachings to be profusely distributed and properly understood and in his physical absence, Srila Prabbhupada requires many vaniservants to assist him in this mission.
- We accept that a thematic approach to Srila Prabhupada's teachings greatly enhances the process of learning the truths within them, and that there is immense value to explore, discover and comprehensively compile his teachings from every angle of vision.
Thus we are committed - to creating a truly dynamic platform to facilitate the perfect knowledge and realization found within Srila Prabhupada's teachings, to be profusely distributed, properly understood, and joyfully acted upon.
It is that simple - and the only thing separating us from the completion of this vision of Vanipedia is time and the many sacred hours of devotional service that is yet to be offered by devotees who commit themselves to this vision.
Our methodology for compiling
Increase the accessibility
We want to make it as easy as possible for people to have access to all of the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. Creating Vaniquotes facilitates this greatly as it creates a resource that is very easy to find quotes and to be able to pick up on different themes that Prabhupada develops in his teachings
- Many times in one paragraph Srila Prabhupada addresses many points. So it is quite possible that one paragraph could find itself in a few pages. That is fine. We encourage it. Especially as we are approaching the mapping process via the 4 sections.
- Themes
- Significant English, Sanskrit and Bengali words
- Names of different scriptures
- Names of different personalities
Definitions
- This manual uses the same simple terms as found within the Vanipedia and Vaniquotes.
In the Vaniquotes section of the encyclopedia, Prabhupada's teachings are organized by subject - each subject is entitled a category and each category belongs to one of 4 different sections.
- themes - a word or sometimes a couple of words.
- usage of language - significant English, Sanskrit or Bengali words.
- names of different scriptures - the scriptures that Srila Prabhupada introduces us to in his purports.
- names of different personalities - the personalities that Srila Prabhupada introduces us to in his purports.
and groupings of the above 4 sections.
The subject matter of the categories is organized in pages.
- Each page title is 99.5% verbatim expressions of Srila Prabhupada, be they of two words, for example Real benediction or a few words Maha Visnu's real manifestation is Lord Krsna. Sometimes there is very slight grammatical editing of the title to make it flow.
pages contain original, non-edited quotes by Srila Prabhupada. A page can contain anywhere from one to two quotes all the way up to a one or two hundred quotes.
- In most cases a quote is preceded by a heading. The heading is made up of one, two, three or four important sentences from the quote. These sentences always have the page title in it.
The basic hierarchy of the categories, pages, quotes, and links become further understandable by reading the manual (as well as during the training sessions).
Glossary
- Category - Contains pages that all use the same terminologies
- Compiling - The process of copying and pasting, from Vedabase onto a page, Vaniquotes based on common expressions
- Expressions List - Phrases located at the top of a page that are copied and pasted from the Vedabase Query box, used by compilers to find quotes in Vedabase
- Heading - The heading that is leading into the quote
- Hit - A terminology from Vedabase to indicate how many references there are for a word or phrase
- Page - Place where a compiler pastes quotes based on an expressions list
- Quote - Text that a compiler copies and pastes from Vedabase
- Section - There are different sections of categories. Those sections are:
- Themes
- Significant English, Sanskrit and Bengali words
- Names of different scriptures
- Names of different personalities
- Different groupings of the above four sections
- Sub category - A category that is placed under another category
- Tag - Used to maintain statistics regarding the number of categories, pages, and quotes in Vaniquotes
- Terminology - Words or phrases located at the top of a category that are copied and pasted from the Vedabase Query box. Terminologies are used to create pages
- Theme - There are four sections of category titles. One of these sections is a theme. A theme is a word or terminology that represents Srila Prabhupada's teachings
- Vani - Instruction, message, teachings
- Vaniquote - A quote of Srila Prabhupada on a page
- Vaniquotes - A petal of Vanipedia where compilations are built
- Vanisource - A petal of Vanipedia that has all of Srila Prabhupada's teachings in text form. All quotes in Vaniquotes link to Vanisource
- Vedabase - A searchable database of Srila Prabhupada's teachings created by the Bhaktivedanta Archives
What is the manual?
- The Manual is a summary description of the technical and practical areas of work every Vaniquotes volunteer will encounter. It is written in a simple manner and is designed to instruct each volunteer in the basic standards of computer knowledge necessary for smooth performance on all levels within Vaniquotes.
- We have tried to analyse all the actions commonly performed by a Vaniquotes volunteer on a daily basis, as well as some uncommon situations one does not encounter often or may not have discussed with his/her personal Vanitutor. A number of assistants have been compiling in Vaniquotes for some time to refine the process, and after a dynamic interaction, have combined their experiences to articulate and compose a manual of what they consider important and valuable knowledge for all future volunteers.
However this manual is still very much a work in progress, and by having different volunteers go through it, we can adjust things that are not clear, and add on any missing points not covered. Please do not hesitate to assist with this for as the manual improves in its accuracies then the more rewarding and substantial everyone’s services for Vanipedia will be.
When to use the manual?
As mentioned, one is not considered qualified to compile within Vaniquotes from just a study of the written manual. The manual is best consulted after receiving some initial training, for then the concepts and practical points become easy to understand. The answers to any questions about practical application of the training received can also be found in the manual.
The manual is designed to assist the compiler after the personal vanitutor has offered the basic training - it should be able to answer all the common questions that develop in the first period of your compiling experience.
- In detail, you should turn to the manual:
- When you do not clearly remember how you were instructed to perform an action.
- When you encounter a special case you did not discuss with your vanitutor in detail - the manual contains solutions for frequent problems as well as exceptional situations.
- Every time you desire to contact your vanitutor - first check if your question has not been addressed already in the manual.
- It is generally advisable to refer to the manual when you are approaching Vaniquotes tasks for the first few initial times, in order to avoid possible misunderstandings or mistakes.
Compiling in Vaniquotes is actually simple and after some good training anyone can flow with the principles very easily.
Frequently asked questions
The Vanipedia core team members and experienced volunteers are always available to answer questions and offer guidance; however, the manual has been created to avoid contacting them for minor details and common questions and mistakes that can be easily answered. If any part of the manual is not clear and understandable, or does not fully answer your questions, feel very welcome to contact us. Your opinion about the manual is welcome as well: once one becomes acquainted with the compiling activities within Vaniquotes, he/she is welcome to contribute and improve the manual by adding questions and answers, corrections or suggestions.
The contents of the manual
You can read the titles of the chapters and subtitles of smaller paragraphs at the beginning of the manual in the table of contents list. This will give you a rough idea of what is presented within. To elaborate, the manual instructs the reader in every step of the processes of:
- Compiling quotes
- Linking pages to categories
- Creating categories
- Creating pages
Compiling quotes is the first task to perform and the greatest number of Vaniquotes volunteers are working on this area. It is considered the simplest of all works. The level of understanding, intellectualizing and responsibility is the lowest at this point. It does offer however, a wonderful opportunity to study Srila Prabhupada's teachings from thematic angles. As more pages are completed the whole wonder of Vaniquotes becomes more and more revealed.
Linking pages to categories is a work that all Vaniquotes assistants need to have the basic knowledge and understanding of, as this simple process needs to be performed within the different aspects of the whole compiling process. It also helps one to know all the categories that already exist.
Creating categories is fun, stimulates the imagination, and also by having a "creating category" mindset one is facilitated to know all the different categories that already exist thus broadening one's own understanding of the breadth and depth of Vaniquotes.
Creating pages is slightly more demanding than other actions and is usually performed by vaniservants who are already experienced in other areas. It also demands a deeper level of personal training and an understanding of the whole Vaniquotes compiling process.
The manual also covers the usage of Firefox, Vedabase, and searching within Vaniquotes, offers some understanding of the Wiki software, and explains communicating with other members through Skype. By consulting the manual one should develop some understanding of the reasoning and methods behind the actions performed. The manual concludes with a brief description on the qualities and duties of a person who volunteers to become a vanitutor to train people into the Vaniquotes compiling process.