Introduction to the Thinkubator

Students and faculty in the Master of Publishing (MPub) program at Simon Fraser University communicate with each other in the Thinkubator, our online hub. Current students and alumni can stay connected, and guest lecturers and prospective students can get an entree into the MPub world. Readers interested in any form of publishing can peruse the Thinkubator, but only registered users can contribute to it. Anyone interested in publishing, however, can register by hitting the "Join" button.

The Thinkubator is also an ongoing technical/publishing research and development environement, directed by John Maxwell, Assistant Professor in the MPub program, and largely designed by his students. Thinkubator VI was the first experiment with the "writable web," and we have been through four and a half iterations and further developments since. Wikis allow participants to read, post and edit site content. Users can post or add content to any page in the TKBR. By tagging their posting, contributors decide what category (or categories) it fits into. Thus users decide how to organize the information on the site. The result is a navigable site that looks like a collection of blogs by a group of contributors. Thinkubator runs on Simon Michaels' excellent ZWiki software.

For more information about the Thinkubator project and related research at SFU, see What Can't You Do With a Wiki?