#### New User
If you have a personal **email@amaravati.org**, you can directly create a wiki account, by clicking on *subscribing with google* on the [sign up page](https://wiki.amaravati.org/register). This will allow you to **edit**, **comment** and **watch** pages to receive notifications. For an introduction to the functionalities and capabilities of the wiki, please go to the [Wiki Training](https://wiki.amaravati.org/books/wiki/page/wiki-training "Wiki Training").
[Sign Up](https://wiki.amaravati.org/register)[Wiki Training](https://wiki.amaravati.org/books/wiki/page/wiki-training)
*(for user withour an amaravati email adresse, please contact to receive a personal login)*
#### Navigation
To navigate throughout the wiki, simply click on the main Logo on the top left of the wiki. This will give you an overview of the main sections of the monastery. Toggle the *List View* in order to see the book titles on every shelf.
[Shelves](https://wiki.amaravati.org/)
---
#### Guide
If you prefer watching a video to get an introduction to the functionalities of the wiki, feel free to play the one below. You can find all the relevant tips in the [training page](https://wiki.amaravati.org/books/wiki/chapter/training "Training").
[Official Documentation](https://www.bookstackapp.com/docs/user/content-overview/)
# Proposal to ASC
## Context
For almost 10 years, we have migrated Amaravati email addresses from the original ‘free’ gmail accounts to the commercial version of gmail, called Google Workspace, which is free for now for non-profits. Organizations benefit from this service, because all the email addresses belong to one group and can easily share documents within this group. Over the years we have seen many people using collaborative functions where all can edit and create documents together. The use of unlimited file storage and sharing has proven useful for us as a community. However, we have come to a point where there are so many of these files and documents that it’s hard to find them or understand where they are filed or saved. Therefore, the system has become like some kind of **information silos,** where a great deal of information is available to all of us, but hidden away in some digital cabinet.
What’s missing is comparable to the (very!) outdated hanging file cabinet at the back office that provided information about all kinds of topics within the monastery. By just browsing through, one could access a lot of different types of information that were quite readily available and accessible to our own community. If anyone had more information on a particular topic, anyone was able to add it to the ‘file’. Currently, this type of file cabinet is missing in our digital setup. There are plenty of documents, but it is sitting on our own desk so to say, most of it is unknown to the majority of the community.
## Proposal
The proposal is to create such a **digital filing cabinet**, where information can easily be found. One of the benefits of the digital world is that some information can be restricted, so that confidential, meeting minutes or agendas can continue to be protected. For instance, a lot of people are not aware of the different decision bodies like the ASC, ABC, ADL, EST to name a few. It would have been helpful to have information that introduced these committees, how frequent they meet, their area of responsibilities, who partakes in those meetings etc. This helps the (new or even old) community members to understand who does what. For those who are familiar and authorized, they can also find more information about more restricted information (such as minutes). There is also a wealth of other resources that Amaravati has, like the photo drive, the audio/dhamma drive, the drive where all the technical drawings of Amaravati are stored, etc. Such a digital filing cabinet would be able to reveal this information more easily. Currently, it’s mostly by chance when (some) community members know about it.
This digital filing cabinet is a type of **wiki technology,** where people can access and file the information. Such an online system is a program that is readily available for anyone, it’s open-source and frequently updated (www.bookstackapp.com). It can be installed and maintained by ourselves, like our website, or can be outsourced to a commercial party without us needing to worry about it (similar to our email system). Furthermore, there is a complimentary program that can be linked whereby discussions about a certain topic (e.g. suggestions and comments on these wiki pages) can be grouped together within a particular area. We have run a short trial during the Vassa with 5-6 people, and have found this particularly useful for those that hold a lot of information and need to share this information with a wider community (e.g. kitchen, maintenance, site management, transport, building projects etc).
## Community wide pilot 2024 (Launch)
We wanted to propose this type of digital filing system to the community. Ideally, starting with the more information ‘hungry’ areas affecting a larger number of community members, like the transport coordinator, maintenance/site management, the current 7b building projects and the kitchen. This would alleviate the difficulty of constant updates to a wider community. After these initial steps, we could extend it from there if there is a positive response for all involved. The costs are minimal since we will try to use the current digital infrastructure from our websites. Ideally, this trial would be ready for the Vassa, where there is ample time to test it with the community and a review could be done at the end of the year. The preparation would start after the winter retreat. This would involve Tan Cittadhammo spending time to help setting this up with the assistance of Ajahn Narindo. The bulk of the work is to create the right taxonomy and categorisation (structure) for the information, as well as uploading and inserting the relevant information on the system.
**Note**: This is not a one-size-fits-all solution for all information at Amaravati. Its objective is mainly to make digital information that is already there, more accessible and available. Further trying to reduce the data silos that have since started when using our Google email and documents 10 years ago.
We would like to ask the ASC to consider this and allow us to set this up for the community so information can be more easily shared and accessible in a way similar to when we had paper information filed in a cabinet where community members could refer to.
Best wishes,
Narindo & Cittadhammo Bhikkhu
# General Info
# Wiki Guidelines
## Style
Authors should adopt a **neutral, objective, and fact-based tone**. The style should be **clear, concise, and accessible,** avoiding personal opinions or biases.
The writer's primary aim is to **inform**, not to persuade, ensuring that all content is supported by reliable documentation and verifiable facts.
The attitude should be one of **humility**, recognizing that the goal is to contribute to a shared resource, and thus collaboration, respect for the work of others.
You can write more **personal contents** in the comments, or put your name on top of a section to identify yourself as the author.
## Revision
There is an option in the wiki to see the changes done by users by clicking on **revision**. The idea of the wiki is to create a neutral, objective, fact-base knowledge (ideally without people's name), but we can always see who added the information by clinking on revision:
Which is what you can see automatically when anyone edits any page of the book you ***watch**.*
## Public pages or User only
What is our policy for the view of the content. User only with only some pages public?
## Usage of Data
Prefer Google Drive over Wiki for large amount of data (images, PDFs, video, audio, etc.)
Need to have a good way of linking the data to the wiki
## Usage of username
In my experience, it is much better to use a personal account, instead of a position account in the wiki. I.e. Cittadhammo Bhikkhu (cittadhammo@amaravati.org) instead of Anonymous Recycling Officer (waste@amaravati.org). This for the following reasons:
1. You don't know who is speaking in the comment, or who created/modified a page if a position account is used. Over time, different people will occupy
2. Position are good for handling emails account under an office job (position), but not for personal interaction with a community software.
3. People will change their office over time, but you want them to keep using the wiki with a continuous account and be able to log in even when they retire from an office.
4. When someone else takes the office, the old person cannot use the wiki and has to create a new account with all his profile and set up changed.
5. When you take a new office, you don't want the previous officer settings, comments, watches in your wiki account.
6. People should have a personal wiki account and their name can temporary being mentioned on an office page like [Recycling Officer](https://wiki.amaravati.org/books/recycling/page/recycling-officer "Recycling Officer") with the office email. When the officer change, just change the name on the office page.
7. If you have multiple office, it doesn't make sense to have to change account when you use the wiki. It is not like an inbox where you can switch between perso and work. A wiki is a work environment where real people (not officer position) interact.
8. More to come... ;-)
# Wiki Project
#### Google Doc [(Source)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eUYeWe17gz1becDHXtART00Sq02vyII_iRDkOmgvuVY/edit)
---
## Overview
Amaravati has adopted the google Drive services in the past decades. Many folders and files have been compiled, but they are difficult to share and access. This dilution of information makes it difficult to train new people and hard to understand how the organization functions. The wiki aims at acting like a node that would connect all the internal components of the organization.
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2023-09/wiki-drawio-1.png)
> “A wiki is a web-based collaborative platform that enables users to store, create and modify content in an organized manner. The term comes from the word wiki wiki, which means fast in Hawaiian.”
# To Do
- [ ] Custom title by adding hr bar automatically ?
- [ ] Create an introduction to the wiki
- [ ] Links to official doc, etc.
- [ ] Create training
- [ ] One page
- [ ] Video
- [ ] Guidelines for using the wiki
- [ ] Update the wiki
- [ ] modify dark theme
- [ ] change the logo for a white version on black background
# Wiki Team
Tan Cittadhammo
Tan Samahito ?
### Roles
Helping with the maintaining and training of the wiki for ABM
# Training
# Wiki Training
This page is a draft and is still in construction. It aims at documenting all the relevant information for a new user of the wiki.
## Navigation
This wiki is arranged following a natural language hierarchy inspired by the familiar **library:**
- Shelve
- Book
- Chapter
- Page
- Header level
To navigate throughout the wiki, simply click on the [main Logo](https://wiki.amaravati.org/) on the top left of the wiki. This will give you an overview of the main sections of the monastery. Toggle the **List View** in order to see the book titles on every shelf.
#### "Watching" content
You will receive notification, as you choose in your setting, when people modify or edit content you have created or on books/pages you are watching. You can watch content by clinking on the button "watch" in the info column of your chosen content.
## Editing
### Images

Drag and drop images from your computer directly in the edit mode, or use the image icon in the toolbar.
If you align them right or left, the images will be merging with the text for nice effect !
Resize them and drag them where you need them.
### Attachment
The wiki allow you to attach any file to a page. Click on the left bar in **edit mode** on the attachment icon to upload files. The attachments will be displayed in the top left section of the page for the user to download or to view. When clicking on the little arrow next to them, you will find the links to download or view. By right-clicking on the view link, you can copy the link address and use it in a button like this one below. (See *how to make a button* below)
[Open PDF in a new tab](https://wiki.amaravati.org/attachments/10?open=true)
The goal of the wiki is not to become a new place for storage files. Although you can attach a file to any page, most of the time, files are in google Drive. The goal of the wiki is to act a nexus point allowing access to the information and its presentation (avoiding silos).
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-03/unnamed.png)
### Tags
You can search by tags using "\[tag\]" bracket in the search bar. (could propose a little button on the side of the search bar that looks like a tag.)
### User Profile
Edit your user profile with relevant information. If you have used a position amaravati account instead of a personal amaravati account when login in, make sure you add your name to your position, like: Audio Editor (Issaro Bhikkhu)
## Work flow
Philosophy
- Create new page for any new information instead of an email with essential information that get lost
- starting new idea, brainstorming
- Advantage, keep information, clarity
## Advanced Users
### Creating Buttons
Buttons are a nice way to get people attention. You can simply copy and paste this button in the **edit mode** of this page and paste it where you need. Change the link by clicking on it once you have paste it.
[Link Button](#bkmrk-introduction)
## Embedding Google Document
The wiki allow you to embed content from other source like Google Docs, Google Folder etc.
The easiest way to do so is to click on the insert media button in the toolbar
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2024-10/ERNimage.png)
Then select embed and past the following code ``
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2024-10/42Iimage.png)
You have to replace the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx field by the ID of your document or folder (see below).
### How to find the ID of a Google Document
The easiest way to find the ID is click on **Share** when viewing your document (video, google doc, audio file)
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-03/eQOimage.png)
and clicking on **Copy Link**
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-03/oXSimage.png)
The link contain a unique ID that is a string of character of the form
[](https://wiki.amaravati.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-03/zTqimage.png)
Copy and paste the ID in place of the stars, and make sure your document or folder is *shared with anyone with the link.*
### Examples
This method will give the result below for a google Doc
see [https://mori.pages.dev/blog/embed-google-drive-folders](https://mori.pages.dev/blog/embed-google-drive-folders) for more info
### Google Drive Folder Special Embed
Here, for example, the code :
``
was added in the source code of the edit mode replacing the id of the folder by the one you want. It display as follow.:
#### PDF
To imbed a pure PDF from a google Drive, click on Open in new window on the corner right when viewing a PDF.
Then change the URL **view**->**preview** at the end. This will give you a pure PDF without any UI
Then a simple iframe will do the trick:
```
```
change the height attribute for a better fit to the page
```