Lex-Wiki.org Version 2.0 Released

The new and improved http://lex-wiki.org web site is based on the Mediawiki engine, familiar to those using Wikipedia.

Lex-wiki.org is a local wiki allowing Lexington residents and more generally people related to Lexington to share freely information about our town. You will find information about city life, events, local flora and fauna, local history, web sites, FAQs and mailing lists.

Add to that a sizable section keeping track of what's hot in town and school politics.

Everybody can view, signed up users only can contribute, and anybody related to Lexington can sign up. Please use your actual name as a login, similarly to how you must use your real name when posting on the lexington@yahoogroups.com and lex-polrel@yahoogroups.com lists.

Entries are moderated by any other contributor, wiki-style. Wiki-etiquette applies.

What has improved since the previous version?

We have collected and organized more information about Lexington. We now have discussion pages and a perma-link mechanism, allowing URL references to specific past versions of pages. And with the new user registration we have solved an annoying problem with web-bots which were abusing the old 100% open edit policy, periodically defacing the web site.

Sources of Information

Various online data sources were used to compile the information posted on lex-wiki.org. Here is a listing:

• Town of Lexington Public Records Portal. Note that not all public records are stored as a matter of custom in the Public Records Portal.
• Newspapers
  • The Lexington Patch
  • The Lexington Minuteman
  • Lexington's Colonial Times Magazine
  • The boston.com web site (requires subscription)
  • The Metro Section of the Boston Globe (requires paid subscription)
• Web sites
  • http://www.lexingtonma.gov, the Lexington City web site
  • http://lps.lexingtonma.org, the Lexington Public Schools web site
  • Mirror of the old 2011 Lexington Public Schools web site
  • Assessors Online Database for Lexington, MA
  • Town of Lexington's Geographic Information System
  • Harry Forsdick's http://lexma.weebly.com, a grass roots community web site
• General mailing lists
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lex-tmma (viewable publicly, only Town Meeting members can post)
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexington (private, free and open subscription)and its FAQ
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lex-polrel (private, free and open subscription)

In and Around Lexington

The Local Politics pages are informed by Committee and Board Reports, which are public information but sometimes do not find themselves posted on local governmental web sites. The School Committee is especially well represented on Lex-Wiki, with regular reports from School Committee meetings, and with a special School News Archive compiling a list of Patch, Minuteman and Globe reports over the past couple of decades on Lexington Schools.

Local Flora and Fauna are represented by Trees, Shrubs and Vines,
Wild Flowers and Herbs, Birds. Arts and Entertainment by Art Galleries, Museums
Historical Buildings and Sites, Bands, Orchestras, Symphonies, Ballet, Opera, Theater.

For would-be Lex-Wiki editors some familiarity with wiki syntax is helpful, but that's something that should take five minutes to figure out. The important thing is to dare to click the Edit button. And who can these days afford not to know the Wiki language?