Well, apparently my MistyLook/Wiki/Blog concoction was well received, so I think it’s well worth following up with a few more bits of information, and clarification. First, thanks to all who commented, especially those who weren’t sure what they were looking at really. Frankly, I would want to know too. Let me just say that from the start this was about creating a space that had a look and feel that was consistent, and at leased “loosely joined” two great technologies. It is certainly not a final answer, but a starting point. User integration, data integration, and presentation still need lots of work.

This “project” started at the end of last year when I went through the process of updating the theme to my blog. Mistylook was a finalist, but I ultimately went for Coffee Spot for a slightly more unique feel. Both of these themes, by the way, are the work of Sadish Bala, so large amounts of credit go to him for such pleasing designs.

I had been playing off and on with MediaWiki, but I had not gotten serious with it until this year. I was looking into issues with editing permissions and thoughts about vandalism, which oddly enough is that oh so delicate balance that Alan Levine barked about in reference to this MistyLook project. I also wanted to investigate the possibilities of getting video to work in MediaWiki and discovered first, the third-party extensions, and eventually the Google/YouTube extension.

Just recently I discovered the MistyLook skin for MediaWiki on the Skins Page, which was added sometime in March ’07. The disappointment was that it was for MediaWiki 1.9.3. You know the rest of the story, but I did discover that Trevor had implemented the MistyLook theme at the University of Minnesota for a website, and it sure doesn’t look like any wiki. As I’ve said, Trevor has been a big help in all this. His suggestions keep rolling in and I’ll share more soon.

There certainly needs to be more skins made available that are based on the WordPress themes. Hopefully, that will progress sooner rather than later. So anyway thanks again, Oh Great EduWeb Community, for the encouragement. There’s more to come.