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From Universal Edit Button

     

The Universal Edit Button   Get the extension! Firefox | Opera | Chrome | (Drupal and WordPress)

For Bloggers • In the News • Community portal Contact • Suggestions • Questions Help Promote This

What is this?

The Universal Edit Button is a green pencil icon in the address bar that indicates a web page is editable. It is similar to the orange "broadcast" RSS icon that indicates there is an RSS feed available.

The universal edit button is available for Firefox (installation notes), Opera and Chrome - (also Wordpress & Drupal) . In time, we expect web browsers will support the Universal Edit Button natively, as they have done for RSS feeds.

Why the Universal Editing Button matters

The Universal Editing Button (UEB) allows a web surfer to more quickly recognize when a site may be edited. It is a convenience to web surfers who are already inclined to contribute, and an invitation to those who have yet to discover the thrill of building a common resource. As this kind of public editing becomes more commonplace, the button may become regarded as a badge of honor. It serves as an incentive to encourage companies and site developers to add publicly-editable components to their sites, in order to have the UEB displayed for their sites.

In these ways, we hope that this button catalyzes the acceleration of the editable web, and helps accelerate society's trend toward building valued common resources.

For more explanation of the Universal Edit Button, you can listen to a podcast by Ward Cunningham (inventor of the wiki), Mark Dilley (WikiIndex.org), and Peter Kaminski (SocialText).

Background

Tim Berners-Lee's initial vision for the web was a read-write medium. Yet as the web matured, very few web sites offered users the ability to write or edit. The web became primarily a "read only" medium. Everyone web surfed but few got to enjoy web editing.

Over the years, wiki practitioners and other edit-friendly folks spread the idea that the web should be editable by anyone at any time. The success of Wikipedia, and the increasing utility of wikis like wikiHow, AboutUs, wikiTravel and Wikia demonstrates that open editing creates high quality information resources. "Read only" sites are increasingly adding the ability for anyone to participate. Wikis appear in enterprise software products and in consumer offerings such as those from net behemoths like Google. As the Internet becomes more editable by the day, web users are becoming more adept and creative in the tools that allow information to be shared.

History of the Universal Edit Button

Conversations on this idea started at RoCoCo (a RecentChangesCamp) in Montreal 2007, and discussions continued on the AboutUs wiki. At the Palo Alto RCC in 2008, a handful of people explored the idea, got excited with auto-discovery, and helped spread the idea.

Many ideas were suggested and designed by wiki editors for the Universal Edit Button icon, as evidenced in the logo for this wiki. The first icon was selected from a suggestion made by Ward Cunningham at the start of the discussions. Afterwards, a new icon design () was adopted, from a suggestion by Lorenzo Pastrana.

The initial firefox extension was updated by Andreas Gohr, in order to solve some compatibility bugs and adopt the new design.

Our goal is to promote a button that works across platforms (wiki to start with), is independent of any particular language; and is simple, yet evocative of what it means to be able to edit.

For more information or to get involved, please check out the Community Portal
(that page also links to how to implement it on your website, and the Firefox plug-in)

Sites with Universal Editing Button

Wikis, Wiki Engines, Wiki Farms

To enable your Wiki or site with the UEB, see the Add The Link page.

edit this list

(roughly in implementation order)

Other Platforms

edit list

In the News

edit list

People are talking about the Universal Edit Button:

May, 2011

• OSDir.com forum (19 May 2011)

November, 2009

• UEB now available for Chrome (18 November 2009)

September, 2009

• Mindtouch touting UEB! reblog (15 September 2009)

June, 2009

• Mindtouch introduces the UEB (11 June 2009)
• Is the UEB worth it? (08 June 2009)
• Support for Universal Edit Button in Google Code (Google Sites?) (05 June 2009)

May, 2009

• SplitBrain.org Universal Edit Button Update (12 May 2009)

February, 2009

• Universal Edit Button for Opera developed
• It’s very cool to hear Wikipedia editor Steven Walling describe how our support for the Universal Edit Button sold him on Calagator. 23 Feb 2009
• Wikka Wiki announces support (15 Feb 2009)
• Wikidot announces support (12 Feb 2009)

January, 2009

• Cómo utilizar un wiki (30 Jan 2009)
• Miuty.wordpress.com noted (18 Jan 2009)
• No Stupid Answers - Universal Edit Button now on WikiAnswers (08 Jan 2009)

November, 2008

• EducationLoad.com excited about this! (03 Nov 2008)

October, 2008

• TiddlyWiki - ponders how / if to integrate (2008-10-06T15-11-17Z-0700)
• Appropedia wiki adoption (October 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm)
• Wikipedia's Did You Know section on front page (05:36, 14 October 2008)

August, 2008

• theDIYpal Blog - Universal Edit Button (August 12, 2008)

July, 2008

• Peter Krantz - Reducing distractions, increasing productivity (July 11th, 2008 at 22:43)
• ScribbleWiki - Universal Edit Button (July 31st, 2008 at 9:10 pm)

June, 2008

June 26th, 2008

• Column Two - Universal Edit Button (June 26th, 2008)
• Creative Commons - WikiHow Promotes Universal Edit Button (June 26th, 2008)
• The Wikipedia Signpost in their June 26 issue (June 26, 2008)

June 24th, 2008

• Adrian Sutton - Aim Higher (June 24th, 2008 at 6:33 am)
• Enterprise3 - Collaboration leads to Edit-able Page Button (June 24, 2008)
• webmonkey - Wikis Rally Around Universal Edit Button (June 24, 2008)

June 23rd, 2008

• Robin Marshall Robin Marshall - Open Source Web Development: Universal Wiki Edit Button - Demystifying Wikis (June 23, 2008)
• Code Monkey Business Do browsers need a Universal Edit Button? (2008/06/23 14:20:17)
• Micro Persuasion mention (June 23, 2008)
• Nodalities Blog - This Week’s Semantic Web (June 23rd, 2008, 07:14 pm)
• FAQICA - The Universal Edit Button (23 June 2008)
• Peter Scott's Library Blog - Universal Edit Button (June 23, 2008)

June 22nd, 2008

• Creative Commons - Universal Edit Button (June 22nd, 2008)
• Webmasterpro -- UniversalEditButton - allgemeine Bearbeiten-Auszeichnung (German -- English translation) (June 22, 2008)

June 21st, 2008

• I play with the Internet -- Universal Edit Button (21 Jun 2008 00:45:27)
• Cybozu - Universal Edit Button Japanese (2008-06-21)
  • Yahoo Japan (2008-06-21)
• Markov Blog - Universal edit button (June 21st, 2008 at 11:16 am)
• Mark Pilgrim - Minimalism (June 21, 2008)

June 20th, 2008

• Universal Wiki Edit Button for TWiki (20 Jun 2008 - 14:44:29)
• Split Brain -- Universal Edit Button (June the 20th, 2008)
• Web Worker Daily: And Now: The Universal Edit Button (June 20th, 2008, 8:00am)
• Internet de Nueva Generación -- Universal Edit Button (Spanish) (20 Junio 2008)
• Codedread -- UEB: Putting The U In Web (June 20th, 2008)
• Sheila's work blog -- Universal edit button for wikis - one more reason to install firefox 3? (June 20, 2008)
• KM Space -- Universal Edit Button (June 20, 2008)
• The Daily Peanut -- The Universal Edit Button (Jun 20,2008)
• webwereld -- 'Universele bewerkknop' voor alle wikisites (Dutch -- English translation) (20 June, 2008, 11:35)
• Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog -- Friday recap (June 20, 2008)

June 19th, 2008

• ReadWriteWeb -- Wiki Providers Come Together to Offer Universal Edit Button (June 19, 2008 12:00 PM)
  • great comment (June 19, 2008 1:48 PM)
• Wikimedia -- Firefox 3 and the ‘wiki edit button’ (June 19th, 2008)
• Silicon Florist -- Getting wiki with it: Wiki types (AboutUs included) collaborate on universal wiki edit button (June 19, 2008)
• SocialText blog -- A Universal Edit Button For The Web (June 19, 2008 - 12:35 PM)
• Ross Mayfield's Weblog -- Wiki Universal Edit Button (June 19, 2008 01:31 PM)
• John Abbe -- Universal Edit Button (2008 Jun 19 Thu PM)
• Andy Roberts -- What is the Universal Edit Button? (June 19, 2008)
• WikiProject Oregon -- Edit This Page (June 19, 2008)
• wikiHow -- Forum announcement (Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:14 pm)
• Ruminations on the Digital Realm -- Edit Wiki pages with a Firefox button (Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm)
• AboutUs Weblog -- Universal Edit Button (19th June 2008)
• Martin Cleaver -- Wiki this site: The Universal Edit Button launches today (also as a post at WikiSym) (Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 8:20 am)
• RecentChanges.info -- Universal "Wiki" Edit Button (Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm)
• MindTouch blog -- Universal Edit Button (June 19, 2008, 12:28 pm)
• White Mountain Tech -- Do you know what this button means? (June 19, 2008 at 2:58 pm)
• L'Actualité Des Wikis (French aggregator) (June 19th, 2008)
• Josh Bancroft's Life Stream -- Universal Edit Button is an awesome idea (June 19, 2008)
• The universal edit button (19-Jun-2008 23:53:50 EEST)
• Agree2 now supports the Universal Edit Button (June 19, 2008)
• Wiki contributors join together to bid Universal Edit Button (Jun 19, 2008)
• WikiSpaces -- Wikispaces supports the Universal Edit Button (June 19th, 2008)
• snellspace.com -- Universal Edit Button (June 19th, 2008 at 6:53)
• Binary Solo (June 19, 2008)

Tweets

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Other web sightings

(Note: at the top of this page are links to post UEB to many sites)

• Digg it! design - @Ross Mayfield and/or programming - @ReadWriteWeb and/or software - @ UniversalEditButton.org and/or @mintblogger

• Del.icio.us - del.icio.us 1 2 3

• mixx -- your blend of the web

• Friendfeed - object, another

• StumbleUpon - Silicon Florist post

• Plurk - plft!

• TechMeme 01:58, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

• DotShout 02:23, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

• Fragmented Mind: Universal Edit Button - reblog

• ByteSizd tumblr

• Technorati search