General FAQ

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This FAQ answers the general Wandora questions. There exists separate FAQ for Wandora user also.

Contents

What is Wandora?

Wandora is a software application to build, edit, publish and visualize information graphs, especially topic maps. Wandora is written in Java and suits for

  • Collecting, combining, aggregating, managing, refining and publishing information and knowledge graphs
  • Designing information, information modeling and prototyping
  • Information mashups
  • Ontology creation and management
  • Mind and concept mapping
  • Language technology applications
  • Graph visualizations
  • Knowledge format conversions
  • Digital preservation
  • Data journalism
  • Open data projects
  • Linked data projects

See features for more complete list of Wandora's capabilities. As listed application areas sound very wide you may want to see also real-life projects for implementation ideas.

What Wandora is NOT?

  • Wandora is NOT a wiki. We use wiki only for documentation purposes.
  • Wandora is NOT an RDF/RDFS/OWL application. Although Wandora reads many kinds of RDF files, Wandora's internal data model is Topic Maps. This also means that Wandora is not strictly speaking a semantic web application.
  • Wandora is NOT a content management system (CMS). Although Wandora shares many features with CMS's, Wandora should not be seen as a modern CMS such as Drupal or Joomla.
  • Wandora is NOT a database. Although Wandora contains a graph database, Wandora should not be seen as a pure database application nor any specific database.
  • Wandora is NOT a software library. Wandora is a self standing application with a graphical user interface.

Is there any real-life examples where Wandora is used?

One of the best examples of live web sites using Wandora is The Art Collections of Finnish National Gallery. It sits on top of Apache Tomcat and Wandora's Modules framework. All site content is stored in four layered topic maps. Similar site built with Wandora is The Art Collections of Finnish State Art Commission.

What I am allowed to do with Wandora?

Wandora's license is GNU GPL v3.

Wandora is a FOSS application. This means that you can use and distribute the application freely. You can even download Wandora's source code and modify it. If you distribute your Wandora modification, you should license the modification with same license, GNU GPL. Also, GNU GPL license forces you to open source code of your modification.

Wandora contains numerous extractors that transfer open web feeds to a topic map format. Wandora application license does not cover the usage of extracted information. If you are planning to use any extracted information beyond personal usage consult original information owner and feed provider to get an appropriate license for the extracted information.

What is needed to use Wandora application?

To use Wandora application you need

Internet connection is a great addition if you are planning to use Wandora's information extractors.

Can I have Wandora's source code?

Wandora is an open source software. We use Github as a master repository. You can clone the repository.

You can also download Wandora's source code distribution package.

Wandora's javadocs are available at [1].

If you are planning to distribute your application based on Wandora, you must license your application with the GNU GPL.

Support policy

At the moment we are able to give you modest support. Please write your support request at Wandora Forum. We check the forum frequently and usually answer your question within hours.

If you want frequent support or training please contact us directly as described in chapter Contact Wandora Team. Support policy is updated frequently depending on the number of open support requests and our general project status.

Commercial support is also available. Contact us for details.

Get involved

All kinds of contributions are welcome. We use Github as a master repository of Wandora application. If you create nice extensions to the Wandora or are using Wandora in your projects, we would be very happy to hear from you and your project.

Also, you can advertise your Wandora projects at Wandora forum.

Discussion forum for Wandora

Wandora's discussion forum is available here.

Bugs in Wandora

We appreciate your bug reports. Please use Github or leave a note about the bug at the Wandora Forum or email it to us as described in chapter Contact Wandora Team.

Wandora is an ongoing project and definitely has bugs and some features are unfinished.

Who are you guys?

People behind the Wandora are Aki Kivelä and Olli Lyytinen. Wandora's history dates back to 2000 and current version of Wandora owes a great deal to Pasi Hytönen and Marko Wallgren. Pasi Hytönen was part of second generation Wandora team. Marko Wallgren participated the initial Wandora team and was the man behind Kiasmart, the first application of long line of Wandora products. Wandora's logo (the pieced plate) was originally designed by Jarno Wallgren for Kiasmart, the first Wandora application. Elias Tertsunen has contributed the GraphBrowser Flash application in Wandora samples, and Wandora's Drupal and Joomla extras. Antti Tuppurainen has contributed RIS, Flickr, Delicious, and Digg extractors, and video preview panel. Eero Lehtonen has contributed several D3 based server modules, Freebase and Guardian open platform extractors. Niko Laitinen has contributed several D3 based server modules and extractors, Europeana extractor, for example.

Wandora application has been created in Grip Studios Interactive. Grip is a Finnish software company specialized in challenging internet applications. We also provide commercial support for Wandora and build Wandora based web applications. The company was founded 1996. Grip Studios Interactive is privately owned and profitable.

Contact Wandora Team

You may contact Wandora Team by email with support character.gif wandora.org. To ensure your mail not being trashed by our spam filter use keyword [WANDORA] in the title of your email message. We also have a Twitter account wandora_app and a discussion forum.

You may contact Grip Studios Interactive by email with office character.gif gripstudios.com. To ensure your mail not being trashed by our spam filter use keyword [WANDORA] in the title of your email message.

Our office address is

Grip Studios Interactive Oy
Elimäenkatu 21
00510 Helsinki
Finland

Our WWW site is at [2].

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