Wiki Uses

Wikis can be used a lot of different ways. MediaWiki is primarily designed for http://www.wikipedia.org, and is well suited for that task. MediaWiki has some of the best features, and some very glaring omissions (for certain applications). However, MediaWiki is actively being developed, and it is open source, so it could be possible to add features.

The following is a list of possible wiki uses, and how well MediaWiki is suited for those tasks, and links to how to set mediawiki up for that task.

Rapid Document Prototyping

• Backlinks (multiple categories basically deal with this)

Web Log (Blogging)

• Locked down parts, with attached, editable comments

Is there a good solution out there that implements a blog in MediaWiki? mailto:joe@ceilingsunlimited.tv Btw, I haven't found a good solution yet. 2006.02.07

Linux Distribution Multilingual, multiplatform, documentation

Attributes

• a newline is a newline by default
• access control lists
• connection to subversion/version control software
• connection to bugzilla or similar
• document includes (write a procedure once, use many places)
• fall over to language that documentation is written in, if it isn't there yet
• verbosity collapsing (show an outline, show basic reasoning, give wordy wasteful stuff that authors like to write (see gentoo's documentation, it's nearly impossible to follow))
• cascading ... (have one document be based on another live document, so that when the base document changes, it changes in child documents)
• code highlighting

project to implement this stuff

(note, the fractodendron project --> http://escargot.icehouse.net/mediawiki/index.php/fractodendron is hoping to find / document / implement these features in a wiki.. as well as p2p wiki stuff..)

News Site

Attributes

• clear reporter identification

Personal Home Page

• e.g. links/bookmarks/favourites page: to have bookmarks in just one PC is never satisfactory; to store them with a public provider (Yahoo etc.) is not discreet; to have them on a WIKI (ev. password protected) allows access to your private collection and editing from allover the world. mailto:ijb@ijb.ch to learn about his experience.

• hidden WIKI accessible behind a normal homepage, may contain your PC networks configuration details, like IP-addresses, software license date etc.

• To-Do-List for your computer people can be maintained behind private homepage. Allows them to prepare next visit and to keep the list actual

• company may edit internal instructions legible for everyone within the group

Classified Ads Site

Attributes

• any advertiser can add their ads
• the advertiser can change the ad for changes (e.g. new company phone number)
• one company can't delete another one's ads

Store

Required Components

• Access Control Lists
• Item widgets
• shopping cart widget
• ssl

(I don't think I'm crazy for mentioning this possibility)

Knowledge Base

Attributes

• easy to navigate
• easy to search
• links to related articles
• links to similar topics
• categories
• backlinks for missing pages

Example sites

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org

http://meta.wikipedia.org (this site!)