We have determined that our library could really enhance newsroom communication by creating an in-house wiki. Since no one has experience with this, my boss has given me the blessing to go ahead. I too, have no experience with this, but am going to move forward blissfully ignorant of what I do not know.
But where to begin?
I am currently on the waiting list for the public library’s copy of Wiki: Web Collaboration, by Anja Ebersbach, Markus Glaser, Richard Heigl, G. Dueck (Foreword), Andrea Adelung (Translator), which seems to be one of the few authoritative texts currently available.
Do any of you have experience with building a wiki? Any suggestions? Any resources you found particularly helpful?
This is only the beginning.
5 Comments for pre-wiki adventures
Author comment by Steve | August 2, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Author comment by Barry | August 3, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Steve, I would like to learn more about the technical aspects of wikis. Their user-friendliness, difficulties first-time users might have encountered when using them, the most usable programs for those who are not the most tech-savvy?
I have encountered the following names in my trolling:
MediaWiki seems to be popular; can I download it for internal use only?
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
PBWiki Has a free version that I have been playing around with, see it here:
http://pbwiki.com
I even opened a Circulatable wiki. http://circulatable.pbwiki.com
I have also heard of others in the biz using a wiki through Python, though I really need to read up on this one.
http://www.python.org
Author comment by Steve | August 6, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Barry, it looks like you can download and install a local copy of MediaWiki. It appears that you may need to know something about the PHP programming language and the MySQL database server. You probably need to talk to your network administrators and find out what they are willing to install and support. One of the most important things is that you must keep up with security updates or you may find that a piece of softare like this opens up a security flaw on your servers. This is something that the LIS Host folks occassionally contact me about for this blog. Upgrades are usually simple.
Python is another lightweight programming/scripting language (like PHP or Perl). Python could be used to create any web application, not just a wiki…
Author comment by Steve | September 14, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Barry, how are the wiki adventures panning out?
Author comment by Barry | September 18, 2006 at 10:18 am
Steve: we’ve moved forward in stutters and stops thanks to Jonbenet and the day to day demands of the newsroom. We have subscribed to an enhanced version of pbwiki to play around in. While this has been fun, what we really need is to determine the nuts and bolts of the project. That has been moving slowly, but forward.
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Barry, I have no experience, but what kind of suggestions are you looking for, technical? policy?