MediaWiki - How and Why

WikiWHY AND HOW

RAJESH SINGAMSETTY

What is a Wiki? MediaWiki is a free software open source wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia.

Why Wiki?• Knowledge Power

• More accurate information

• Open collaboration

• Expert knowledge becomes Institutional knowledge

Features• Create Pages

• Search Pages

• View History

• Easy Navigation

• Links

• Attach documents

• Upload media files

• Share content

Choosing a Wiki - Hosted

Definition: A wiki that is installed on a public server and administered for the users.

Considerations:•Ease of set-up.•User invitations & limits.•Storage space.•Public, protected or private ($). •Page protection.•Customization.•Data export capabilities.

Choosing a Wiki - Installed

Definition: A wiki that is installed on a private server and administered by the users/organization. More customizable.

Considerations:• Skill level of users.• Number of contributors and viewers.• Needed security level.• Potential size of wiki.• Technical expertise available.• Desire to be a wiki champion.

Wiki – Log in page

Wiki - Administration

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Wiki - Editor

History

Editing – WikitextExample from MediaWiki:What you type:

You can ''italicize text'' by putting 2 apostrophes on each side. 3 apostrophes will '''bold the text'''. 5 apostrophes will '''bold''' and ''italicize'' '''''the text'''''.

What you see:

You can italicize text by putting 2 apostrophes on each side. 3 apostrophes will bold the text. 5 apostrophes will bold and italicize the text.

Business UsesShared Repository – Information can be stored on

the wiki instead of in a desk drawer or in someone’s email account.

Knowledge Management – As staff change, information is located in a centralized location.

Training – Centralized information makes it easier to train staff.

Business Uses•Web Publishing – Online and easily updated for staff or customers.

•Save Money – Possibly replace other costly programs.

When not to Wiki…• Applications that need strict access control

• General content management

• Users with limited technical skill

VistaprintVistaprint (Wikipedia article):"We launched our internal MediaWiki site, Vistawiki, in March 2007. Vistawiki has been a huge success, with over 150,000 topics, thousands of active users worldwide, and over 50 custom-written extensions. Since inception, Vistawiki has had over 35 million page views and 1.3 million edits, and it currently averages 1500 edits per day.

CUSTISWe decided to use MediaWiki and since then, thanks to its excellent extensibility and simplicity of creating a new content, MediaWiki became a powerful platform for corporate knowledge base with a lot of features.

Intel Corporation "I implemented an instance of MediaWiki for use by all 100,000+ employees of the company. It's called Intelpedia, and was created in November 2005. In the first year of life, it quickly grew to over 10,000 pages, and almost 3,000 registered contributors.

Thank you for your time…

Rajesh Singamsetty