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Data Storage Software

Other Uses for Wiki Software? 113

Posted by Cliff from the unintended-applications-for-software dept.
CodeMonkey22 asks: "The much-discussed Wikipedia could be considered the quintessential definition of what Wiki software is capable of. More recently, however, a plethora of specialized reference websites, such as Wookieepedia (Star-Wars) and the Marvel Database (Marvel Comics), have popped up. This got me to thinking, are websites the only viable use for wiki software? Working in an IT department, the first alternative that came to my mind was an intranet knowledge-base. TWiki, for instance, touts itself as 'an Enterprise Collaboration Platform'. What other uses could take advantage of Wiki? What changes would be needed to make it more applicable in other areas of use?"
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Other Uses for Wiki Software? More

Other Uses for Wiki Software?

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  • Tech Support? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MentalMooMan ( 785571 ) * <slashdot AT jameshallam DOT info> on Saturday January 21, 2006 @08:54PM (#14529327) Homepage
    I was actually thinking about this earlier today. Would it not be pretty useful to use wiki software for customer "tickets" in tech support?
    Seems pretty sensible to me, even if it's a little overkill.
    • It already is - a lot of small (or large...) open source projects need as much help as they can with documentation. With that usually comes troubleshooting and a FAQ, which wikis are excellent at. This allows people needing tech support to get it.

    • Re:Tech Support? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 22, 2006 @07:34AM (#14531891)
      See Trac [edgewall.com] ("an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects"), which integrates both a wiki and a ticket system (among other things such as version control) together. This means you can use wiki markup in tickets and commit logs, and link from wiki pages to tickets etc and vice versa. Nice :-)

      • Re:Tech Support? (Score:3, Informative)

        by makomk ( 752139 )
        Mod parent up. Trac looks to be quite nice/interesting actually, as long as you're using Subversion. There's a sandbox here [bulix.org] if you want to play around with it. Not many projects use it, though (I know MythTV does, but other than that...)
    • This is pretty much exactly what track does:

      http://projects.edgewall.com/trac/ [edgewall.com]

      I would also toss out the observation that it seems to 'fall over' more often than would be considered 'ideal'. I can't really back it up with much, but projects using track seem to have more 'wiki down' mailing list posts. Perhaps it is because people actually use it, who knows.

    • I'd been thinking that a wiki might be more useful than JavaDoc for providing the business analysts with a view of an implementation model. They just need to know what attributes are available and where to find them, not the implementation details. Maybe provide links to the corresponding JavaDoc details.

      If you had a way to share filtered content between wikis, you could create a few aspects and let a user set a preferred default aspect. Other aspects would be available as cross-links between the wiki

  • Collaborative Writing (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Eightyford ( 893696 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @08:56PM (#14529339) Homepage
    I know the original question is about non-website uses, but my idea could be intranet based also. I had the idea for a collaborative writing sytem at wiction.org [wiction.org] but things came up and I never finished the site. I still think it is a good idea though.

  • Collaborative Documentation (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tonsofpcs ( 687961 ) <slashback@NOSPAm.tonsofpcs.com> on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:00PM (#14529354) Homepage Journal
    Documentation for open source projects, such as this example [videolan.org] from VideoLAN's wiki. Also, collaboration on new features
    • Documentation for open source projects, such as this example from VideoLAN's wiki. Also, collaboration on new features

      What about the source code for a project? I wouldn't really suggest using a wiki in the full-open format where anyone can contribute, because the potential for slipping in unnoticed and dangerous code is too great, but I wonder how it would work as a coordination tool between registered programmers working together on a project if all of the souce code were actually wikified. If there were

  • CVS, anyone? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ian_Bailey ( 469273 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:01PM (#14529358) Homepage Journal
    What you should be asking yourself, is what can CVS/Subversion be used for?

    Modern wiki software is really just a subset of what any good repository offers (versioning, resolving conflicts, moving files around, etc.). The only difference is that they provide a nice LaTeX-like syntax and a pretty front-end with an on-the-fly interpreted syntax.

    Really, LaTeX backed by CVS would give you many of the same features. The possiblities of a repository-backed work are virtually endless!

    However, the front-end on Wikis make them extremely nice for collaboration on numerous distinct text-based documents. The inter-linking and (relatively) simple syntax allow users to focus on sharing their knowledge. I think the next step for Wikis would be WYSIWYG editing, to de-emphasize any kind of syntax at all. This would make them truely user-focused.

    • Re:CVS, anyone? (Score:3, Funny)

      by elmegil ( 12001 ) *
      The only difference is that they provide a nice LaTeX-like syntax and a pretty front-end with an on-the-fly interpreted syntax.

      Oh well, if THAT's all....

    • Re:CVS, anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ecloud ( 3022 )
      Well LaTeX seems too arcane to most people. Maybe it's just a matter of paring down all the non-essential features, but I think there is more to it than that. The wiki idea started by saying hey, people already have certain habits, for plain-text email, Usenet, etc., to express *boldface*, _italics_, paragraph breaks, hrules etc. so let's just parse those forms, and then there will be no learning curve - at least for people who already have those habits. The degenerate case is that plain text, with no ad
      • Well LaTeX seems too arcane to most people. ... The wiki idea started ... The degenerate case is that plain text, with no adornment other than double-carriage-returns between paragraphs, is wiki syntax.

        Yeah, but that text is also degenerate LaTeX source (except you need some boilerplate header and footer for LaTeX).

        Writing in LaTeX isn't always easy, but it's easier than just about anything else except the different wiki languages: HTML, XML-based languages, troff ...

        I try to maintain my resume in L

    • Re:CVS, anyone? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Cato ( 8296 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @04:02AM (#14531306)
      That's a bit like saying that Bugzilla is built on MySQL, and is really only a thin layer over it, so you might as well just use SQL directly to submit your bugs. For example, TWiki has a huge feature set, and over 100 plugins, including a LaTeX plugin if you want to use it for some content. See http://twiki.org/ [twiki.org]

  • Documentation (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Yogger ( 24866 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:05PM (#14529376) Homepage
    I work in IT installing software and other kinds of support. I've been trying to convince the boss to use this for documentation as a lot of our stuff changes without warning and we don't have anything to keep us up to date otherwise. But sadly have been unable to get him to see the light. Jst the usual right something up on it for me and then watch him forget about it.

    Lage corporations are great that way.

    • But sadly have been unable to get him to see the light. Jst the usual right something up on it for me and then watch him forget about it. Lage corporations are great that way.

      It's probably more that you IT director want to jump blindly head-long into something that will becoma an unsuportable monster.

    • Good idea, you could also use it as a luser "tech support/FAQ" for the new employees. It seems to be (on the luser side) a powerful, but casual/forgiving "database". In respect to effectively providing a lot of diverse info, a wiki style setup seems only limited to the imagination. Used correctly, this can be a powerful tool for a whole slew of things.

    • Re:Documentation (Score:3, Interesting)

      by cerberusss ( 660701 )
      I've been trying to convince the boss to use this

      I never asked for advice. I just installed a wiki (which didn't need a database) in my account on a development box. Then maintained a quotes database, just for the fun of it. When other devs heard about it, it quickly gained speed and last thing I heard were the sysadmins. They had asked a manager and a teamleader if we could start using another wiki which came with Debian, so they could support it....

    • Re:Documentation (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ksp ( 203038 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @09:12AM (#14532134) Homepage
      Read Joel Spolsky's "Getting Things Done When You're Only a Grunt" [joelonsoftware.com].

      If you start using it for yourself and incorporate stuff that your cow-orkers need, it will soon become an indispensible tool. If you really made the right choice to begin with, you will get the credit (sprinkle your name throughout the app and label yourself sysadmin, support etc so they remember who did it). If it sucks, they will hate you for turning it into the corporate standard.

    • Just set it up. Tell a few people about it and see if it gets going. What I've found is that you need a very highly dedicated group of people who add and change information. If these people aren't already doing it informally, then it is unlikely that this will happen with new free software.

      TWiki is incredibly easy to set-up and use. I would set it up and see what happens. If it doesn't develop, it wasn't mean to be.
    • Jst the usual right something up on it for me and then watch him forget about it.

      Perhaps if you WROTE something instead of RIGHT it, your boss would pay more attention to your proposal...

      On second thought, your boss probably remembers your writeups and being gramatically incomprehensible.

  • TiddlyWiki (Score:5, Interesting)

    by belroth ( 103586 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:13PM (#14529407)
    TiddlyWiki (http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ [tiddlywiki.com]) is effectively a wiki in a single web page. It sounds odd but is very impressive, it can be used for free format note keeping with all the linking etc that a wiki implies. There are a number of enhancements on the web - various customizations including skins.
    It's obviously not for multi-user use but great for personal stuff.

  • Development (Score:2, Redundant)

    by Julian Morrison ( 5575 )
    The Trac project [edgewall.com] is rather nice, a wiki with svn and bug-tracking integration, for use in collaborate project management.

    • From my experience Wiki syntax generally works well for webistes' CMS. Unlike JS-based WYSIWYG editors Wiki makes users think about text structure rather than just pretty colors and pictures.

  • Database-like table tools, for overgrown pages. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Myself ( 57572 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:18PM (#14529432) Journal
    We use one over at the Toughbook wiki [wikispaces.com] to keep track of details of various machines.

    I've been looking for a good table manipulation tool. Wiki tables like the HardwareComparison [seattlewireless.net] quickly grow out of control. A way to sort and filter records, show and hide columns, an define alternate views for tabular data, would be great.

    I picture sort of a webmail-like interface. Perhaps the data shouldn't live in the wiki page at all, but in a real database back-end with the appropriate interface(s) for adding and editing records.

    In some projects I work on, the bosses email a "tracker" spreadsheet back and forth, where each site has a row, and each stage or activity has a column. They sort and filter the spreadsheets to get a picture of progress. One challenge is getting the data in, since it comes from dozens of different field techs, shippers, other companies, and arbitrary other events. Another challenge is making sure everyone has the most updated version, since emailing a file around is effectively file-level locking, so no more than one person can be working at once.

    A central store like a database, with web interfaces that any Excel weenie could use, would alleviate much of the trouble. A hybrid of spreadsheet functions, database query tools, and wiki-like markup, could be really powerful. Anyone know if such a thing might exist, or if such projects might be in the works?
    • I think what you're looking for is JotSpot's new product Tracker [jot.com] which provides just the online, wiki spreadsheet compatibility that you describe, for exactly the problems (like constantly emailing a tracker spreadsheet around) you lament.

      JotSpot [jot.com] might be relevant to the discussion in general, as well. They do a lot of work with wikis. Are there any other web development companies out there doing stuff like this? I hope so, but I haven't run across any others yet.

      [I'm not an employee or anything; I just
  • I once had a (custom coded...I lost the code a while back though) Wiki which was supposed to house a movie script (just a small camcorder, sub YouTube quality type thing). Worked quite well, I think...

  • ITIL (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:34PM (#14529501)
    I'm in the process of creating a wiki for a test ITIL implementation. As far as I can tell, it will be great for the Configuration Management Database, and therefore the Change Management, Service Desk, etc. processes because they can log incidents against particular machines, and RSS feeds for the machines' wiki pages will alert the relevant sysadmin that there's an incident to look at.

    Anyways, it's kinda pie-in-the-sky for me at the moment, but I'm convinced it will work, and cost considerably less than the commercial ITIL tools that suck :)

  • IT uses (Score:4, Informative)

    by Nik13 ( 837926 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:40PM (#14529531) Homepage
    We've used it sometimes for things like:

    -documentation on a project
    -knowledge base for various IT stuff
    -sharing various infos (guides, training stuff, etc)

  • Internal project tracking (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RandomJoe ( 814420 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @09:44PM (#14529556)
    I set up TikiWiki for my department to track projects. We are a commercial HVAC firm (my dept is the automation side), so CVS and the like don't (at least I don't think!) really apply. But I do the engineering and layout, with others doing the actual installations and we needed a way to easily transfer information. They always have their laptops with them, and have VPN access to the office, so this idea came to mind.

    It has worked pretty well, and quite a few people in other departments have started using it too. It's a nice way to do "brain dumps" and record those things people tend to say in passing in the hall! I still have a few people that "forget" about it and call / barge into my office to ask a question. "Did you check the wiki?" standard response now!

  • Some wiki uses (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeCommodore ( 567479 ) <larry@portcommodore.com> on Saturday January 21, 2006 @10:03PM (#14529675) Homepage
    At LinuxWorld I saw the Twiki demo and it got mymnd racing, a couple of these were from it.

    Agenda tool, (non-profit here, lots of meetings), you create an agenda wikipage for the next meeting, participants add or make changes to the topic list after the meeting the notetaker completes the page by ading in the outcomes and creates the next agenda page, not only do you have less paperwork you also have a building history that all can refer back to without hving to look up file names.

    Staff directory - (assuming you don't have like AD or LDAP), includes addresses emails, etc. Changes are made on the spot and therefore most up to date.

    Knowledgebase - either a replacment or an extension to the job procedure manuals, all staff can add into it and make changes as needed, as well as add content as special circumstances arise.

    Documentor - if the apps are web based you can even program wiki links into your pages to the documentation (as well as link in your job procedures if on the same wiki) As program changes or as better instructions/definitions the documntation gets updated.

    Project notes repository - self explanitory

    Simple CMS - Keep the editing behind a password/access system but offer up the content as read-only to the public, opens the sirte for editing beyond just the webmaster.

    I like the story board idea.

  • University project (Score:2, Interesting)

    by wknoxwalker ( 901812 )
    I am currently adminning (for that, read; owning space on the server) for a MediaWiki [mediawiki.org] which is being used for documentation, discussion, planning and grading for a 4 man, 2nd year university project.

    We talk, argue, link and plan on the pages. Our tutor has access and leaves daily comments, along with his own arguments and links. When we have something to hand it, we just let him know which page it is.

    He can track who has done what, and how active we all have been, and since everything is dated, he can t

  • the D-word: documentation (Score:3, Informative)

    by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Saturday January 21, 2006 @10:41PM (#14529895) Homepage
    When I was hired to be half of the tech-support department for my art school, I set up a wiki on my PowerMac as a place to put whatever documentation I generated. Anything I might otherwise scribble on a piece of paper, or what I would have put into a WP document back in the 1990s, I can instead key into a web page, and it's accessible and updatable from anywhere there's a net-connected computer, including at home (handy for reviewing and documenting today's accomplishments or previewing tomorrow's projects with a strong drink at hand). It hosts lists of software in each classroom, a table of permanently assigned IP addresses, an exhaustive list of tasks to accomplish between semesters, a checklist for how to lock down the Windows boxes, software serial numbers (did I mention that the whole site is password-protected?)... basically any info I - or my boss, or my future co-worker - might want access to, whether in the office or not.
  • Wikis were in use at universities almost since the beginnings in 1995, especially at Georgia Tech, which uses e.g. Squeak/Smalltalk based Wikis (In fact, SWiki, the Squeak Wiki, seems to have been the first very popular Wiki software around). Swiki is used there for collaborative work among students groups, documentation, programming courses etc. Some other examples are find in Ward Cunninghams Book about Wikis. So, I would say, there are a lot more ways to use Wikis besides (Technical) Documentation or Kno

  • Mystery Hunt (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Practically every team in the MIT Mystery Hunt [wikipedia.org] used some sort of wiki to coordinate the team.
  • My fellow group members and I are using a Wiki to organize out project. This includes documenting each members' ideas, collaborating for report writing, and general discussion.

    Also, we're unofficially using it as a collaborative note-taking tool for class. Someone takes notes on their laptop during class, then posts them, and the other members go through them with corrections/additions.

    So far it's working out rather well.

    - shazow
  • We use FlexWiki at Ask Jeeves, corporate wide. Anyone can go to http://wiki/ [wiki] (inside the company), and go through all the information/projects etc going on.

    It's REALLY nice, I like it alot. Very easy to make a new page for a new projects and have peers add ideas to your page, etc.

  • Knowledge base and caveats (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RomulusNR ( 29439 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @12:08AM (#14530377) Homepage
    the first alternative that came to my mind was an intranet knowledge-base.

    Took you long enough. Anyway, the one thing lacking from Wikis in that area is group-page access control. TWiki is the only Wiki which claims to sort of have it, but also warns vigorously that it doesn't work securely.

    The main criticism of the company Wiki I set up is that there is not an easy way to control access to different groups. Management doesn't want, for example, Marketing to have access to edit (or maybe even view) Accounting's wiki material. I've had to set up a parallel MW instance with restricted access in order to lock down some material, but I don't want to have to do that for all possible Wiki-using groups.

    Unfortunately most Wikis are not developed with alternative uses in mind. MW development is notorious for not supporting or adding any feature not required by WP and its information-should-be-free philosophy. TWiki seems to specifically court that market, but they can't be that serious about it or they'd close the search hole [bcs-oops.org.uk].
    • MediaWiki is open source, though, so if you knew how you could try to add features like that.
      • You're right, but what the grandparent describes really can't be hacked on easily. Authentication / authorization support must be designed into a system--there are many different aspects that need to hook into authorization services for them to be useful. Also, maintaining something that can implement company access policies (e.g., departmental politics) is a job in itself--especially if you're contradicting the goals the original software has ingrained into its design.

        Just adding the usual friendly reminde
    • Most people don't need read access security on their TWiki sites, or if they do are willing to set up another instance (which is quite easy particularly in the upcoming 4.0 release).

      Patches to add this feature (i.e. make search respect access controls) would be of interest to the development team (which I'm part of).
    • I saw a demo of ZOPE and it allows this sort of collaboration and control. It is not as easy as a wiki but it does have what you need. Might be worth a look.
      • For Zope, try Zwiki. With Zwiki under Plone (which runs under Zope; it is like an onion),which will take care of access control, at an overhead cost, though. I haven't played with it much in a year or so, and I cannot recall how fine grained the access controls are (I think it is wiki-level, not page-level access). For page level / group access, you would probably need multiple wikis, although you'd need to check the docs for certain. You can always just use a Plone site instead of a wiki (Plone offers full
    • PmWiki [pmwiki.org] provides extensive support for group-based access controls to pages in the wiki.

      Pm

    • "the first alternative that came to my mind was an intranet knowledge-base."

      "Took you long enough. Anyway, the one thing lacking from Wikis in that area is group-page access control. TWiki is the only Wiki which claims to sort of have it, but also warns vigorously that it doesn't work securely."

      Actually, the Confluence wiki [atlassian.com] says it has page level access control tied to groups and individuals.

      We are currently evaluating it for use for our Intranet system. Confluence is not open source, but features [atlassian.com]

  • Are there free Web hosts that does Wiki? I would like to make an ants FAQ or something as a Wikipedia software.

  • Live Lecture Notes; alternative to the whiteboard (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Khopesh ( 112447 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @12:41AM (#14530548) Homepage Journal
    I have seen one use of a wiki in creating notes during a meeting, in place of using the whiteboard. While there isn't (yet) a usable interactive application for multiple parties to participate, it works wonderfully for a single computer that everybody watches.

    Basically, wiki is so fast that one can create a fully functional and cross-referenced web site on the fly, while carrying out a discussion on the topic. This could be used as a lecturing tool and/or as a note-taking system.

  • Creativity Enhancement (Score:3, Interesting)

    by josefcub ( 212738 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @12:49AM (#14530592) Journal
    My creative collaboration partners and I use DidiWiki (a very small and stable Wiki server) to house the knowledgebase of our roleplaying universe, and to house stories and related tales that end up being written about it. Character sheets, timelines, synopses... Wiki does it all.

    I won't post a link to it here, naturally. ;)
  • Wikis are being used increasingly as CMS-replacements, as they should, as working with a CMS is hugely unappealing. See the http://www.mono-project.com/ [mono-project.com] website for a reasonable beginning example. Another exciting use is as a simultaneous mostly free-form encyclopedia and structured knowledge base, database, or whatever. See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki [wikimedia.org].
  • > Working in an IT department, the first alternative that came to my mind was an intranet knowledge-base.

    I head an IT department. Our internal wiki is gold; half of the answers I give out are along the lines of either "have you rebooted?" or "take a look at the wiki."

    The development team and the sales team also use the wiki to a degree - it helps in collaboration and notes. Lots of people keep notes to themselves that would actually be quite useful to others in their department or even the whole

  • This is something I've wanted for a while and wiki technology is not quite there ... why use flikr or some similar service when you could use a wiki? The ability to comment on pictures makes them searchable; this is just like what google is doing with closed-captioning on videos (and what they've done with images.google.com).

    Mediawiki (of wikipedia fame) lacks in two places when it comes to image galleries: First, there is no pager (i.e. first, previous, next, last, index). Second, uploading updates t

  • Sensei's Library [xmp.net] is one of the most creative uses of a Wiki I've seen. It's all focused around the game of Go (Wei'qi, Baduk). The owner modified it, added some scripts, that allow for easy creation of board diagrams, etc. And, most importantly, it's got a strong, knowledgeable community. Overall, it's one of the best resources for Go players. As far as Wiki's go, it does its job fantastically well.

  • Congress needs a Wiki for Legislation! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Salis ( 52373 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @02:10AM (#14530913) Journal
    First, let's pretend that U.S Congressman carefully debate the pros and cons of proposed legislation.

    Then, I think that Wikis would make a wonderful forum for developing legislation. Especially those 400+ page variety bills that seem to contain all sorts of pork. Of course, modification of a Wiki page would be restricted to Congressman and their aids (hopefully not lobbyists..). State and local legislative wikis might also be useful.

    Hyperlinking between chapters/portions of bills might make reading the bill easier and focus attention on poorly written parts.

    Of course, for a Wiki to be useful, the debate has to be in the open and not in the proverbial "smoking room". O well!
    • > Then, I think that Wikis would make a wonderful forum for developing legislation. Especially those 400+ page variety bills that seem to contain all sorts of pork.

      Yeah, they could make life easy for the legislators by providing templates such as -

      {{pork|money for my district}}

      {{drillANWR}} (for Ted Stevens personal use)

      etc.
    • Then, I think that Wikis would make a wonderful forum for developing legislation.

      It's a nice idea until someone sneaks in an amendment that would never pass on the floor.

      Personally, my dream application for legislation is legislative diffs and versioning for the US Code. Have you ever tried to read a piece of legislation like the Patriot Act which is over 90% changes of words and phrases here and there throughout the US Code? (Add bioweapons & chemical weapons to this law about nuclear weapons, etc.)
      • I agree that a SCM/Wiki would the ultimate killer app for all sorts of legislative areas. Maybe include contracts and other business agreements in there as well. The Wiki would provide the debate/discussion utility while the SCM handles revisioning/etc and linking.

        It's a nice idea until someone sneaks in an amendment that would never pass on the floor.

        Unfortunately, I think this frequently happens already. It's the legislation by obscurity trick...stick a small bit of language into a 700+ page, $1b+ appropr
  • I introduced a wiki (MoinMoin) at my company about a year ago. My inspiration was a comment somewhere about how if you show people how much better a wiki is people will naturally use it.

    With this in mind I started using it as a personal notepad. After a while, when someone asked a non-trivial question I would document it on the wiki and direct them to it.

    Over time people started using it on their own and now it is a normal part of many people's workflow.

    -Adam
  • At my work we just started using a wiki for documentation and procedures. It really has changed things for us quite a bit. We are moving over to it incrementally and everyone gets to be part of the process due to the nature of wikis. We are using mediawiki and eventually someone will add moderation features, but until then it's really great for this.

    I'd suggest if you are in a position to get a mock up running on your intranet it is definately worth trying out. So far people are enthused about it. It t
  • Had anyone considered the possibility of using an offline wiki for simple content creation? (It's an idea I had several years ago, but kept to myself.) I am not an expert, but I bet that wiki software could be modified to run as a self-contained desktop application, and it might be made robust enough to serve as an alternative to an office suite.

    Imagine a piece of hypothetical software called WikiOffice for a moment. Users can create files similar to those made with word processors, spreadsheets, slide p
    • There is Zim, Newton, WikiPad and my favorite, Tomboy.
      I can honestly say that Tomboy changed the way I work. And it's just a very simple note taking with wiki linking feature that runs in the sys tray and opens all pages inside a new window on your desktop.
  • My family uses a wiki to run our family home page (g-b.dk). It took a little extra to set up, and it does put some restraints on what we can do, but it makes editing and updating a breeze for any family member.

  • I'm using a wiki (SnipSnap [snipsnap.org]) as a writing aid when working on fantasy stories. Great for writing stuff like character backgrounds or history material for my own reference.

  • At work we use TWiki for our intranet, and as a help system for the application we develop. Works perfectly!
  • I've seen several different Wikis go down the documentation route, and I'm a member of a few.

    A few months back I started up a Wiki to tie in people that use different dating and social networking sites. I also use it to quickly bookmark items I want to share with others, or have them do so likewise: the idea is not so much to be a "dating" site vs. a means of creating a social web.

    http://www.wikidating.net [wikidating.net]

    Unfortunately, the most activity I get currently, are the spambots. (history -> save -> co
  • ... Wiki be with you!
  • I've used Wikis recently as a personal notetaker, to jot down things that otherwise I'd forget. Especially at work, setting up a local webserver/installing software is a pain, so I don't need a web based Wiki, and indeed I don't need the collaborative features, just the ability to link topics very easily and write easily.

    The one I currently use is WikiPad [jhorman.org] a Windows-only app which doesn't use/need a webserver. It just allows me to add free form notes very quickly without structure, but automagically adds

  • I made an anonymous gift giving wiki (very much like Secret Santa, but better) among my friends. See: http://www.toastedalmonds.org/secretsanta [toastedalmonds.org] Makes cheating very hard to do (except for the main administrator). Its a challenging setup in terms of access-control lists. This is the second year in a row I've used this system, and it works very well. People can be cheap or as generous as they please.
  • a computer based education?
  • Business Week recently did an article [businessweek.com] on alternatives to e-mail, which discussed wikis. The point of the article is that wikis are increasinly being used to replace e-mail as a collaboration tool (IM is also discussed). Anyone who as ever sent around an e-mail requesting comments from multiple people understands that technique's limitations. Nothing really new in the article, but it does indicate more mainstream adoption. It also gives some examples of companies who are using the technology (and how).
  • Maybe a little late to post to this thread, but hell, why not? One of the things that I use my Wiki for is a living Help file. When a user selects help in our application, it takes them directly to a page in the wiki, that is relevant to what is on their screen right then and there. This makes it easy to keep the help information up to date, since we don't have to distribute it, and it puts discussion of problems adjacent to the help instructions themselves. Its especially usefull when the wiki has some kin
  • I setup a wiki (mediawiki) for the TV Program, 3D: Dialogue, that I host on OMNI TV [omnitv.ca]. The producers use the wiki to store info on guests, topics, shows, research, overviews, factoids, and the script. It makes it a lot easier for the shows to be produced and have all the necessary info available to the people who need it. The G4Tech TV show http://www.g4techtv.ca/callforhelp/ [g4techtv.ca]>Call for Help in the same studio as my show, and they also use a wiki to produce their show.
  • You could set one up for the purpose of having a game of Lexicon [20by20room.com]! A good example is The Toothpaste Disaster [allenvarney.com], set in the 'Paranoia' RPG.

    Similarly, some friends and I used a wiki as an adjunct to a far-future MUCK: character bios and area reference got dumped into the wiki, to help us remember what the hell was going on in our real-time text roleplay as things got more and more complex.

    I think I've also seen people using wikis as multi-author choose-your-own-adventure platforms; pretty easy to make that work

  • Wikalong - Collaborative Annotation (Score:5, Interesting)

    by phUnBalanced ( 128965 ) on Sunday January 22, 2006 @11:43AM (#14532682) Homepage

    I just released a new version of Wikalong that is compatible with Firefox 1.5 last night.

    Wikalong is a Firefox Extension that embeds a wiki in the Side Bar of your browser, indexed off the url of your current page. It is probably most simply described as a wiki-margin for the internet.

    Wikalong [wikalong.org]

  • Best Buy Corp (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Best Buy Corp uses Wiki for intranet use all the time. company policy., history and new ideas are all communicated via the wiki.

  • I use a wiki for notes on stories I am writing - not so much for storyboarding, but certainly for keeping character notes, locations, artifacts, etc. This is particularly useful for epic fiction where you have a lot of character names to keep straight.

    I use Kwiki [kwiki.org] and create a new instance for each substantial piece.
  • We use a wiki as our intranet, storing information about all the companies, competitors and people that we come across and how they relate to each other. Also we have page(s) for each project we're working on, and a central "tasks" page which lets everyone know what they're (supposed to be) doing.

    Rich.

  • Wiki Uses (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dew ( 3680 ) <david@weekly.TOKYOorg minus city> on Sunday January 22, 2006 @01:53PM (#14533401) Homepage Journal

    So a brief caveat here - I'm a bit biased as to the potential uses for wikis, since I started and run PBwiki [pbwiki.com] (which was developed at an all-night hackathon [superhappydevhouse.com], but that's another story). If you're interested, I also gave a talk at Xerox PARC about wikis [pbwiki.com].

    I think pretty much any time you email out a Word document and ask several people for changes or edits, you're in need of a wiki. Any time there's a "Document Master" for a particular piece of information a la "Oh, Linda's in charge of the phone list, you should let her know you have a new number" or "Tell Jimmy what you're bringing to the potluck" or "Coach Z has the schedule for the softball season" -- those are ideal spots for wikis.

    While many people do use wikis personally, as a sort of notepad-on-steroids, and others use wikis as a simple web page publication tool, the killer app for wikis is in letting groups speak as one and create their own little universes of knowledge. Sometimes this means collaborative fiction or Dungeons and Dragons and sometimes this means documenting your project plans or brainstorming your next company idea.

    While wikis have been around for some time, they're only just now starting to cross the chasm from geekland to the leading edge of regular people. Wikipedia can take nearly all of the credit for that. But hopefully we'll now get some of the power that geeks have had by way of CVS and Subversion and put it in the hands of regular people to collaborate and coordinate their thoughts, hopes, and ideas. This has been a long time coming [google.com].

  • I presented a paper in July 2005 titled "Using Wikis as a Low-Cost Knowledge Sharing Tool". The authors describe their experiences using a wiki to prepare and upgrade task-based training courses. The wiki was used both as a repository for the training materials as well as a daily communication vehicle for multiple co-authors working in Canada and Austria. If you are interested in reading the abstract or the paper, it is available on a wiki that has anti-robot password protection. Start on this page to get
  • There's a lot of interesting work going on in Semantic Wikis. Most of these work by adding a "type" tag to a wiki link. By using the current page, target page, and type as the subject, object, and predicate, they can form an RDF triple. Other efforts go off in the direction of more formal ontology editing, etc.

    The Semantic Wiki [wikipedia.org] page on Wikipedia is a good starting point. I have also written my own overview [cfcl.com], including an annotated list of known efforts. Finally, the Semantic Wiki Interest Group [ontoworld.org] is the bes

  • Ok, a bit im cheating here. TikiWiki is far more than just a "wiki" as it have blogs, articles, image/file galleries, trackers, and a LOT more [tikiwiki.org]. But for me the "center" of the features is the wiki itself, enhanced with a very flexible permission system and a lot of extensions that make it more useful and helps integrating it with the rest of the features.

    Having a good permission system enables systems where you can decide how people interacts with the system (i.e. adding or viewing content) and where. The

  • In my opinion Wikipedia isn't a good example of what a wiki is capable of. The original wiki at c2.com is far better. Wiki's allow discussion to happen right in the middle of an article, the fact that something is being disputed or queried is in your face in the article. Wikipedia's dicussion page is badwrong as it kills one of the strengths of a wiki.

    Wiki pages should turn from discussions to information and then after time back to discussion and so on in a slow cycle. Wikipedia always wants the pages
  • I implemented MediaWiki as a part of an internal documentation project. As a collection of documentation, it is terrific. Any user anywhere has access, and can update the document. There is nothing quite like being in a wiring closet and adding notes and photographs to the page describing what should and should not be in that wiring closet.

    In my project, the biggest impediment to wide-scale adoption was the inconvenience of logging in all the time. Due to the sensitive nature of the information in the wiki


  • Wiki technology must be great for open source project pages, or at least Novell thinks so... As best I can count, they have eight (or more) projects set up that either they manage, contribute to, or support using MediaWiki.

    These are:
    Mind you, these are all great sites, with good content. They seem to really be embracing the notion of community-driven projects, to the point of not only accepting community code, but also accepting additional community support though the use of Wiki for the websites and documentation. Take a browse through these sites, if you have time - they are full of great ideas on how to use a wiki.

    Kudos to Novell for once again being innovative in open source. Give me even more hope for their future and for the success of SUSE Linux.
  • Set up a wiki, set the privileges so that only the site's owners can edit and add pages and presto... the simplest Content Management System. Works really well for small companies where you train one or two persons to be in charge of the site.

    Use something like ZWiki [zwiki.org] that has a big application server behind it, so you can integrate other tools (shop, blogs, forum) and let the site grow as needed.
  • I need some advice for selecting a wiki engine.

    These are the features i need:
    - runs as CGI in hosted enviromnent (so doesn't require root access, RCS, etc.)
    - user authentication - HTTP Basic Auth.
    - ability to make some pages invisible to some users
    - ability to make some pages read only to some users
    - simple markup
    - file uploads, image embedding
    - utf8 support

    These are features that would be nice to have but i could do without them:
    - email page c
  • A great use for wiki technology is to maintain Man Pages updated. Most of us know that some man pages are spartan at best, and few get updated regularly.
    The Waikato Linux Group [linux.net.nz] have published most of the linux man pages on their wiki site. This way anyone can edit/modufy/update these manpages.
    Great idea.
  • Really, a wiki could be useful in many a collaborative project, it's all about making a multisource fount of information.

    As for an example, WikiBooks [wikibooks.org] (generally howto or technical in nature) are a great idea, and I could see the creation of "story worlds" for actual novel-style books being a possible wherein authors developed individual characters, stories, or parts of a greater world.
  • For PyCon 2006, we have a wiki page containing the master schedule data [python.org], and a parsing script [python.org] to generate an HTML or pickled version of the schedule.

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