Mediawiki

Tutorial: Organizing wiki content using MediaWiki

In this article series by Jeff Orloff and Mizanur Rahman, authors of MediaWiki 1.1 Beginner's Guide , we will learn how to organize our content by creating namespaces that allow us to group pages with similar purposes together, and we learn how to use categories to group pages with similar content together. It also teaches us about redirecting, moving, and swapping pages around so that we can ensure when a visitor comes to our site, they find the information they are looking for because the page titles will match up with page's content.

Five IT books on my 2009 reading list

I seem to collect a number of books each year.  A few of the books I receive from publishers with intent to review or as appreciation for my involvement with events related to content management systems.  Other books just peak my interest so I can't help but buy them for my personal library.  The following are five books I plan to read in 2009 and are available in CMS Report's Amazon Store.

Drupal Multimedia by Aaron Windborn

MediaWiki plus FCKeditor: WYSIWYG for the wiki

A couple years ago we decided to use MediaWiki for a wiki implementation at work.  Wikipedia uses MediaWiki for their wiki application so we felt it was the right choice for our needs.  One concern my team had was that MediaWiki didn't come with a rich text editor (no WYSIWYG).

While a number of us may be fine with using wikitext or HTML to edit our wiki pages, I believe the majority in any organization prefers to edit their pages with a friendly user interface similar to that found on their word processor. At the time, we tried a number of solutions but found neither the suggested TinyMCE or FCKeditor implementation integrated that well with mediaWiki.  So for our project we settled with wikEd, an editor that still required users to work with wiki syntax but surprising a very good tool for most users.

During a lunch conversation last week with Deane Barker of Gadgetopia and Blend Interactive, I mentioned my frustrations with MediaWiki not having available a good WYSIWYG solution.  Deane suggested that I look at a more recent implementation of MediaWiki plus FCKeditor. This project is being supported by the developers of FCKeditor themselves.

Wikipedia on ABC Nightline

As I was heading for bed, I just saw ABC's Nightline story on Wikipedia. Wikipedia uses the wiki application MediaWiki for its content management system. The Nightline story was as close to a fair and balance story on an IT subject you can find on a non-technical program. The story focused not so much on technology as it did the people of Wikipedia, mainly the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, and the community of wiki users.

Make your own Wikipedia

Thanks to Line 56 News, I came across MediaWiki . MediaWiki is the same wiki application that the famous Wikipedia site also uses. How can you argue with success?

While we are a little unclear as to the terms and license of the software, it is free software. This application is well worth the look for those interested in installing a Wiki on their server.

MediaWiki for Dummies - Line 56 News -

... MediaWiki site. MediaWiki, the software behind Wikipedia, is a powerful collaboration platform and content management system. Start ...