Wikis For Dummies

Dan Woods, an early adopter of wikis, has built technology for companies ranging from Time, Inc. to TheStreet.com and has written many books about technology. Peter Thoeny, the founder of TWiki, invented the concept of structured wikis and is a recognized thought–leader in social software and wikis at the workplace.

Foreword xvii
Introduction 1
Part I: Introducing Wikis 7
Chapter 1: Understanding Wikis: From Ward s Brain to Your Browser 9
Finding Your Way to Wikis 10
What makes a wiki a wiki 11
Comparing wikis and other communication tools 13
The (almost) formal definition of a wiki 14
You, Too, Can Wiki 16
Starting your wiki engines 16
Creating your first wiki page 17
Putting Wikis to Work 21
Who are wiki people? 21
The lifecycle of wiki people 22
Herding a small group with wikis 23
Wide–body wikis for your company 23
Going public with your wiki 24
The History and Future of Wikis 24
HyperCard and other wiki precursors 24
Ward s challenge 25
Ward s solution 25
The not–so–overnight success of wikis 26
Hosted wikis open the door to everyone 29
Where wikis will go 30
Chapter 2: Contributing Content to a Wiki 31
Basic Wiki Skills 32
Navigating wiki webs 32
Editing and creating wiki pages 38
Linking wiki pages 44
Attaching Documents to Wiki Pages 49
Printing Wiki Pages 51
Tracking Versions and Changes 51
How versions keep wikis safe 51
Tracking changes in a wiki 52
Chapter 3: The Thousand Problem–Solving Faces of Wikis 55
The Many Categories of Wikis 56
Content–Focused Wikis: The Goldmine of Shared Content 57
Doing research with reference wikis 57
Sharpening skills with hobbyist wikis 60
Going around the world with travel wikis 62
Finding technical documentation wikis 64
Process–Focused Wikis: A Shared Space for a Shared Mission 65
Managing projects and productivity with wikis 66
Getting the job done with task–oriented wikis 66
Making it happen with advocacy wikis 70
Finding educational wikis for students and teachers 72
Community Wikis: Exploring Common Bonds 73
Goofing off with entertainment wikis 75
Hanging around at clubhouse wikis 76
Getting nerdy with technology wikis 77
Ease–of–Use Wikis: Web Site Creation Made Easy 77
Creating small business brochure wikis 78
Making connections with personal and family wikis 78
Hunting for More Wikis 79
Chapter 4: Using and Improving the 800–pound Gorilla of Wikis: Wikipedia 81
Understanding How Wikipedia Works 82
Run by volunteers 84
Editing Wikipedia entries 85
Dressing up your Wikipedia entries 86
Previewing and saving your changes 87
Linking pages and Web sites in Wikipedia 88
What Wikipedia Can Do For You 90
Using Wikipedia as a research tool 90
Is Wikipedia reliable? 91
Sharing your knowledge on Wikipedia 92
Part II: Making Your Own Wiki 95
Chapter 5: Finding a Hosted Home for Your Wiki 97
Choosing the Right Hosted Wiki 98
Exploring hosted wikis 99
Ease–of–use wikis 102
Community wikis 102
Process–focused wikis 103
Content–focused wikis 103
Creating a Hosted Wiki with WikiSpaces 104
Creating pages 107
Editing pages 108
Linking pages 109
Protecting pages and wikis 110
Inviting others to your wiki 112
Changing the look, feel, and design of a wiki 113
Adding images, video, and other widgets to a wiki 115
Adding premium services and advertising 115
Chapter 6: Creating Content for Your Wiki 117
Applying Markup as Content Makeup 118
Editing Pages with Wiki Markup 118
Creating hierarchy with headings 120
Inserting bullets 121
Building tables 122
Formatting text 123
Controlling Layout and Formatting with HTML 125
Choosing Wiki Page Modes 126
Using document mode 128
Implementing thread mode pages 129
Using structured mode 130
Chapter 7: Linking, Categorizing, and Tagging Wiki Pages 131
Linking Wiki Pages 132
Linking WikiWords automatically 132
Preventing false WikiWord links 133
Free linking 134
Creating pages using links 135
Giving life to stubs 136
Viewing all links to a page 137
Renaming all links in a web 138
Linking Outside Your Wiki 139
Linking URLs 139
Linking between wikis using Interwiki names 140
Linking to other webs and namespaces 141
Linking to Files, Images, and Multimedia 141
Uploading attachments 142
Linking to file attachments 144
Inserting images 145
Linking to multimedia 147
Categorizing and Tagging Pages 148
Using MediaWiki categories 148
Tagging content 149
Chapter 8: The Four Dimensions of Wiki Design 151
Architecting the Information in Your Wiki 152
Understanding wiki taxonomy 152
Surveying common wiki taxonomies 154
Linking in patterns 157
What s in a page name? 158
Plotting Navigational Paths through Your Wiki 159
Designing the front page 159
Designing section pages 162
Categorizing pages 163
Planning headers, footers, and left–hand navigation 165
Adding supporting pages to your wiki 169
Using Templates to Design Content Pages 169
Adding Visual Panache to Your Wiki 172
Using themes and skins 173
Choosing color 174
Personalizing wikis with logos 175
Part III: Promoting, Managing, and Improving Your Wiki 177
Chapter 9: Attracting Users to Your Wiki 179
Wiki Don ts 180
Don t confuse your audience 180
Don t fire and forget 180
Don t spam 181
Don t get the Field of Dreams syndrome 181
Don t overdesign 182
Don t overmanage 182
Don t go on wiki suicide missions 182
Wiki Do s 183
Seed your wiki 183
Remove barriers 184
Encourage wiki–users to be bold 185
Starting a Community Wiki 185
Focus the wiki 186
Advertise the wiki 186
Assist the wiki 186
Promoting Wikis in the Office 187
Living with Wiki Life Cycles 188
Deploying the wiki 188
Growing your wiki 189
Taming large wikis 189
Ending a wiki s life 190
Chapter 10: Choosing an Installed Wiki Engine 191
Evaluating Basic Wiki Groups 192
Assessing Your Wiki Requirements 194
The skill level of the user population 194
The number of people who will add content 194
The number of people who will view the content 195
The wiki s security level 195
The wiki s potential size 196
Whether you need automation 196
Your technical expertise level 197
Your willingness to become a wiki champion 197
Comparing Wiki Engines 197
Making the safe choice 198
Exploring the WikiMatrix 199
Going on a Wiki Walkabout 202
Points to ponder on your wiki walkabout 204
XWiki walkabout 204
MoinMoin walkabout 205
TWiki walkabout 206
MediaWiki walkabout 207
DokuWiki walkabout 207
Chapter 11: Getting Your Wiki Engine Up and Running 209
Finding a Home for Your Wiki 210
Hosting on a shared or dedicated server 210
Hosting inside your organization 211
Contracting all–in–one hosting and consulting 211
Finding an Internet Mechanic 212
Starting Your Wiki Engine 215
Meeting system requirements 215
Finding installation help 218
Downloading and unpacking binaries 219
Connecting to the Web server 220
Running the configure script 221
Chapter 12: Managing Wikis 225
Wiki Maintenance: Pruning, Training, and Making Changes 226
Deciding what to cut and what to keep 227
Training your troops 228
Rolling back changes 231
Avoiding wiki spam 233
Refactoring your wiki 233
Grinding through Routine Administrative Tasks 235
Daily tasks 236
Weekly tasks 236
Monthly tasks 236
Yearly tasks 237
Chapter 13: Protecting Your Wiki 239
Evaluating Threats to Your Wiki 240
Vandalism 240
Passion.240
Enthusiasm 242
Mistakes 242
System failure 243
Running Your Own Change Patrol 243
Rolling back changes 243
Tracking recent changes 247
Controlling Editing Access 249
Preparing for Disaster 250
Backing up your wiki 251
Finding a new home for your wiki 252
Chapter 14: Creating Applications Using Structured Wikis 253
Reviewing Structured Wiki Basics 254
To structure or not: That is the question 254
Using wiki variables 255
Performing functions with variables 256
Some favorites from the wiki variables vault 257
Searching Your Wiki 259
Templating Your Wiki 260
Creating a base topic 261
Creating a basic template 261
Making new pages from templates 262
Finding pages created from a template 263
Simplifying page creation 264
Adding Forms to Your Wiki 265
Creating a database home page 266
Defining a form 266
Enabling a form 268
Creating a template topic 268
Adding a form to the template topic 270
Building an HTML form for topic creation 270
Building a formatted topic list 272
Improving the topic list 273
Adding Wiki Plug–Ins 275
CommentPlugin 276
SpreadSheetPlugin 276
EditTablePlugin 277
InterwikiPlugin 278
TWikiDrawPlugin 278
Finding more plug–ins 279
Part IV: The Part of Tens 281
Chapter 15: Ten Essential Wiki Attitudes 283
Shared Authorship 283
Easier Is Better 284
Throw It Up There 284
Unfinished Is Okay 284
Bold Is Beautiful 284
Set an Example 285
Let It Happen 285
Structure Can Wait 285
We Don t Need No Stinkin Rules 286
Follow the Community 286
Chapter 16: Ten Roles People Play When Using Wikis 287
Reader/Researcher 287
Contributor 288
Evangelist 288
Editorial Quality Maven 288
Administrator 289
Operations and Hosting Engineer 289
Wiki Engine Developer 289
Policy and Process Contributor 289
Critic 290
Champion/Founder 290
Chapter 17: Ten Ways How Wikis Work at the Office 291
Shared Repository 292
Reducing To All E–Mail 292
Simple Databases 293
Knowledge Management 293
Training 294
Intranet 294
Web Publishing 294
User Documentation 295
Shared Spreadsheets 295
Project Management 295
Chapter 18: Ten Innovative Wikis 297
TiddlyWiki 297
Wetpaint 298
Central Desktop 298
StikiPad 299
wikiCalc 299
WikiTree 300
WikiTimeScale 300
Swicki 301
Kwiki 302
FlexWiki 302
Index 303