Wiki
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About
Greg Rundlett started using wiki technology professionally back in 1999, which was before Wikipedia existed [1]. Like Wikipedia, we based our work on the work of Ward Cunningham, the original creator of the term 'wiki' [2] and the software which powered the concept of a website that anyone could edit right in the browser. Not only did the Wikipedia website take off to become the world's 6th most popular website hosting the largest encyclopedia in the world [3], but also the "wiki way" of collaborating quickly and efficiently continued to take roots and expand as rapidly as the Internet itself.
Today the very software that powers Wikipedia (called MediaWiki) is used globally by groups of all sizes to collaborate on knowledge sharing and content creation. Corporations typically use MediaWiki as a solution to the internal process, procedures, collaboration and document management needs.
Although the software itself is free, easy-to-use, and well documented; it often requires a dedicated professional to keep the system in tune, updated, configured and fully deployed using best practices.
Some of the best features of MediaWiki are not built into the core software. Instead, they are available as extensions. Like the core, they are also freely available, easy-to-use and generally well documented. But again, it takes a dedicated professional to keep pace with the ongoing development of these extensions over time - ensuring that the right ones are deployed in the wiki and that the features of the system are obvious and accessible to its users.
Extensions can be game-changers when it comes to the added functionality, usability and results achieved by your wiki. For example: Semantic MediaWiki, Collections and the Visual Editor.
References
- ↑ Wikipedia was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, as a content incubator for Nupedia.com
- ↑ Ward's Portland Pattern Repository was immediately popular and the discipline of extreme programming is one of the things that came about as a result.
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia
