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11:26 am
November 12, 2009 |
sbressler
| | | | | Member | posts 15 |
| | Hi all, And now on to my second topic for discussion: internal newspaper wikis. I will hopefully be graduating next spring and will need to pass on all the knowledge I've gained over the past three years of our current architecture, etc., to someone else. I figured the best way of doing so would be to create an internal Wiki to suit the task that would have, to start, a short introduction to WordPress and information on how to post stories of any kind, including adding photos and other multimedia. It's a decently-large project so I want to start soon. I also think that a Wiki is a far more practical way of bringing on new staff members that help with the thrice-weekly task of posting stories instead of each person writing down their own notes. Information sharing is key! I am evaluating different solutions and am considering MediaWiki and WikiPress currently. Since my site is already on WordPress I imagine WikiPress would be simpler to set up and its current functionality of providing an internal Wiki seems perfect for what I need. That said, I don't want to build up a large internal wiki in WikiPress just to find out that my information isn't portable or that the solution isn't powerful enough. MediaWiki, on the other hand, seems like it would be a bunch more work to set up (which I'm fine with), but is also more work to maintain. What do you guys think? Are there other solutions I should be considering to meet my needs? Thanks,
Scott Bressler |
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11:47 am
November 12, 2009 |
Andrew Spittle
| | Walla Walla, WA | | | Moderator | posts 49 |
| | Hey Scott- Cool, I like the idea of using a wiki to track and maintain staff knowledge. To lend another opinion on the MediaWiki/WikiPress choice I set up a MediaWiki install of the Whitman Pioneer this summer and actually found it to be pretty easy to use and customize. MediaWiki maintains a list of user styles, some of which are really easy to use as a starting point to create something that matches your main site. There's also a way to integrate the authentication systems of MediaWiki and WordPress so that users only need to remember one account. I've never used WikiPress but I would advocate for MediaWiki. Partly because if your staff (current and future) can get accustomed to using it there's a lot that you could do to integrate the wiki with the main site (like topical landing pages). Just my two cents, I'm sure others will have more insight to offer as well. | Andrew – andrew@copress.org – CoPress Hosting Director – http://www.andrewspittle.net |
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8:12 pm
November 12, 2009 |
sbressler
| | | | | Member | posts 15 |
| | Very interesting, thanks for the suggestion. Re topics pages, I actually posted about it here: http://wordpress.org/support/t…..pic/326575. So your approach was to avoid using WP for it at all, it seems? |
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1:58 am
November 13, 2009 |
Andrew Spittle
| | Walla Walla, WA | | | Moderator | posts 49 |
| | Sort of but not really if that makes sense. The pages are WP pages and they pull a WP sidebar and recent posts but the top portion (i.e. what is providing the topical background) is being pulled from the MediaWiki page that is dynamically associated with that tag. If you want I'd be happy to send along some code as to how that's being done. | Andrew – andrew@copress.org – CoPress Hosting Director – http://www.andrewspittle.net |
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3:15 am
November 14, 2009 |
Daniel Bachhuber
| | | | | Admin | posts 102 |
| | Good questions, Scott. I think there are a couple of different approaches you could take. If what you're set on is an internal wiki for staff logistical things, then MediaWiki would be a good self-hosted option. I looked at WikiPress a bit a while back and it simply doesn't seem that full-featured. If self-hosting is less of a priority, then I might even make something like PBWiki my top recommendation because it's a lot more user-friendly and you don't have to worry about maintenance, setting up new users, etc. I believe PBWiki is what the Mustang Daily uses. Here's the other crazy idea I'll throw at you though: why not make it community and public? I think it'd be way more useful to put time into a resource that not only your staff but other staffs can benefit from, and it would likely be better maintained over the long term. We'd be happy to put server space and a domain towards it. | |
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11:22 pm
November 16, 2009 |
Mo Jangda
| | Toronto, ON | | | Member | posts 35 |
| | +1 on internal wikis. I helped start one back when I was at my university paper. Usage was hit or miss, but in terms of knowledge transfer for staff, it was hella useful, especially when it came to web stuff. We had an even bigger need for it since our staff turn-around was 4 months (school had 4-month terms). We ended up using PmWiki mainly because it integrated nicely with our LDAP server. But I'd say MediaWiki is a good, all-purpose wiki and the familiar interface helps people get used to it far quicker (though, you're right; it's a bit more tedious on the maintenance side). I'd also keep it separate from your WordPress install since the content/audiences for both are likely going to be different — though, I'd still keep it open to the public (you may or may not want to limit editing access — ours was limited to staff). | |
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