The success of Wikipedia has proven just how effective wikis can be for collaborative editing on a large scale—larger than anyone originally thought possible. This book shows you how to install, use, manage, and extend a wiki using MediaWiki—the wiki engine used to power Wikipedia.

As each chapter builds on previous ones, tasks involving wikis progress from simple to those of increasing complexity and evolve from theory to case study. You'll learn wiki terminology and how to create user accounts and new pages, use wiki links, and find your way around the wiki. Special focus is placed on how wikis are used in software and web development projects and how their capabilities ideally suit a specific environment and audience. You'll quickly come to discover why wikis are a valuable addition for any organization that wants to increase productivity using web-based collaboration tools.

What you will learn from this book

• When to use wikis instead of a more formal content management system

• What to look for when evaluating wikis in order to avoid unexpected pitfalls

• How to install MediaWiki using Apache, PHP, MySQL®, and other alternatives

• How wikitext allows you to edit content from any web browser and create links to other wiki pages

• Ways to comment on pages, move them, track changes, and syndicate wiki pages with RSS

Who this book is for

This book is for programmers, developers, information architects, designers, and content authors who are looking to use wikis to improve team productivity. Knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and PostgreSQL is necessary.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Mark S. Choate (Washington, D.C.) is co-founder and CEO of The Choate Group, LLC, a research and communications consulting firm serving organizations in the areas of knowledge management, research methodology, funding strategies, and grant writing. He was the lead developer of The Choate Group’s Metawrite authoring tool, a cross-platform desktop wiki, and he consults with organizations seeking to implement weblog and wiki solutions. He is the former vice president of interactive media for The News & Observer. He lectures at Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology (CCT) graduate program where he teaches The Technology of News, which evaluates the impact of Internet technology on news dissemination.