This page serves to document a proposal for a wiki farm at Case.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Markets Served 2.1 Academics 2.2 Student groups 2.3 Research groups 3 Status 4 Requirements 4.1 Hard 4.2 Soft 5 Software Choice 5.1 MediaWiki 5.1.1 Pros 5.1.2 Cons 5.1.3 Other 5.2 XWiki 5.2.1 Pros 5.2.2 Cons 5.2.3 Other 5.3 Confluence 5.3.1 Pros 5.3.2 Cons 5.3.3 Other 5.4 Twiki 5.4.1 Pros 5.4.2 Cons 5.4.3 Other 5.5 MoinMoin 5.5.1 Pros 5.5.2 Cons 5.5.3 Other 5.6 Oddmuse 5.6.1 Pros 5.6.2 Cons 5.6.3 Other 5.7 Socialtext 5.7.1 Pros 5.7.2 Cons 5.7.3 Other

[edit] Overview

A wiki farm is a service that allows you to create a customized wiki for use by a specified group of individuals. For example, you go to a web page and say Create a wiki for people currently enrolled in CHEM 111 or Create a personal wiki for Gregory Szorc or Create a globally viewable wiki editable by members of ACM.

A wiki farm will enable groups to collaborate more efficiently by providing a platform that can easily be used for:

• Developing collaborative documents
• Documenting procedures
• Recording sensitive information
• Developing courseware

[edit] Markets Served

[edit] Academics

• Professors can use wikis to develop notes for class presentation. Easily do peer reviews!
• Students can collaborate on assignments, work together to create a solution
• Unified notes for courses can easily be maintained

[edit] Student groups

• Document internal procedures
• Create an advertising space for the group
• Share ideas among group members

[edit] Research groups

• Remotely work and monitor ongoing team work
• Peer-develop papers
• Record lab procedures
• Record notes
• Brainstorm for new designs
• Cooperate on protocols and grants
• Continue group works on projects

[edit] Status

July 12, 2006 

At least one ITS administrator has expressed interest in pursuing a wiki farm at Case.

Auguest-September, 2006 

ITS is investigating the implementation of a wiki farm. They seem to be committed to the project and are still investigating how to proceed.

[edit] Requirements

[edit] Hard

Hard requirements are requirements that must be satisfied. We probably won't budge on these.

Automatically create wiki spaces 

Wikis will be created by simply filling out a web form. Furthermore, wiki creation could be automated so that every academic course has a wiki.

Permissions control 

Just because wiki is often used synonymously with open content doesn't mean all wikis in a wiki farm are open to everybody. The wiki creator will be able to define a wiki's permissions. They can select whether all content is openly visible or whether you must be logged in to view it. They can also define which groups are allowed to log in to the wiki. A valid group could range from students enrolled in a particular course, a USG-funded organization, or members of an e-mail list managed at http://lists.case.edu. In addition, mixed modes are available, such as allowing everybody to see content, but only allow members of a specific group to edit content-- perfect for instructors wishing to have students develop a freely available report!

RSS support 

Users should be able to maintain a watchlist over all wikis and subscribed content

Extendable functionality 

Developers should be able to addon to the functionality of the system via a prescribed plugin framework or by writing custom code via the software's library API, web services's API, or (at the very least) by hitting the backend data storage mechanism.

[edit] Soft

Soft requirements are not necessary, but are good to have. The more the better.

WYSIWYG 

End users don't need to know wiki markup to edit content. Instead, they get a nice MS Office-like editing GUI

Automatic permission synchronization 

Permissions for individual wikis should be able to synchronize with information available elsewhere, such as with LDAP or with a groups web service.

Easy maintenance 

The wiki software should be simple to maintain and upgrade. Ideally, all wikis in the farm run off a single software code base, so an upgrade doesn't involve touching n software installs. Data backups should be easily automated.

[edit] Software Choice

Part of pursuing a wiki farm means evaluating wiki software. In the section below, we attempt to evaluate different software alternatives. We list each software product, followed by a brief description. We then have three sub-sections, Pros, Cons, and Other. If a comment is opinionated in nature, please sign it.

Wikipedia has a Comparison of wiki engines.

[edit] MediaWiki

MediaWiki powers Wikipedia and the Case Wiki.

[edit] Pros

• Same syntax as the Case Wiki -- no need for people to know different syntaxes
• We already have a MediaWiki install. No need to maintain two separate wiki software packages
• Scales very well
• Skinnable

[edit] Cons

• Not designed for wiki farms. Will have to develop software to automate creation of wikis.
• Is designed to be more of an encyclopedic-type wiki. May not be best wiki for smaller groups.

[edit] Other

• Jeremy thinks it doesn't feel right for smaller group work

[edit] XWiki

XWiki is Java wiki farm software. It is on the same level with Confluence, but is free from license issues.

[edit] Pros

• Source code free for modification
• Permissions system adaptable for different spaces
• Can use virtual hosts for different wikis

[edit] Cons

[edit] Other

• I hate to say it because it's a bit "religious," but the fact that it is written in Java pulls me away from using it.

[edit] Confluence

Confluence is retail Java software. It is designed to power wiki farms.

[edit] Pros

• It is designed to power wiki farms

[edit] Cons

• Closed source (how do we customize it)
  • Source is possibly available after you buy it
• It costs money
• Scalability concerns
• I think the interface is confusing. --Gregory.Szorc 18:40, July 12, 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Other

• It is the only software in our list that costs money

[edit] Twiki

Twiki is free Perl wiki farm software.

[edit] Pros

• Designed to power wiki farms
• Seems to have a lot of features
• Code is available

[edit] Cons

• No database storage
• Impossibly complex ACLs
• Impossibly complex administrative functions exposed to end user

[edit] Other

• Jeremy doesn't like the code
• It is currently being used on http://itunes.case.edu/wiki/view

[edit] MoinMoin

MoinMoin is free software designed to power wiki farms.

[edit] Pros

• Syntax is similar to MediaWiki
• The interface is simple

[edit] Cons

[edit] Other

• This is one we should play with. --Jeremy.Smith 18:50, September 28, 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Oddmuse

Free software to power wiki farms.

[edit] Pros

• Simple interface

[edit] Cons

• I don't think it is actively maintained anymore. --Jeremy.Smith 18:50, September 28, 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Other

[edit] Socialtext

Socialtext is an open source wiki written in Perl.

[edit] Pros

• Free
• Rich in features

[edit] Cons

• The open source version is effectively Alpha quality. Many external dependencies to Apache 1.3, mod_perl, and over a hundred perl modules.
• Could be too powerful

[edit] Other