[Discuss] wiki suggestions?

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

On 02/01/2012 11:31 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
>> As an example tomorrow morning I have to get my ass up real early
>> and teach a computer class for a very large local medial
>> establishment.  A real teacher made the course.  I read it over and
>> found a few technical errors.  Corrected them, put the whole course
>> on wikipsaces the other day.
> 
> This is collaboration, not publication.  In a collaborative setting
> you have many (more than one) editing any given document.  A wiki may
> be useful in such environments.
> 
> On the other hand, a private collaboration can do well using Git to
> replicate documents among themselves.  I have two small groups using
> Git + SmartGit in this capacity and they have been pleased with it.
> The system has worked out well for both groups specifically because
> the distributed replicas let them work without requiring constant
> net.
> 
> Networked storage isn't automatically a nightmare.  Using the wrong
> tool for the job is what makes a nightmare, whether that tool is
> distributed storage or a wiki or Git.  This is the reason I asked
> about what it is you are doing.  There are lots of wikis to choose
> from but if a wiki is the wrong tool then suggesting my favorite wiki
> isn't helpful.

I disagree with you.  Requiring collaboration is not the only reason to
prefer a wiki over other solutions.  One big reason is that even if
there's just one contributor (or a handful), the barrier to recording
information NOW is very low.  It's very easy to hit a page, think of
something to add, edit that page and save.

Wikis also give you hyperlinks, so content can be found from several
very different paths.  A file repository can't usually do that.

Most wikis come with powerful plugins that add functionality or make
editing/viewing easier

Most wikis give you revision control for free.  Of course Git has
revision control too, but how do you get the documents to the teachers,
who are not necessarily technical people?   Ask them to install Git too?

> 
> Regardless, I do suggest not using MediaWiki (what Wikipedia uses).
> Extracting documents from MediaWiki is painful at best.  It really
> wasn't designed with that in mind.
> 
> --Rich P.
> 
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