Wiki? - Why?

• Different tools for read and write; no ubiquitous write access.
• Lousy link maintenance.
• Collaborative? Read access for the whole team, write access only for me.

• Too static!
  • Most of the content is always outdated.

• Central GSI CMS did not meet the requirements ...

Wiki? - What's that?

• Wiki wiki: Hawaian word for quick
• WikiWikiWeb initially developed by Ward Cunningham:
  • Set of HTML pages (Topics)
  • Quick'n'dirty editing capabilities: [Edit this topic]
  • Automatic linking using WikiWords (CamelCase):
    • TopicThatDoesNotExist, ExistingTopic
  • Trivial markup

| 1 |  2  |  2 |
| 4 |  5  |  6 |

• easy
• open
• incremental
• organic

• chaotic?

Wiki - Is it working?

• Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia
  • founded in 2001
  • available in more than 100 languages
    • more than 50 with 1000 topics and more
  • 1,3 million topics overall
    • 400000+ in Englisch
    • 200000+ in German
  • Associated projects:
    • Wiktionary: dictionary
    • WikiNews: news portal
    • WikiTravel: travel guide

Wiki! - Which?

MediaWiki

The Wikipedia engine, PHP + MySql, focussed on the features needed for Wikipedia.

TikiWiki

Emerged to an all inclusive CMS (Photo galleries, WebMail etc.)

MoinMoin

A popular Python Wiki

KWiki

Simple Perl implementation with limited features

UseModWiki

Another Perl Wiki

EclipseWiki

Personal Wiki as a Plugin for Eclipse IDE

jotspot

Polished commercial Wiki (beta) with WYSIWYG and Email-Gateway

TWiki - Why?

• Revision control and Changelog
• Integrated access control on a per web and per topic basis
  • Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = Christo
• Attachment management
• Tracing of most recent changes
  • Syndication with RSS
  • Email notifications
• Hundreds of plugins and add-ons
• Implementation in Perl based on the UNIX toolbox:
  • Filesystem based
  • RCS for revision control
  • Search using grep

• twiki.org: No. 15 on the list of largest wikis by article count
• Successfully used by BT, Disney, Motorola, SAP, Wind River, Yahoo, ...

Advanced features

• Macros for dynamic content: %SEARCH{"text"}%, %TOC%, ...
• Templates define topic patterns
• Meta data may be added to topics using forms

InterwikiPlugin

Shortcuts for external URLs
GSI Oracle device database, manpages, Debian packages, Debian Bugs, Wikipedia, ...

BeautifierPlugin

for pretty printing of source code

TWikiDrawPlugin

draw diagrams using a java applet

MathModePlugin

renders embedded LaTeX formulas

Advanced features

SpreadSheetPlugin

add calculations to TWiki tables

ChartPlugin

Render charts from data in TWiki tables

CommentPlugin

Add content skipping Edit Preview Save cycle

DiscussionForumAddOn

run TWiki as a bulletin board

SlideShowPlugin

turns a topic into a HTML presentation

GenPDFAddOn

turns topics into PDF

TWiki weaknesses

Usability

It's a geek tool

Performance

File system backend and complex rendering engine (variable expansion, ...)

Scalabilty

Webs should not grow to large?

Design

No clear cut between data and code complicates upgrade

GSI Wiki

Current GSI Wiki status

• Unique position as documentation tool for the GSI Linux team
  • Knowledge base
  • Installation log
  • Hardware Database
  • Meeting minutes
  • Trouble ticket system
  • Group calendar

• Used all over the IT department:
  All OS's, Oracle, Operating, Security, Grid, Controls

• Adopted by the experiments: Hades, CBM, ...

TWiki management practices at GSI

• Open registration from inside GSI: Users register themselves

• Read access == write access

• Many small groups
  • Normally a one-to-one mapping of groups to webs
  • Every member of a group can add new members

• Email notification: Per web digest 2 times a day

• Daily backup on filesystem level (TSM)

• In the long-term an editor-in-chief has to keep the stuff together?!

• Evolution from free form content to TWiki applications representing workflows

Roadmap

• Migration to new server, upgrade to the current release
  • Mainly usability + bugfixes

• Virtual Wikis
  • Provide collaborations with their own distinct wiki space
  • Share same codebase, but distinct data

• Wikify the GSI Linux team's webserver

• Enhance usability
  • Smarter update notifications (Email, Instant Messaging?, RSS)
  • Data import/export (HTML, PDF, MS Office)
  • WYSIWYG editor
  • Search index in addition to built-in grep