Favorite Wikis

Wikipedia is (probably) the largest wiki on the internet, but what are your other favorite wikis in terms of good aesthetics or making information easy to find, good wiki engines for people new to wikis, and good for a highly scalable wiki that can handle thousands of simultaneous users?

A quick look just now at WikiMatrix showed MediaWiki and 76 other wiki packages on the main page. Another site I read about has over 100 wiki engines. Wikipedia uses MediaWiki and so do a number of other wikis I've used (BarCampMilwaukee, BarCampMadison, Fond du Lac Linux Users Group). This weekend, WikiSpaces was used to set up a test project wiki for the NEW Appleton Toastmasters, a member of Toastmasters International. PmWiki is the choice of a WikiGnome whom I know, the global barcamp site and MinneDemo use PBwiki, and I've read good things about Socialtext, Central Desktop, and several others but have not used them.

Wikis are a good online tool for encouraging and allowing collaboration by a group's members. There is a fairly short learning curve to be able to contribute text information to a wiki page. Some of the other parts of wikis, such as embedding third party applications or formatting the pages with CSS code that looks good in all web browsers, or at least the top three or four browsers, can be challenging and require a modicum of expertise to do well. The infrastructure supporting the wiki is also important if more than ten or twenty people may be editing the wiki at the same time.

Because wikis are designed for collaboration, sometimes between thousands of people, it is important to have people who help develop and maintain a highly usable wiki format and structure. When it's possible for many people to edit wiki pages with their own thoughts, 'information' and rants or ramblings, it's easy for a wiki to quickly get overgrown, jumbled and hard for visitors to wade through. All wikis need one or more 'caretakers' to prune, trim and train the site so it grows in a useful, attractive, inviting style.

If you are aware of wikis used by large organizations (hundreds or thousands), or wikis that many people contribute to (other than Wikipedia), please put links for those wikis in a comment on this blog post. Thank you!

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Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 02 January 2007, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 6:50 pm weekly gathering upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. We're meeting at Tom's because people have expressed a desire to periodically meet at places other than Mister Churro. Tom's has free wireless, good food and a nice upstairs area where we'll meet.

The ‘net

1. Super Deals on Good Software http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ (Lisa – note the Game Giveaway of the Day)
2. MySupermarket Comparison Site http://searchengineland.com/061227-051325.php
3. Yahoo likes these hackers http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/16307089.htm
4. ProfileLinker Takes Meebo Approach to Social Networking http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/28/profilelinker-takes-meebo-approach-to-social-networking/
5. And By The Time Anyone Reads The Sneaky Fine Print On AT&T's Concessions, The Merger Will Be Done http://techdirt.com/articles/20061229/001833.shtml
6. Throw the bums out http://www.yelvington.com/20061229/throw_the_bums_out
7. Q&A With Jimmy Wales On Search Wikia http://searchengineland.com/061229-193718.php
8. Wanted: More Broadband http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20061227/tc_pcworld/128332
9. The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2006 http://web2.wsj2.com/the_best_web_20_software_of_2006.htm
10. 2007: Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn’t Live Without http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/02/2007-web-20-companies-i-couldnt-live-without/
11. China-based Browser Maxthon Going Global in 2007 http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/maxthon_global.php
12. Mozilla Does Microformats: Firefox 3 as Information Broker http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mozilla_does_microformats_firefox3.php

Security & Privacy

1. Government may not need warrant to search your e-mail http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061227-8504.html
2. OneDOJ: a new national law enforcement database project http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061229-8522.html
3. 'Happy New Year' Worm Spawns Computer Zombies http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/76jDiV7j04XEc7/Happy-New-Year-Worm-Spawns-Computer-Zombies.xhtml

Mobile Computing & Communicating

1. Verizon to Allow Ads on Its Mobile Phones http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/business/media/26adco.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
2. Wi-Fi Is Hitting the Road in Cars From Avis, but Technical and Legal Bumps Lie Ahead http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02avis.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Open Source

1. TurboLinux Device May Jump-Start OS Migration http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/9GchkwJDCnTKgC/TurboLinux-Device-May-Jump-Start-OS-Migration.xhtml
2. Windows screwup forces Ubuntu shift http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36635

SkyNet

1. Google Preps Blogger For The Enterprise http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3650906
2. Google Talk Getting Some Sort Of Phone Service http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2006/12/26/google-talk-getting-some-sort-of-phone-service/
3. Google to Write an 'Integrated Story'? http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3650566
4. Experts say Google will be No. 1 in visitors in '07 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-12-27-webleader_x.htm
5. Blake Ross has a "tip" for Google: stop using "tips" http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061229-8520.html
6. Matt Cutts: My thoughts on recent Google tips http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/my-thoughts-on-recent-google-tips/
7. Google: The real lesson from this week http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/the-real-lesson-from-this-week/
8. In Silicon Valley, the Race Is On to Trump Google http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/technology/01search.html?ex=1168232400&en=ad47077c00fe61f4&ei=5099&partner=TOPIXNEWS

General Technology

1. Public Debut of eCoupled Intelligent Wireless Power http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061227/nyw028.html
2. 2006 Year-In-Review: Aerospace http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=9139db57-2a39-49b6-a769-71b4838f98ca
3. Russia to Build Space Launch Pad in French Guyana http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/12/27/guyana.shtml
4. Samsung demonstrates fuel cell laptop http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061227-8505.html
5. Videoconferencing meets... dinnertime? http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061226-8494.html
6. Millions miffed at poor quality from holiday HDTV purchase http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/30/millions-miffed-at-poor-quality-from-holiday-hdtv-purchase/

Economy and Technology

1. Internet Marketing Best [Blog] Posts of 2006 http://www.techipedia.com/2006/12/25/internet-marketing-best-blog-posts-of-2006-the-year-in-review/
2. Online shoppers overwhelm iTunes store http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061228/ap_on_hi_te/itunes_slowdown
3. The 20 Most Innovative [Tech] Products of the Year http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,128176/printable.html
4. Fords are expected to feature Windows http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/BUSINESS01/612300331
5. LCD TVs now hottest holiday gadget http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6146383.html
6. Google and the Third Age of Computing http://www.skrenta.com/2007/01/winnertakeall_google_and_the_t.html
7. Google’s run is more than half done http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/?p=237

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