ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS column: Part 012: How to set up a successful website with wikis

Like blogs, wikis are a good tool for generating rapidly growing and changing content for your website. Search engines rate this dynamic very favourably. This leads to a better ranking of your website in search engine listings.

Ever since the huge success of Wikipedia, the largest internet encyclopaedia, "wikis" have been equally well-known and very popular on the internet. Why? Well, firstly, wikis can be used to provide information. And secondly, visitors to your site or selected members can be involved in maintaining and adding to the data. Like blogs, wikis are also a good tool for accessing rapidly growing and changing content. This aspect is rated very favourably by search engines and leads to a better ranking of your site.

Just imagine you are working on a project and would like to have all the knowledge available in one place, e.g. all the technical terms that come up during the project with an explanation or processes that are sure to be repeated.

Wikis are used as a reference work

Of course, you can handle an entire project completely with paper and IT. However, it is much more interesting to always have this content available online. In contrast to blogs, a wiki lives from the fact that it is used as a reference work. A blog is rather quick and suitable for current events.

Imagine allowing your customers to enter all the terms relating to your subject area. You can either gradually fill them in with your knowledge and build up a uniquely valuable reference database or even allow customers and partners to access your wiki and make additions.

Setting up a wiki costs you nothing

As an Indian Swabian, I am often asked about the set-up costs during my consultations. Well, if you ask a regular web agency or advertising agency, you will hear amounts in the range of 1000 to 2000 €. This is because these agencies unfortunately do not tell you the full truth.

Today you have saved yourself this money by reading this article, because setting up a wiki costs you nothing! Here is a list of free wiki software:

• http://www.wikimatrix.org
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/
• http://www.splitbrain.org
• http://www.twiki.org
• http://www.tiddlywiki.com

I prefer Splitbrain because it can be completely installed in about 30 minutes, even with no knowledge at all!

Wikis conquer the world

A wiki is easy to use after a little trial and error. You can quickly find the tab for editing a page, preview the edited page, save the result if it is OK and you're done!

Another advantage is the syntax for formatting, which is very similar in the various wiki scripts. It is usually intuitive to work with the different wikis.

Anyone can do it straight away! As already described, it is not necessary to learn a specific programming language; the few control characters required can be quickly looked up by comparing or reading the help text. Rights for reading, editing and commenting can be easily assigned by the administrator, so that a graduated administration of the wiki is possible, which, however, contradicts the wiki philosophy.

People who start working with others in a wiki are often worried about misuse. This is countered by the function that a backup copy is made of each edited version. There is an index of these copies on which you can mark which of the versions should be compared. Any mischief thus quickly comes to light and is also quickly removed.

Good luck on your journey! Write to me if you would like to plan and set up your wiki - I will be happy to support you with further expert know-how!