3.4. Selecting the Right Wiki

One difficulty in selecting a wiki is that there are so many available. At the time of writing, the wiki comparison site, WikiMatrix.org[WikiMatrix], listed over 120 distinct wiki solutions, and the number continues to grow.

The potential confusion isn’t helped by there being, as yet, no standard for the underlying markup language used by wikis to tag their content. Having said that, a contest was announced at the Balisage 2010 Markup Conference for people to submit proposals for a universal wiki markup language. It will be interesting to see if a workable standard emerges, and if one does, how quickly it gets adopted.

Despite the apparent plethora of wiki choices, a few are emerging as market leaders, and it only takes a small amount of research time to establish which wikis are best suited for a particular application. (See Appendix D: Notes on Popular Wikis for notes on some of the more popular wiki platforms.)

Don’t just jump in and implement a particular wiki because it’s the only one you have heard of or because “it’s the one that runs a certain famous wiki site.” Consider your business needs. Look around and see what wikis other people have used to solve similar problems. Ask why they chose that solution and what alternatives they considered. Also make sure that you are not conflicting with, or even duplicating, efforts in other parts of your company. 

Use comparison tools like Wiki Matrix[WikiMatrix] to find out if there is a user community for any of the wikis you are considering, then join and ask questions.

WikiMatrix.org provides several different ways to research and select wikis that might be suitable for your needs:

  1. If you are interested in a particular wiki, then you can select that wiki from the list on the Wiki Matrix home page. You will be directed to that wiki’s data page, which provides basic information such as: General Features, Systems Requirements, Data storage, Security, Development and Support, Common Features, Special Features, Linking, Syntax, Usability, Output formats and Media support. The page will also display any known security alerts, a link to a forum where you can research and ask questions, and perhaps most importantly, a listing of other wikis that are commonly compared with the one you are considering.
  2. If you have a list of wikis that you wish to compare, you can simply select them from the list on the home page, click the “compare” button, and you will be presented with a side-by-side comparison.
  3. The WikiMatrix site also offers a Choice Wizard which will walk you through the selection and comparison process by asking a series of questions regarding required functionality.

Most wikis have free personal versions, which makes prototyping cheap and easy. Download and install several and try using them. Prototype a small project with each type and get user feedback. (See Appendix D: Notes on Popular Wikis to find the download sites for each wiki.)

Implementing a wiki should be viewed like any other software implementation project; lay the ground work before you start.