Wikis For Dummies
by Woods, Dan; Thoeny, PeterFormat: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2007-07-23
Publisher(s): For Dummies
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Summary
Wiki For Dummies is a hands-on reference for anyone who needs a fun and easy book on how to get Wikis up and running and administer them. The book will show you how to set up Wikis in a corporate setting, a family or personal website and more. The book will explain what wikis are, how they work, how you can set one up and all of the things they can be used for.The book will cover everything from choosing your Wiki engine and getting it running to administration and maintenance. I. How does a Wiki Work? II. How can I set up a Wiki wiki wiki? III. What are the different ways to organize a Wiki? IV. What can I do with a Wiki V. For my group VI. At the office VII. At home VIII. How to write your own wiki IX. 10 Coolest Wiki Sites X. 10 Best Wiki Implementations
Author Biography
Dan Woods, an early adopter of wikis, has built technology for companies ranging from Time, Inc. to TheStreet.com and has written many books about technology. Peter Thoeny, the founder of TWiki, invented the concept of structured wikis and is a recognized thought-leader in social software and wikis at the workplace.
Table of Contents
| Foreword | p. xvii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Introducing Wikis | p. 7 |
| Understanding Wikis: From Ward's Brain to Your Browser | p. 9 |
| Finding Your Way to Wikis | p. 10 |
| What makes a wiki a wiki | p. 11 |
| Comparing wikis and other communication tools | p. 13 |
| The (almost) formal definition of a wiki | p. 14 |
| You, Too, Can Wiki | p. 16 |
| Starting your wiki engines | p. 16 |
| Creating your first wiki page | p. 17 |
| Putting Wikis to Work | p. 21 |
| Who are wiki people? | p. 21 |
| The lifecycle of wiki people | p. 22 |
| Herding a small group with wikis | p. 23 |
| Wide-body wikis for your company | p. 23 |
| Going public with your wiki | p. 24 |
| The History and Future of Wikis | p. 24 |
| HyperCard and other wiki precursors | p. 24 |
| Ward's challenge | p. 25 |
| Ward's solution | p. 25 |
| The not-so-overnight success of wikis | p. 26 |
| Hosted wikis open the door to everyone | p. 29 |
| Where wikis will go | p. 30 |
| Contributing Content to a Wiki | p. 31 |
| Basic Wiki Skills | p. 32 |
| Navigating wiki webs | p. 32 |
| Editing and creating wiki pages | p. 38 |
| Linking wiki pages | p. 44 |
| Attaching Documents to Wiki Pages | p. 49 |
| Printing Wiki Pages | p. 51 |
| Tracking Versions and Changes | p. 51 |
| How versions keep wikis safe | p. 51 |
| Tracking changes in a wiki | p. 52 |
| The Thousand Problem-Solving Faces of Wikis | p. 55 |
| The Many Categories of Wikis | p. 56 |
| Content-Focused Wikis: The Goldmine of Shared Content | p. 57 |
| Doing research with reference wikis | p. 57 |
| Sharpening skills with hobbyist wikis | p. 60 |
| Going around the world with travel wikis | p. 62 |
| Finding technical documentation wikis | p. 64 |
| Process-Focused Wikis: A Shared Space for a Shared Mission | p. 65 |
| Managing projects and productivity with wikis | p. 66 |
| Getting the job done with task-oriented wikis | p. 66 |
| Making it happen with advocacy wikis | p. 70 |
| Finding educational wikis for students and teachers | p. 72 |
| Community Wikis: Exploring Common Bonds | p. 73 |
| Goofing off with entertainment wikis | p. 75 |
| Hanging around at clubhouse wikis | p. 76 |
| Getting nerdy with technology wikis | p. 77 |
| Ease-of-Use Wikis: Web Site Creation Made Easy | p. 77 |
| Creating small business brochure wikis | p. 78 |
| Making connections with personal and family wikis | p. 78 |
| Hunting for More Wikis | p. 79 |
| Using and Improving the 800-pound Gorilla of Wikis: Wikipedia | p. 81 |
| Understanding How Wikipedia Works | p. 82 |
| Run by volunteers | p. 84 |
| Editing Wikipedia entries | p. 85 |
| Dressing up your Wikipedia entries | p. 86 |
| Previewing and saving your changes | p. 87 |
| Linking pages and Web sites in Wikipedia | p. 88 |
| What Wikipedia Can Do For You | p. 90 |
| Using Wikipedia as a research tool | p. 90 |
| Is Wikipedia reliable? | p. 91 |
| Sharing your knowledge on Wikipedia | p. 92 |
| Making Your Own Wiki | p. 95 |
| Finding a Hosted Home for Your Wiki | p. 97 |
| Choosing the Right Hosted Wiki | p. 98 |
| Exploring hosted wikis | p. 99 |
| Ease-of-use wikis | p. 102 |
| Community wikis | p. 102 |
| Process-focused wikis | p. 103 |
| Content-focused wikis | p. 103 |
| Creating a Hosted Wiki with WikiSpaces | p. 104 |
| Creating pages | p. 107 |
| Editing pages | p. 108 |
| Linking pages | p. 109 |
| Protecting pages and wikis | p. 110 |
| Inviting others to your wiki | p. 112 |
| Changing the look, feel, and design of a wiki | p. 113 |
| Adding images, video, and other widgets to a wiki | p. 115 |
| Adding premium services and advertising | p. 115 |
| Creating Content for Your Wiki | p. 117 |
| Applying Markup as Content Makeup | p. 118 |
| Editing Pages with Wiki Markup | p. 118 |
| Creating hierarchy with headings | p. 120 |
| Inserting bullets | p. 121 |
| Building tables | p. 122 |
| Formatting text | p. 123 |
| Controlling Layout and Formatting with HTML | p. 125 |
| Choosing Wiki Page Modes | p. 126 |
| Using document mode | p. 128 |
| Implementing thread mode pages | p. 129 |
| Using structured mode | p. 130 |
| Linking, Categorizing, and Tagging Wiki Pages | p. 131 |
| Linking Wiki Pages | p. 132 |
| Linking WikiWords automatically | p. 132 |
| Preventing false WikiWord links | p. 133 |
| Free linking | p. 134 |
| Creating pages using links | p. 135 |
| Giving life to stubs | p. 136 |
| Viewing all links to a page | p. 137 |
| Renaming all links in a web | p. 138 |
| Linking Outside Your Wiki | p. 139 |
| Linking URLs | p. 139 |
| Linking between wikis using Interwiki names | p. 140 |
| Linking to other webs and namespaces | p. 141 |
| Linking to Files, Images, and Multimedia | p. 141 |
| Uploading attachments | p. 142 |
| Linking to file attachments | p. 144 |
| Inserting images | p. 145 |
| Linking to multimedia | p. 147 |
| Categorizing and Tagging Pages | p. 148 |
| Using MediaWiki categories | p. 148 |
| Tagging content | p. 149 |
| The Four Dimensions of Wiki Design | p. 151 |
| Architecting the Information in Your Wiki | p. 152 |
| Understanding wiki taxonomy | p. 152 |
| Surveying common wiki taxonomies | p. 154 |
| Linking in patterns | p. 157 |
| What's in a page name? | p. 158 |
| Plotting Navigational Paths through Your Wiki | p. 159 |
| Designing the front page | p. 159 |
| Designing section pages | p. 162 |
| Categorizing pages | p. 163 |
| Planning headers, footers, and left-hand navigation | p. 165 |
| Adding supporting pages to your wiki | p. 169 |
| Using Templates to Design Content Pages | p. 169 |
| Adding Visual Panache to Your Wiki | p. 172 |
| Using themes and skins | p. 173 |
| Choosing color | p. 174 |
| Personalizing wikis with logos | p. 175 |
| Promoting, Managing, and Improving Your Wiki | p. 177 |
| Attracting Users to Your Wiki | p. 179 |
| Wiki Don'ts | p. 180 |
| Don't confuse your audience | p. 180 |
| Don't fire and forget | p. 180 |
| Don't spam | p. 181 |
| Don't get the Field of Dreams syndrome | p. 181 |
| Don't overdesign | p. 182 |
| Don't overmanage | p. 182 |
| Don't go on wiki suicide missions | p. 182 |
| Wiki Do's | p. 183 |
| Seed your wiki | p. 183 |
| Remove barriers | p. 184 |
| Encourage wiki-users to be bold | p. 185 |
| Starting a Community Wiki | p. 185 |
| Focus the wiki | p. 186 |
| Advertise the wiki | p. 186 |
| Assist the wiki | p. 186 |
| Promoting Wikis in the Office | p. 187 |
| Living with Wiki Life Cycles | p. 188 |
| Deploying the wiki | p. 188 |
| Growing your wiki | p. 189 |
| Taming large wikis | p. 189 |
| Ending a wiki's life | p. 190 |
| Choosing an Installed Wiki Engine | p. 191 |
| Evaluating Basic Wiki Groups | p. 192 |
| Assessing Your Wiki Requirements | p. 194 |
| The skill level of the user population | p. 194 |
| The number of people who will add content | p. 194 |
| The number of people who will view the content | p. 195 |
| The wiki's security level | p. 195 |
| The wiki's potential size | p. 196 |
| Whether you need automation | p. 196 |
| Your technical expertise level | p. 197 |
| Your willingness to become a wiki champion | p. 197 |
| Comparing Wiki Engines | p. 197 |
| Making the safe choice | p. 198 |
| Exploring the WikiMatrix | p. 199 |
| Going on a Wiki Walkabout | p. 202 |
| Points to ponder on your wiki walkabout | p. 204 |
| XWiki walkabout | p. 204 |
| MoinMoin walkabout | p. 205 |
| TWiki walkabout | p. 206 |
| MediaWiki walkabout | p. 207 |
| DokuWiki walkabout | p. 207 |
| Getting Your Wiki Engine Up and Running | p. 209 |
| Finding a Home for Your Wiki | p. 210 |
| Hosting on a shared or dedicated server | p. 210 |
| Hosting inside your organization | p. 211 |
| Contracting all-in-one hosting and consulting | p. 211 |
| Finding an Internet Mechanic | p. 212 |
| Starting Your Wiki Engine | p. 215 |
| Meeting system requirements | p. 215 |
| Finding installation help | p. 218 |
| Downloading and unpacking binaries | p. 219 |
| Connecting to the Web server | p. 220 |
| Running the configure script | p. 221 |
| Managing Wikis | p. 225 |
| Wiki Maintenance: Pruning, Training, and Making Changes | p. 226 |
| Deciding what to cut and what to keep | p. 227 |
| Training your troops | p. 228 |
| Rolling back changes | p. 231 |
| Avoiding wiki spam | p. 233 |
| Refactoring your wiki | p. 233 |
| Grinding through Routine Administrative Tasks | p. 235 |
| Daily tasks | p. 236 |
| Weekly tasks | p. 236 |
| Monthly tasks | p. 236 |
| Yearly tasks | p. 237 |
| Protecting Your Wiki | p. 239 |
| Evaluating Threats to Your Wiki | p. 240 |
| Vandalism | p. 240 |
| Passion | p. 240 |
| Enthusiasm | p. 242 |
| Mistakes | p. 242 |
| System failure | p. 243 |
| Running Your Own Change Patrol | p. 243 |
| Rolling back changes | p. 243 |
| Tracking recent changes | p. 247 |
| Controlling Editing Access | p. 249 |
| Preparing for Disaster | p. 250 |
| Backing up your wiki | p. 251 |
| Finding a new home for your wiki | p. 252 |
| Creating Applications Using Structured Wikis | p. 253 |
| Reviewing Structured Wiki Basics | p. 254 |
| To structure or not: That is the question | p. 254 |
| Using wiki variables | p. 255 |
| Performing functions with variables | p. 256 |
| Some favorites from the wiki variables vault | p. 257 |
| Searching Your Wiki | p. 259 |
| Templating Your Wiki | p. 260 |
| Creating a base topic | p. 261 |
| Creating a basic template | p. 261 |
| Making new pages from templates | p. 262 |
| Finding pages created from a template | p. 263 |
| Simplifying page creation | p. 264 |
| Adding Forms to Your Wiki | p. 265 |
| Creating a database home page | p. 266 |
| Defining a form | p. 266 |
| Enabling a form | p. 268 |
| Creating a template topic | p. 268 |
| Adding a form to the template topic | p. 270 |
| Building an HTML form for topic creation | p. 270 |
| Building a formatted topic list | p. 272 |
| Improving the topic list | p. 273 |
| Adding Wiki Plug-Ins | p. 275 |
| CommentPlugin | p. 276 |
| SpreadSheetPlugin | p. 276 |
| EditTablePlugin | p. 277 |
| InterwikiPlugin | p. 278 |
| TWikiDrawPlugin | p. 278 |
| Finding more plug-ins | p. 279 |
| The Part of Tens | p. 281 |
| Ten Essential Wiki Attitudes | p. 283 |
| Shared Authorship | p. 283 |
| Easier Is Better | p. 284 |
| Throw It Up There | p. 284 |
| Unfinished Is Okay | p. 284 |
| Bold Is Beautiful | p. 284 |
| Set an Example | p. 285 |
| Let It Happen | p. 285 |
| Structure Can Wait | p. 285 |
| We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rules | p. 286 |
| Follow the Community | p. 286 |
| Ten Roles People Play When Using Wikis | p. 287 |
| Reader/Researcher | p. 287 |
| Contributor | p. 288 |
| Evangelist | p. 288 |
| Editorial Quality Maven | p. 288 |
| Administrator | p. 289 |
| Operations and Hosting Engineer | p. 289 |
| Wiki Engine Developer | p. 289 |
| Policy and Process Contributor | p. 289 |
| Critic | p. 290 |
| Champion/Founder | p. 290 |
| Ten Ways How Wikis Work at the Office | p. 291 |
| Shared Repository | p. 292 |
| Reducing "To All" E-Mail | p. 292 |
| Simple Databases | p. 293 |
| Knowledge Management | p. 293 |
| Training | p. 294 |
| Intranet | p. 294 |
| Web Publishing | p. 294 |
| User Documentation | p. 295 |
| Shared Spreadsheets | p. 295 |
| Project Management | p. 295 |
| Ten Innovative Wikis | p. 297 |
| TiddlyWiki | p. 297 |
| wetpaint | p. 298 |
| Central Desktop | p. 298 |
| StikiPad | p. 299 |
| wikiCalc | p. 299 |
| WikiTree | p. 300 |
| WikiTimeScale | p. 300 |
| Swicki | p. 301 |
| Kwiki | p. 302 |
| FlexWiki | p. 302 |
| Index | p. 303 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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