Who needs to know this ...
Wiki users do not need to know any of the technical details behind the operation of a wiki. As long as authors can use a web browser and type simple formatting commands they will be able to contribute to and read wiki web sites. This page is here for the benefit of future wiki administrators or individual wiki advocates. You may need help from your webmaster or IT department to do the initial set up a wiki, but once it is running there is usually no further need for support.
How wikis work
Most wikis are software programs written in web-server scripting languages such as PHP or Python, both of which are free, even for commercial use. A web server, such as Apache (which is also free) delivers the wiki pages to the user’s browser. The web server must support the wiki’s scripting language. Some wikis use a backend database, such as mySQL (free as well), to store content but many use flat-file storage. If the selected wiki uses a backend database, the web server needs to support it.
How to choose a wiki
There are literally hundreds of different wiki software packages. Some of these are commercial packages with full support provided by the vendor. The vast majority are open source and free software packages. It is very easy to find wiki software but much more difficult to select an appropriate package for your needs. You could start here: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ChoosingaWiki
While doing the research for this paper, the authors tried or examined eight different wiki software packages, all of them open source. A quick summary of our impressions and comments are on the page called Wiki software we tried
What we chose to use
We had several characteristics in mind for the wiki software we selected:
- written in a well-supported scripting language
- easy to install
- flat-file based system (no database)
- minimal server footprint
- able to provide custom screen appearances (often called skins)
- extensible
- support for file uploads, downloads, and attachments
- well-supported by the open-source community
The wiki software we chose for our trials is PmWiki which is written in PHP.
When we wrote this paper in May 2005, the default look (skin) used by PmWiki was quite drab. The current version (2.0.10) has a much more attractive default skin. You can install many skins or write your own. Pre-written skins are showcased at http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Skins. This wiki uses one of the dozens of variants of Hans Bracker's Gemini skin, available from http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/GeminiSkin.
The web server is Apache 2, running on a Windows 2000 server. Because PmWiki is flat-file based, there was no need for a database package.
Other nifty tricks
Some wiki administrators have been able to put all of the software required to run a wiki onto a memory stick. This so-called “wiki on a stick” can be used with a laptop computer as a mobile personal knowledge gathering appliance.
Standalone PmWiki
As of July 24, 2005, there is a standalone version of PmWiki available that you can use to create a "wiki on a stick". See the full description here: http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/Standalone