Think about these before you choose a wiki

I think most wiki comparison charts seem to miss the point about what is important in a wiki, therefore it is hard to find information about the availability of the features listed below.

In my experience, if you want to set up a web for your organization, some of the main features you need are

• searchable MS Word, Excel and PDF attachments,
• preview of these
• ability to retrieve information from a variety of databases
• integration to existing authentication systems
• publishing workflow
• threaded conversation
• self-updating lists
• email submission
• easy form creation which retains data in a structured way
• good issue tracker

These are needed beacuse users want

• to have access to documents created earlier
• to see the documents prior to downloading them
• to search, see, structure emails within the collaboration system they use
• rely on data stored elsewhere

Also, they may incline to contribute more if they know their input

• is not lost in the chaos of a bad wiki
• considered a draft, a proposal, not the last word on a topic

And the Tracker is a very good link between actual everyday work and the wiki: helps you organize your day, check deadlines, get feedback, see what others are doing...

I guess TWiki is good for most of these. (Our company uses Plone, we like it, it is a bit clumsy though.)

I hope it helps some people to make a good wiki choice.

-- MiklosNyiri - 29 Jan 2006