I like a lot the Wiki concept, I thik WardCunnigham has started a small but important revolution in the way people can collaborate through web. I am browsing TWiki and other WikiClones, and I strongly hope that a CommonWiki effort will come out of all the different WikiClones around.

(Probably I should add this page at the original WikiWiki at http://c2.com/w2/wiki/CommonWiki ... I am adding it here because I like TWiki and I hope PeterThoeny effort will help this dream. Ward ... you are anyway a guide for me!)

I should say that I am not a Perl programmer (until now), then for the moment I can only start a list of features I would like to see in CommonWiki :

• Interoperability : It would be great if the features introduced by some Wiki developer would be seamlessly usable in other Wikis
• Modularization : this would help a lot to gain in interoperability, and moreover it would allow people to choose the exact set of features they like for their Wiki.

To obtain them the Wiki developers must agree on a series of interfaces and ways to integrate different features ... probably Perl 5 has enough OOP features to help us ...

• Plugin Features : we need a way to install a new feature just by dropping a file in a directory ... (was it in KeheyWiki at http://kehei.com ?)

More in detail, these are some features already present here and there that I would like to see in CommonWiki :

• a StorageModule devoted to the interaction with either:
  • a database (DB, postgres, mySql ...)
  • a repository (RCS, VCS, ...)
• a VisualizationModule for the production of pages with
  • templates
  • different languages
  • Page features (counters, cathegories, register interest on a single page ...)
• a ParserModule to define:
  • different text formalisms (for automatic generation of html/xml)
  • different ways to define a WikiName
  • different ways to produce links (also between Wikis)
• an InputModule to generate topics by means of:
  • web forms (like in the WikiRegistration)
  • email (MIME also)
  • the current Edit form
  • to produce append-only pages
• a ManagementModule for the wikimaster operations
  • creation/renaming/moving of a complete WikiWeb
  • user registration/authorization handling
  • creation/renaming/moving a topic (between wikiwebs also)
  • management of templates
  • management of WorkFlow
• an AuthorizationModule for the cases where different parts of the same site must be managed by different people ... (I'm in a University .. .I'm thinking to Staff, Professors, Students and so on ...)
  • some way to define the authors allowed to modify a set of pages
  • management tools to add/move/expire authors

-- AndreaSterbini - 09 Oct 1999