Reconsider TWiki's Open Read/Write Philosophy

Many pages tout the [T]Wiki philosophy of "openness", e.g. TWikiAccessControl says

"Open, freeform editing is the essence of WikiCulture ... it is strongly recommended that decisions to restrict read or write access to a web or a topic are made with care - the more restrictions, the less Wiki in the mix. Experience shows that unrestricted write access works very well ...."

This is a Pretty Philosophy but antithetical to the Corporate Enterprise Business world.

Like it or not, in the world of corporate Intranets, neither unrestricted write access nor unrestricted READ access plays very well. Corporations are all about secrets, Need To Know, NDAs, and Confidentiality.

Worse, while write access restrictions seem to be at least possible in TWiki (barring those frequent comments about WikiCulture), restricting read access appears to be technologically hampered:

"Technically it is possible to restrict read access to an individual topic... provided that the view script is authenticated. However this setup is not recommended since all content is searchable within a web - a search will turn up view restricted topics."

Ouch. Tell that to the CEO, then stand back.

It may not be the Wiki Way but if TWiki is going to target the corporate intranet world, TWiki needs to take care not to scare the suits.

I suggest working to make both read and write access restrictions more secure and easier to implement. I also recommend toning down the proselytizing in the online docs.

-- VickiBrown - 16 Dec 2004

I agree with Vicki's last staement. Or rather if we are going to proselytize, let's do it in a manner more fitting to a professional product. Lets try not to sound like children over-hyped on too many candy bars.

-- AntonAylward - 21 Dec 2004