Why This Book?

The idea for this book came from a couple of different directions. One was that I (Bo) had been getting more and more involved in collaborative efforts over the Internet. Another was that running and customizing a cluster of wiki servers for some time had given considerable material to use in a book. I closely followed developments in a number of areas concerning discussion and collaboration tools and saw that once wiki servers were adopted, enthusiasm for using them was invariably great.

A wiki server is in many ways an ideal tool for collaborative idea exchange and writing--informal, quick, and accessible. It even turns out to be a very useful Internet-aware personal notebook. Best of all, with a suitable source, setting up your own wiki server is remarkably easy, whether for personal use or wider network collaboration.

What seemed to be lacking for a broader acceptance was simply a more collected introduction to and analysis of both the tool and the culture that has grown up around it. The best thing to do, so it seemed, was to provide such a reference based on the material I had. The thought was to include a serving of sources and tools to get interested readers up and running with their own wiki servers. Therefore, I thought the matter over, put together a book proposal, and approached Ward Cunningham about licensing issues for his sources. Best to go to the source for the sources, I reasoned. I then learned that both he and publisher Addison-Wesley were keen to see a good book on the subject. Editor Mike Hendrickson at Addison-Wesley proved very supportive and approved the idea of a combined analysis and do-it-yourself tutorial. And given the nature of the subject, a deeper collaboration between Ward and me was the natural way to go about it.

The result is here, and we hope that you find this volume a worthy and valuable reference as you explore the wiki way.

Why You Want to Read This

We hope you will read The Wiki Way with a mind open to exploring simple yet powerful tools that you can have complete control over. We would like you to think of wiki as "leverage-ware": a tool to amplify your associativity, connectivity, and community--not to forget creativity. Play with the concept and the bundled sources, and see where it takes you.

This book targets primarily three distinct groups of readers, reflecting the predominant and potential uses of discussion and collaboration tools.

• Readers who can discover here a quick way to implement a hyperlinked style of personal notebook or information manager on their own system--one that can link both their own pages and external Internet or intranet resources at will. Call it a free-form personal information manager (PIM), which is "open source" and uses a nonproprietary file format.
• Industry professionals who need a collaborative tool or knowledge base server of this nature but lack both an overview and a how-to-implement guide in order to make informed decisions about what to deploy on the corporate intranet or public Web site.
• Researchers and students in academic settings who both study the design and implementation of collaborative tools and use them in their day-to-day submission and collaboration work.

Wiki servers are already widely used to fill many roles, from simple discussion forums rather similar to the old BBS hubs, to collaborative tools and searchable information archives. A number are thinly disguised as a new breed of Internet presence providers, offering "instant" edit-and-serve Web hosting solutions.

Hundreds of versions exist hidden from public view on corporate or academic intranets. They have been set up for such demanding tasks as tracking product development, customer or developer support, and paper submissions. As noted on at least one major site, the quantity of e-mail typical for a project can otherwise be overwhelming. The wiki concept combines the immediacy of direct editing and "most recent postings" with adaptable structure and timeless persistency, where even old entries can be commented, amended, and brought up to date.

Typically, existing implementations were cobbled together by whoever found enough resources and hints on the Internet to set one up. The choice of wiki type has until now usually been determined by what is found first and happens to work. Tweaking tends to be haphazard.

What is lacking in the field is a more formal resource that can give the presumptive administrator a collected and clearer idea of the options and theory, along with examples of how to adapt the wiki to the particular demands of the situation at hand. Well, we've tried to make this book that resource.

Book Structure

The Wiki Way is a combined exposition, tutorial, and manifesto. This single reference volume aims to provide you with historical background, the state of the art, and some of the vision. We seek to meld practical how-to tips with in-depth analysis, all in an easy-to-read informal and personal style--even entertaining, as our technical reviewers assured us. We bring you conceptual overviews, philosophical reflection, and contextual essays from professionals in the field.

A tall order for a single book? Assuredly, but it was fun trying. We have chosen to organize the book into three parts, each catering to different needs and interests. There is some overlap, but we think you'll find that each part approaches the wiki concept from complementary directions, with a tone and depth appropriate to each. No matter what level of detail and involvement is desired, we wanted you the reader to always find something worthwhile to focus on.

First comes Part I, From Concepts to Using Wiki, which guides you through the basic concepts concerning Web collaboration in general and wiki collaborative culture in particular, and then we show you how to quickly get your own wiki up and running. Later, practical chapters focus on the mechanics of using a wiki server and an overview of content structuring.

Part II, Understanding the Hacks, gets to the technological core with extensive examinations into how a wiki server works. After a discussion about the structural aspects of a wiki database, we provide a systematic analysis of basic wiki functionality and show simple ways to customize your wiki. Although it may seem unusual to give the tweaks before the full code analysis, we find that this is a workable approach.

Then follows a complete program analysis of the components in the base example script. This sets the scene for the following chapter, where we suggest a number of cool hacks, easily inserted in the example Perl script, to modify and extend wiki behavior beyond the basics for specified contexts. We end part 2 with a technical overview chapter aimed at the wiki administrator, which takes up issues and tools that deal with usage, security, server loads, backup, and revision control.

Part III, Imagine the Possibilities, takes us into broader realms of usage, utility, pitfalls, and vision. We present anecdotal accounts and personal views from many sources to make this book much more than Yet Another Programming Book or Yet Another Application Manual. Material here comes both directly and indirectly from a host of professionals who develop or use wiki or wiki-like systems in their work. First, a chapter summarizes a chorus of views from wiki communities. Next, we share in some of the experiences gained from using wiki widely in academic settings. Finally, we provide some interesting case studies culled from the corporate world.

A collection of appendixes supplements the main body of the book by providing extra levels of detail, along with collected references and reso

Bo Leuf is an independent consultant specializing in design-team training, technical communication, and cross-platform and user interface issues. Ward Cunningham hosts the Portland Pattern Repository, which has used the Wiki technology since 1994.

Why This Book? The idea for this book came from a couple of different directions. One was that I (Bo) had been getting more and more involved in collaborative efforts over the Internet. Another was that running and customizing a cluster of wiki servers for some time had given considerable material to use in a book. I closely followed developments in a number of areas concerning discussion and collaboration tools and saw that once wiki servers were adopted, enthusiasm for using them was invariably great. A wiki server is in many ways an ideal tool for collaborative idea exchange and writing--informal, quick, and accessible. It even turns out to be a very useful Internet-aware personal notebook. Best of all, with a suitable source, setting up your own wiki server is remarkably easy, whether for personal use or wider network collaboration. What seemed to be lacking for a broader acceptance was simply a more collected introduction to and analysis of both the tool and the culture that has grown up around it. The best thing to do, so it seemed, was to provide such a reference based on the material I had. The thought was to include a serving of sources and tools to get interested readers up and running with their own wiki servers. Therefore, I thought the matter over, put together a book proposal, and approached Ward Cunningham about licensing issues for his sources. Best to go to the source for the sources, I reasoned. I then learned that both he and publisher Addison-Wesley were keen to see a good book on the subject. Editor Mike Hendrickson at Addison-Wesley proved very supportive and approved the idea of a combined analysis and do-it-yourself tutorial. And given the nature of the subject, a deeper collaboration between Ward and me was the natural way to go about it. The result is here, and we hope that you find this volume a worthy and valuable reference as you explore the wiki way. Why You Want to Read This We hope you will read The Wiki Way with a mind open to exploring simple yet powerful tools that you can have complete control over. We would like you to think of wiki as "leverage-ware": a tool to amplify your associativity, connectivity, and community--not to forget creativity. Play with the concept and the bundled sources, and see where it takes you. This book targets primarily three distinct groups of readers, reflecting the predominant and potential uses of discussion and collaboration tools. Readers who can discover here a quick way to implement a hyperlinked style of personal notebook or information manager on their own system--one that can link both their own pages and external Internet or intranet resources at will. Call it a free-form personal information manager (PIM), which is "open source" and uses a nonproprietary file format. Industry professionals who need a collaborative tool or knowledge base server of this nature but lack both an overview and a how-to-implement guide in order to make informed decisions about what to deploy on the corporate intranet or public Web site. Researchers and students in academic settings who both study the design and implementation of collaborative tools and use them in their day-to-day submission and collaboration work. Wiki servers are already widely used to fill many roles, from simple discussion forums rather similar to the old BBS hubs, to collaborative tools and searchable information archives. A number are thinly disguised as a new breed of Internet presence providers, offering "instant" edit-and-serve Web hosting solutions. Hundreds of versions exist hidden from public view on corporate or academic intranets. They have been set up for such demanding tasks as tracking product development, customer or developer support, and paper submissions. As noted on at least one major site, the quantity of e-mail typical for a project can othe