Gregory Szorc's blog

Are Wiki Engines the Future of Content Management?

Wiki software such as MediaWiki, the package that powers WikiPedia and the Case Wiki, is very robust and has potential beyond operating wikis. Imagine MediaWiki modified to have granular permissions with adjustable scope. You now have the perfect content management system. The software contains numerous enterprise-class features, such as multi-tier caching and load-balancing. Editing pages is very simple, using an easy-to-learn markup. Also, by using a wiki engine, you would get a full page history and a recent changes list.

The differences between wiki software and content management software is very small. With MediaWiki, the only real difference is the lack of a robust permission system and the inability to create infinite levels of structure. If MediaWiki were modified to include these, it would instantly become a free and viable enterprise-class content management system.

Anyone looking at shelling out lots of $$$ for a commercial content management system should look at modifying MediaWiki for a fraction of the cost. The results won't be disappointing.

You can ping this entry by using http://blog.case.edu/gps10/mt-tb.cgi/2640 .

I think you are blurring the line of what is and is not a wiki.

If you take a dog, and you increase its size, increase its percentage of muscle mass, increase it's lung capacity, and tailor some of other physiological attributes on the animal to better aid in you being able to ride on it for transportation and you being able to have the animal haul stuff; what you have is not a dog anymore -- it's a horse. People would no longer walk up to you and say, "hey, nice dog!" They would walk up to you and say, "you've got a freakin' ugly horse!"

There are benefits in employeeing and integrating the concept(s) of a "wiki" into other technologies. But, that is strikingly different than taking one tool designed to do one thing well; and bastardizing the code with umpteen levels of authorization control and workflow processing.

I don't believe "bastardizing" a wiki with authorization control and workflow processing is a bad thing. A wiki IS a content management system, albeit one with little to no restrictions.

The bottom line is that MediaWiki has a lot of publishing power, something that many content management systems lack. If that power could be harness while maintaining control over who yields that power, the result would be a great CMS.

The bottom line is that MediaWiki has a lot of publishing power, something that many content management systems lack. If that power could be harness while maintaining control over who yields that power, the result would be a great CMS.

You could make the same case for a blogging system. (Have you ever seen a person using a wiki-based system as a bloggin system -- it's sad.) There is a middle ground in all of this -- CMSs, weblogs, wikis.