Well I am impressed with what the wiki system has to offer and it's potential applications for marketing.
Now the general principle of wikis is of community participation but there are a number of Wiki engines that also allow access control at various levels. This makes these systems ideal for documentation such as for membership sites, FAQ, manuals for affiliates, easily updated information for site visitors that can be done on-the-fly without the need for FTP.
You can consider this a type of static page layout as opposed to the blog which updates to the top of the blog page every time there is a post (like this one).
Currently I am evaluating
DokuWiki and I have recently come across
PmWiki which I stumbled across at
ResumeWiki.
Both of these systems use
"flat files" and so do not require a database. There are some
good reasons to choose a flat file system over a database. Being able to easily reorganize files and, in the case of
DokuWiki, directories is certainly one advantage.
Other Resources
A site all about Wiki with comparisons and links to everything you would ever want to know.
I would suggest that you think about how you might benefit from a wiki and its application before you visit the site. A programmer friend of mine recently said that he typically invests 3 to 4 hours in evaluating each program or module when looking at new software. If your purpose is documentation as outlined above then you could use either
DokuWiki or PmWiki and if your needs extended to community collaboration or input then those two would also serve your needs (in my humble opinion :-) ).
Here is
a comparison table that compares several wiki.
I also recommend reading the comments here on
why use DokuWiki. You will notice a comment from me and at that time I didn't know about PmWiki. For me the jury is still out. I am developing documentation in both programs to see how that goes and which one I prefer.
TO DO:
One other wiki engine worth evaluating if you like either of the ones above is:
ErfurtWiki. It has extensive plugins and a multitude of features. Still, more is not better but there is a lot of choice and flexibility. Here are some
user comments on ErfurtWiki. Be sure to read the author's response.
Overall if you want to get documentation online fast with extensive searching and trialing other alternatives I am quite certain that
DokuWiki would meet your needs.
Enjoy your wonderful wiki investigations :-)
Noel Springer
http://www.WebBizProfit.com
http://www.VitalityNews.com
