TroubleshootingWiki.org is a new website designed to provide users with comprehensive, free guides on software troubleshooting. This site intends to help users eliminate the potential problems that might arise while working with various applications.

It is often difficult finding a resource that is focused on providing quality, relevant, and free information on software troubleshooting at one central location. Launched initially with over 20 tutorials covering different Content Management Systems and other software, TroubleshootingWiki.org is expected to grow into an exhaustive troubleshooting resource where users are able to add their own tips and tricks.

TroubleshootingWiki.org is part of an ongoing initiative at Packt to develop unique methods of contributing to the Open Source community. Notable other initiatives include the Wiki on Web Themes and Templates, www.ThemesWiki.org and the annual Open Source CMS Award that has a total prize package of $20,000, divided amongst winning projects. Packt also operates a unique Open Source Project Royalty Scheme, which sees them donate a percentage of their Open Source book sales directly to the projects they were written on. To date, they have donated over $100,000 to Open Source projects.

I know I'm a week behind about this, but I just came across the link via Gadgetopia:  Open-source PHP applications that changed the world.  The CMS related applications that were determined world changers are listed below.

• PHP-Nuke - 1999
• eZ Publish - 2000
• osCommerce - 2000
• phpBB - 2000
• Gallery - 2001
• Drupal - 2001
• MediaWiki - 2002
• WordPress - 2003
• Joomla! - 2005
• Magento eCommerce - 2007

When you split the list into three sections, you get the feeling that PHP-Nuke, ezPublish, and osCommerce have been around for a very long time.  More importantly, you begin to think that it is time for Gallery, Drupal, and MediaWiki to either be seen as mature applications or for those applications to finally grow up.

Wikis are useful business tools. With planning and some staff time, you can make your own online collection of useful articles, tailored to your organization's needs, to communicate about business processes, manage collective know-how and more.

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Updated versions of MediaWiki to address some security issues has been released for MediaWiki 1.11.1, 1.10.3, and 1.9.5.

This is a security and bugfix release of the Fall, Spring, and Winter 2007 snapshot releases of MediaWiki. A potential XSS injection vector affecting api.php only for Microsoft Internet Explorer users has been closed.

To work around the vulnerability without upgrading, you may disable the API if you don't need it:

~ $wgEnableAPI = false;

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Jimmy Wales: Wikis have been used to collaborate on all sorts of documents. They have even been used to manage schedules. I have seen people abandon [Microsoft] Outlook and schedule in a wiki as a better alternative.

The big difference is a design change in process. People don’t necessarily want to use a CMS. You need to drop the a priori assumptions on how you do workflow. The old notions of workflow are too cumbersome. Wikis provide enormous flexibility in how users can work together."

August 2007

New Website Launched that Promises to ease the Software Installation Process

InstallationWiki.org is a new website designed to provide users with comprehensive, free guides to installing software. Launching on August 6, 2007, the website will largely be driven and populated by content supplied and edited by experts, and hopes to bridge the gap between software experts and software users.

Quality, relevant and free information on installing software is often difficult to find, especially when new versions and editions are being released on a regular basis. The aim of InstallationWiki.org is to provide people with a one-stop source of information for installing whichever piece of software they’re working with.

The Installation Wiki will provide myriad benefits for a variety of individuals; acting as a resource for software users, whilst supporting the software community through gaining exposure for their respective programs.

But with the release of Wikiscanner we now find that organizations are actively trolling Wikipedia to help themselves, or to hurt others.   We find that our level of trust in Wikipedia has been significantly impugned.  We find that the social computing model is suspect to abuse from those who aren’t playing by the rules.  In effect, our naïve view of the world of wikis is destroyed.

"Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday his for-profit company, Wikia Inc., is ready to give away—for free—all the software, computing, storage and network access that Web site builders need to create community collaboration sites."

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"The first timeI heard about Wikipedia, I thought, This has no shot. Why would highly qualified people devote their energies to an encyclopedia they couldn’t make a dime on?"

-Steve Fox, Editor in Chief, InfoWorld, September 4, 2006

 

As I was heading for bed, I just saw ABC's Nightline story on Wikipedia. Wikipedia uses the wiki application MediaWiki for its content management system. The Nightline story was as close to a fair and balance story on an IT subject you can find on a non-technical program. The story focused not so much on technology as it did the people of Wikipedia, mainly the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, and the community of wiki users.

The biggest challenge for the reporter was to explain to television viewers exactly how an open community such as those found on open source projects and wiki sites actually work together. How do 1.3 million articles get written by volunteers? Wales didn't seem to have an answer except to say that all he knows is that it just works.

"Nature ran an article last December where they compared Britannica and Wikipedia on certain scientific entries, and they found that the Britannica articles contained around three errors per article, and Wikipedia articles contained around four errors per article, so when we heard that, we were somewhat pleased, because at least it showed people that it's not completely insane," Wales said.

When I was watching the show all I could think was how do you explain the dynamics of open source communities to those who have never heard of such a thing? How would I explain what the community is all about when I don't think any of us can explain why it works. A very challenging task indeed and I'm glad Wales didn't have an answer...because I think it would have confused the average television viewer even more.