MediaWiki
From Bazaar Wiki
Type of application / System Requirements
Mediawiki is an open source wiki software running as server application and published under the GNU GPL. To run the current Mediawiki version 1.12.0 on an own server it is necessary to install
- PHP version 5.0 or higher (5.1 recommended)
- Apache or IIS web server
- MySQL database version 4.0 or later or PostgreSQL version 8.1 or later
For more information see the Installation page of Mediawiki homepage.
Purpose
Mediawiki's purpose is to create and use wikis, a collection of webpages that can easily be created and modified by using a simple wiki markup language. A wiki can be used to build up a web-based encyclopedia like Wikipedia or a collaborative web site for a project or team where every participant is allowed to contribute. All contributions and changes to the wiki are stored in the database without deleting the previous ones. A history function allows it to compare and to revert changes, e.g in case of vandalism or spamming.
This page is also made with Mediawiki!
What it does
A user can create a new wiki entry (web page) or edit and extend an existing page. Text editing is done with a simple MediaWiki language (wiki markup) that uses a reduced syntax for highlighting, headings, hyperlinks a.s.o. For a list of basic Mediawiki formatting, see the editing cheatsheet.
How can it be used for creation of OERs
Due to its open access and authoring support, a Mediawiki is a good an easy tool to create OER.
How can it be used for consumption of OERs
OER published as a wiki can easily be consumed by users. But it is not possible to use a Mediawiki as platform for running open courses or modules.
How can it be used for reuse of OERs
OER that are published as Mediawiki pages can be reused and recombined with own contributions to new OER.
License support
Mediawiki has a simple licence support by offering a licence note at the end of each editing window where the choosen licence is mentioned and link for details offered.
Standards / Compatibility
With Creole 1.0 there exists an attempt for establishing a common wiki markup standard among Wiki software. According to the Creole website, Mediawiki is not one of the wiki engines that already support Creole 1.0.
HOW TO USE IT
You can download the Mediawiki software package at (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download). After installing the software you can start to create a wiki and a first wiki page. Each page (or article) offers an edit tab where you can add or modify existing text and links. To create a new linked page you use the wiki syntax by enclosing the page name in double square brackets. Wiki syntax is also used for the entire text formatting. HTML/XHTML is not supported in Mediawiki. The Mediawiki website offers a good collection of helpful pages for wiki editing and maintaining:
See also the page Editing in the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki!
Links / examples / Who is using it
All necessary information about Mediawiki can be found at the
The most popular mediawiki user is Wikipedia for whom this wiki has originally be developed. It is now used by several other projects of Wikimedia Foundation and by many other projects/institution as well.
Sandbox
Mediawiki offers a sandbox at
Comments / Discussion
Please add your own comment under this section.
