# How do I start a Wiki? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470 "2008-05-24T14:03:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Drake\_Tungsten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@Drake\_Tungsten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drake_Tungsten)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470/1 "2008-05-24T14:03:01Z")
I’m looking to start an internal wiki in my office for sharing information back and forth with my coworkers. The Wikipedia-style program is ideal for what we need, but I have no programming knowledge other than some very basic html and java. I want to keep everything locally and everyone using it is a programming neophyte. Where do I start? ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470/2 "2008-05-24T15:08:02Z")
The wikipedia platform is [MediaWiki](http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki), with an installation guide available on that site. I’m not a big fan of media wiki, because for new editors, it’s not easy for them to learn, but if your folks are comfortable editing wikipedia, it won’t be difficult for them. Alternatively, there are free wiki sites - I happen to like [Zoho Wiki](http://wiki.zoho.com/). What I like about it is you can set permissions and privacy very easily under settings-\>privacy (including limiting to those with emails from a specific domain), and, depending on the people using it, the WYSIWYG interface is very easy for people. It also doesn’t require a local server - which, depending upon your needs can be good or bad. There’s also the [WikiMatrix](http://www.wikimatrix.org/), to look at a variety of wiki applications and compare them. I’ve never done an installation, as I’ve found the free ones work for me. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470/3 "2008-05-24T15:30:15Z")
If you aren’t afraid of CamelCase, you might look into [MoinMoin](http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/) as a very simple Python-based wiki platform. [Of course, Wikipedia has a ‘Comparison of wiki software’ article.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software) ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470/4 "2008-05-24T22:10:00Z")
I set up a [Perspective](http://www.high-beyond.com) wiki to document IT procedures at my last job. I found it to be very friendly to install and configure. It’s free and runs on IIS. ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470/5 "2008-05-24T22:18:21Z")
I set up two wiki sites using mediawiki. You, of course, first need a web address to install it to. So, you may want to get that taken care of over at a registry site like godaddy or [register.com](http://register.com) first. Unless you already have a site. email me at bucklerchad at comcast dot net and I will help you out with it free of charge. ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-wiki/450470/6 "2008-05-25T16:33:17Z")
[QUOTE=Drake Tungsten] I’m looking to start an internal wiki in my office for sharing information back and forth with my coworkers. The Wikipedia-style program is ideal for what we need, but I have no programming knowledge other than some very basic html and java. I want to keep everything locally and everyone using it is a programming neophyte. Where do I start? [/QUOTE] You install the wiki software. Several versions are out there, each with its advantages and disadvantages. [This Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software) compares them. I’ve used MediaWiki and TWiki extensively, and they’re both good. In any collaborative system, you should recognize some interesting issues: [ul] [li]Access: does everyone get to look at and edit all pages?[/li][li]Guidelines: gonna try to make all the pages look roughly alike?[/li][li]Cruft: how will you deal with obsolete information or random pages that got tossed in but never finished?[/li][li]Naming conventions: will you use a standard for naming pages?[/li][li]Finding stuff: once you put sufficient stuff in a Wiki, it may be hard to find it again![/li][li]Support: who’s gonna deal with crashed servers, software not working, etc.[/li][/ul] Alas, I can not think of any software that is both free and completely “turn-key”. If it’s free, you support it yourself, and that may take a lot of work. If it’s not free, you pay a lot for support. Good luck!