Web 2.x Blog

I have recently started experimenting with MindTouch, after having read dozens of posts online about it. While being a proponent on Enterpise 2.0, the standard open source WIKI software out there today still has a lot of limitations. In fact, I am not at all over excited with WIKIs, as compared to other Web 2.0 related technologies. A WIKI seems like, well, a WIKI. It’s really hard to differentiate among the plethora of WIKI softwares out there today. There are heaps of them.

Let’s look at the basics of vanilla WIKIs without plugins/extensions :-

1. It allows version control of documents. (imagine your document manager)
2. It allows comments to be associated with documents. Hence the value add.
3. It allows effective collective sharing / collaboration on a piece of information asset across different departmental silos in an organization. (imagine no more email with 10MB attachments !!!!)
4. RSS feeds can be subscribed to various sources to retrieve updates.

While the features above are good, as a IT management consultant as well as a part-time techie, I tend to ask myself the following questions whenever I evaluate a product:-

1. How extensible is the product?
2. How customizable is the product?
3. What are the integration opportunities out there?
4. Is it technology platform agnostic/language agnostic?
5. How can I, as an Enterprise 2.0 consultant, extend beyond the original value proposition of Enterprise 2.0 to the client with this product?

The answer to 1,2 and 3 is that the product will need to be based on open architecture, leveraging either a plugin , API or a web service model for 3rd party integration. For point 4, platform agnostic meaning that it can run and be deployed on any operating system.

From a SI’s (System Integrator) perspective, the more customizable and integra-table a product is, the more enticing it is. Putting strictly my consultant hat on, that means more value proposition to the client organization.

While most WIKI software allows developers to produce plugins/extensions, they are generally not flexible enough to integrate with other information systems, not at least in a straight forward way.

So is MindTouch just another entrance into the red ocean plethora of WIKIs lying around? No.

MindTouch is fully based on a SOA architecture. It is written in C#, and uses the MONO framework to allow it to operate in all major UNIX-based operating systems out there (MAC OS X, Linux, Solaris). The SOA architecture means the hooks into the software are all fully based on web or REST services !!!! Here are few reasons why I think MindTouch will stand out compared to other WIKI systems:-

1. The web services approach allows ease of integration with external systems. E.g. A WIKI page for a technical lead showing the latest snapshot of the statistics of the number of code activity in subversion, as well as testing activity from a online test management system called Mantis.
2. This ease of integration leads to MindTouch being a powerful platform for Enterprise Mashups !!!
3. MindTouch still persists the functionality that you would typically find in a WIKI system.
4. MindTouch requires no configuration (except admin username/password) at all. It’s a simple deployment that’s done through VMWare Workstation. Plug the VM image in the workstation, click play. Dead simple.

MindTouch surely is not the conventional WIKI that we all imagine it to be. It’s much more than a WIKI. It differentiates itself with other key players by having the ability to plug and play services exposed by other information systems.

As MindTouch markets it, this WIKI does mean business !!!!! Finally, kudos to Aaron Fulkerson for releasing such a wonderful product !!!

PS: Expect a blog post on building a extension for Deki WIKI sometime in the near future.

Tags: Development, Enterprise 2.0