Possible uses of MediaWiki

Wiki's can be used a lot of different ways. MediaWiki is primarily designed for http://www.wikipedia.org, and is well suited for that task. Mediawiki has some of the best features, and some very glaring omissions (for certain applications). However, Mediawiki is actively being developed, and it is open source, so it could be possible to add features.

The following is a list of possible wiki uses, and how well mediawiki is suited for those tasks, and links to how to set mediawiki up for that task.

What is MediaWiki - not?
MediaWiki is not...

CMS
...a Content Management System (CMS) software.
 * A Content Management System (CMS) is an application to manage assets like text, links, images, and other multimedia elements. It helps to maintain the integrity of internal hyperlinks, takes care of a defined workflow, and includes a more or less fine-grained permission system for contributors, editors, chief-editors etc.
 * The MediaWiki software can be used to manage huge amounts of textual content, it does a pretty good job when it comes to link management, and allows the use of multimedial elements to a certain degree, but there's no workflow, and no permission system. This is not a bug, but a feature; Wiki means that everybody should be allowed to become an editor, not just some pre-selected gatekeepers.
 * If you need to define permissions and access rights, MediaWiki might not be the right software for you.

BBS
...a Forum or Bulletin Board System (BBS) software.
 * A Forum or BBS software supports web-based, threaded discussions; it keeps track of initial postings, replies, and replies to replies; it allows to sort contributions by several criteria like date of posting, number of replies, topic, author, etc.
 * The MediaWiki software can be used to discuss a page's content on special pages called "Discuss this page", and to some degree it allows for annotations, but there are no threaded discussions which can be sorted by the software; also, in MediaWiki there has to be a page as a starting point for any discussion, there's no concept like a topical forum where you can post questions.
 * If you need sortable and threaded discussions, MediaWiki might not be the right software for you.

CSCW
...a Groupware, Messaging, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) software
 * A Groupware and Messaging software supports the communication, cooperation, collaboration, and coordination of people through features like mail, (group) calendars, notifications, conferencing, timesheets, shared workspaces, file transfer/ file sharing, and to some degree of workflow management. It is event-, task- or process-oriented, usually highly structured, and works very often synchronous.
 * The MediaWiki software can be used to support an open collaboration and cooperation of people; in fact, WikiWiki is very good in this area. But the methods for reaching this goal are different in WikiWiki compared to Groupware or Messaging systems. MediaWiki offers neither messaging, nor calendaring; it stores structured information, but the information is not structured hierarchically - it is a hypertext; MediaWiki works page- or topic-centered, everything you can do is associated to a page, and it is by no means process- or workflow-centered.
 * Of course, users of the MediaWiki software can communicate with each other, but this is usually not being done by utilizing some kind of messaging system, but by editing the other user's Wiki homepage; if you log into your Wiki homepage, you will be notified about new messages (some kind of "You've got mail"). Also, there is a similar mechanism to notifications in a Groupware environment; if you're logged in to a MediaWiki site, you can "Watch this page" with any page you choose; but you will not receive notifications about changes on your Desktop automatically.
 * Even if MediaWiki can be a very powerful tool for information storage and collaboration, depending on your requirements there might be better suited products for your special needs.

WfMS
...a Workflow Management System (WfMS).
 * A Workflow Management System (WfMS) tries to use even more structure processes than Groupware systems already do. Usually, there are precisely defined input and output interfaces, always connected to some kind of timeframe or timeline. It is regarded as helpful in areas like Project Management or modelling work processes.
 * The MediaWiki software does not offer any kind of support for this approach, not even for its self organization. If you need Workflow Management, go for other software.

Encyclopedia
Encyclopedias are categorized by self contained, multipart documents.

MediaWiki

 * Mediawiki rocks for small documents with manually sorted categories and a large userbase.... just see http://www.wikipedia.com for that
 * It appears to support templates for certain categories!
 * It rocks for correct spelling in title names, (though, not by convention)

Wikipedia could use

 * or at least more articles in wikipedia, could cite their sources, use formal references, say, to a history book, or scroll, or magazine article, or study, or letter, or journal

Other Wikis

 * Don't hold a candle

Rapid Document Prototyping

 * Backlinks (multiple categories basically deal with this)

Web Log (Blogging)

 * Locked down parts, with attached, editable comments

Attributes

 * a newline is a newline by default
 * access control lists
 * connection to subversion/version control software
 * connection to bugzilla or similar
 * document includes (write a procedure once, use many places)
 * fall over to language that documentation is written in, if it isn't there yet
 * verbosity collapsing (show an outline, show basic reasoning, give wordy wasteful stuff that authors like to write (see gentoo's documentation, it's nearly impossible to follow))
 * cascading ... (have one document be based on another live document, so that when the base document changes, it changes in child documents)
 * code highlighting

project to implement this stuff
(note, the fractodendron project --> http://escargot.icehouse.net/mediawiki/index.php/fractodendron is hoping to find / document / implement these features in a wiki.. as well as p2p wiki stuff..)

Attributes

 * clear reporter identification

Required Components
(I don't think I'm crazy for mentioning this possibility)
 * Access Control Lists
 * Item widgets
 * shopping cart widget
 * ssl

Attributes

 * easy to navigate
 * easy to search
 * links to related articles
 * links to similar topics
 * categories
 * backlinks for missing pages

Example sites

 * http://wiki.linuxquestions.org
 * http://meta.wikipedia.org (this site!)