User:Barrylb/Using MediaWiki for your corporate wiki

Nowadays many companies are installing Wikis for internal use. This page explains how you can leverage the power of the MediaWiki platform for your intranet.

MediaWiki is a powerful and flexible collaborative editing platform. Whilst its design goals are not aimed directly at corporate use, there are enough similarities to make it a suitable platform for many companies. With millions of people depending on the MediaWiki platform with sites such as with the popular Wikipedia, you can trust that the system is reliable and has the backing of active developers. You can also give back to the MediaWiki community if you make enhancements to the system.

The MediaWiki platform is adaptable and extensible for your own needs. You can adapt the look and feel so it looks and feels like a corporate intranet site. You can implement some access control. You can also add extensions to implement extra features.

Typical uses
 * Documentation
 * Notice board
 * Contact directory
 * Document management system

Installation

 * You can download from Download
 * MediaWiki runs on any operating system that can run a web server, PHP and MySQL. For full installation guide see meta:Help:Installation
 * You may prefer to download install a MediaWiki version that has been pre-patched with Page access restriction with MediaWiki feature.

Customizing

 * Adapt the look and feel. See Help:FAQ
 * Set access control. See Preventing Access
 * Allow upload of additional file types. See meta:Help:Images and other uploaded files
 * Add extensions or write your own. See MediaWiki extensions

Tips for success

 * Like it or not, people will judge the software based on appearance. Before you give a demo, change the skin so it does not resemble Wikipedia. Consider adapting the skin to make your wiki look like your public internet site.
 * A wiki is only as good as its content. Think about who will contribute.
 * If you have existing systems or documents, think about how they can be moved to your wiki and ensure there is a critical mass of content. Give people a need to use the wiki as part of their everyday work.