Author: Steven Garrity

Using MediaWiki to Build a “normal” Website

by Steven Garrity

Despite the misleading title, this is not a tutorial on how to use MediaWiki to build a website. Rather, it is an observation that MediaWiki can be used to build sites that look and feel like tradition (non-Wiki) websites.

What the heck is a “wiki”?

First, some background. A wiki is a special kind of website that anyone can edit. Pages on a wiki-powered website have an “edit” button, and anyone can make a change. MediaWiki is one of many software systems that can be used to power wiki sites. MediaWiki is most well known as the software behind the Wikipdia.

When I first started playing with MediaWiki to do some visual customization for the Mozilla wiki, I felt a little bit like I was wandering lost through a jungle of PHP, HTML, and CSS. However, after stripping out a lot of the features I didn’t want or need, I started to get the hang of visually customizing the MediaWiki interface.

I’ve since done some minor skin/theme design for our silverorange wiki, and the WikiPEI site, though I hope to improve both in the coming months.

What I’ve found most interesting about MediaWiki is that people are starting to use it to build “normal” non-wiki websites. Pages can be locked-down, so only certain users have editing privledges. This essentially merges the administration tools of the website into the front-end of the site. This merger has the advantage of making administration easier and more direct. However, it can also make the experience of browsing the site (as a non-editor) and bit less enjoyable (hence the attitude that “wikis are ugly and weird”).

While I’m not about to advocate MediaWiki as the ideal content management system for all websites, it is an interesting use of the technology. Some of the design folks in the Linux group at Novell have been pumping out some pretty slick looking websites based on MediaWiki. Here are some examples of their work:

Examples of MediaWiki-powered “Normal” Websites

Hula website screenshot
Hula Project
Hula is a free/open-source calendar/mail server. The Hula Project website was the first site I found that had a traditional stable website feel to it, but was built on MediaWiki. The header is bold and attractive, and the primary navigation is dead-simple.

Mono website screenshot
The Mono Project
Recently redesigned, the Mono site has a light, fun, cartoon-y feel to it. If it weren’t for the “edit” links sprinkled throuout, you’d never know it was a wiki.

Bealge website screenshot
Beagle Project
Beagle is a desktop search tool for Linux. The Beagle website follows the model of the Hula site, with a bold header, and simple navigation.

Are there other good examples of sites powered by MediaWiki (or other wikis) that look and feel like beautiful websites, rather that weird plain old wikis?

 

WikiPEI: The Prince Edward Island Wiki

by Steven Garrity

WikiPEI

For years, our humble Canadian province of Prince Edward Island had a far better government website than any other I have seen. A few years ago I even posted on Slashdot about how great the site was. The site was built by my friend Peter Rukavina and his company Reinvented. Recently, though, Peter decided to move on to work for other clients and ended his relationship with the PEI government website.

Predictably, the quality of the PEI government website has gone downhill since the end of the involvement of Reinvented. This month, the provincial government put out a request for proposals for a redesign of the site.

This got some of us at silverorange thinking about the government of PEI website. As citizens of PEI with an understanding of web technology we feel a bit of responasbilty to help ensure that our province is well represented online. That said, we just don’t have room in our minds for another large government client.

The peculiar and fortunate chemistry that Peter Rukavina seemed to have the government website staff was something that is unlikely to happen again. Instead, we thought, why not create a wiki-powered website about Prince Edward Island that anyone can contribute to and edit.

A few days later, we have WikiPEI. The site is powered by MediaWiki, the software that also powers the Wikipedia (and the silverorange wiki).

The site is still only a few days old and still quite light on useful content. The idea, though, is that if you have anything useful to add, you can do it. Hopefully, if there is enough interest and participation, the site will grow to become a useful resource for locals and visitors to PEI.

 

3rd Annual silverorange Frisbee Golf Tournament for Charity

by Steven Garrity

The 3rd annual silverorange frisbee golf tournament for charity is coming up this August 27th (Date changed to Sept 11, 2pm). Organized by Daniel Burka and Dennis Arsenault at silverorange, the frisbee golf tournament raises money for Habitat for Humanity and is a fun way to spend a day whether you’ve played frisbee golf before or not.

silverorange frisbee golf tournament for charity

I’ll be there, all married and whatnot. As the website says, “If you can throw a frisbee, come out and play!”