Over the last year or so, I’ve blathered on in this space about writing with a wiki. As you might have guessed, I’ve been practicing what I’ve preached and am using a wiki for a large chunk of my writing and planning.
It’s gotten to the point where my daughter no longer says “Are you going to write in OpenOffice/Google Docs?” and instead asks “Are you going to do writing on your wiki?”
During that time, I’ve talked to a few of my fellow freelancers (not just writers, either) about adding a wiki to their workflows. A couple have given it a shot — mainly with a hosted wiki called PBWiki. Some others, though, have shied away from the idea.
Why? Two reasons really stand out. One, they’ve heard too many horror stories about Wikipedia. Two, there’s a stigma among people that wikis are a tool for techies and that the average person can’t get a handle on setting up and using one.
Neither reason holds much water. You can use a wiki to plan and write — whether you’re doing it solo, or if you’re collaborating with one or more other writers.
Your wiki isn’t Wikipedia
Those words (or words to that effect) were spoken by wiki consultant Stewart Mader. And he’s right. Stewart was talking about wikis within a company, but what he said can definitely apply to a wiki that you have installed on your Web site. You can read more this here and here.
The key, for you at least, is that the wiki is under your control. You can leave it open, or you can leave it closed. In fact, no one else really needs to know that you have a wiki installed on your Web site. Security through obscurity, and all that.
A wiki isn’t too difficult to maintain
Well, it doesn’t have to be. Installing and maintaining a wiki can be tough if you’re doing it from scratch. With many, you need to install and maintain a database, a Web server, and the wiki software (often called a wiki engine) itself. Luckily, that’s not your only option.
Many Web hosting companies have what’s called a one-click installer. Popular ones include Fantastico and SimpleScripts. These installers bundle all the software that you need, and install it with … well, it takes more than just one click but the whole process is automated. And it’s fast. You don’t have to get your hands dirty. So much for the difficulties in installing a wiki.
If you don’t have a Web site or just don’t want the hassle of dealing with a wiki engine on your Web site, you can try a hosted wiki (also called a wiki farm). Remember when I mentioned PBWiki earlier? That’s a hosted wiki. The benefit of using a hosted wiki is that all the maintenance is taken care of by someone else. Most hosted wikis have both free and pay options. The main drawback is that your information is in someone else’s hands, and you can get locked out of the service or that service might go offline — either temporarily or for good.
How can you use a wiki to write?
Well, I’m going to leave you hanging. An upcoming post will detail how I use a wiki to do planning and for writing.
One really nice thing about PBWiki is that you can export html that is reasonably clean. We authored Alan Porter’s book, WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit using PBWorks. We exported html, converted it to DocBook, and created pdf, epub, and mobi (kindle) from the DocBook. Alan wrote the entire book (and is working on a new one) in the wiki, plus we did the copy-edit, much of the indexing, and the technical review, all in the wiki.
One really nice thing about PBWiki is that you can export html that is reasonably clean. We authored Alan Porter’s book, WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit using PBWorks. We exported html, converted it to DocBook, and created pdf, epub, and mobi (kindle) from the DocBook. Alan wrote the entire book (and is working on a new one) in the wiki, plus we did the copy-edit, much of the indexing, and the technical review, all in the wiki.
One really nice thing about PBWiki is that you can export html that is reasonably clean. We authored Alan Porter’s book, WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit using PBWorks. We exported html, converted it to DocBook, and created pdf, epub, and mobi (kindle) from the DocBook. Alan wrote the entire book (and is working on a new one) in the wiki, plus we did the copy-edit, much of the indexing, and the technical review, all in the wiki.
One really nice thing about PBWiki is that you can export html that is reasonably clean. We authored Alan Porter’s book, WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit using PBWorks. We exported html, converted it to DocBook, and created pdf, epub, and mobi (kindle) from the DocBook. Alan wrote the entire book (and is working on a new one) in the wiki, plus we did the copy-edit, much of the indexing, and the technical review, all in the wiki.
@Richard, thanks for the comment. Having read Alan Porter’s wiki book (and Stewart Mader’s WikiPatterns), I’m impressed at how professional publishers have leveraged the technology to put a book through the writing and editing workflow.
Obviously, it can be done. I’m just hoping that it’s done more in the future.