Simon Willison's Weblog: wikis

otterwiki

2024-10-09T15:22:04+00:00

It's been a while since I've seen a new-ish Wiki implementation, and this one by Ralph Thesen is really nice. It's written in Python (Flask + SQLAlchemy + mistune for Markdown + GitPython) and keeps all of the actual wiki content as Markdown files in a local Git repository.

The installation instructions are a little in-depth as they assume a production installation with Docker or systemd - I figured out this recipe for trying it locally using uv:

git clone https://github.com/redimp/otterwiki.git
cd otterwiki

mkdir -p app-data/repository
git init app-data/repository

echo "REPOSITORY='${PWD}/app-data/repository'" >> settings.cfg
echo "SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI='sqlite:///${PWD}/app-data/db.sqlite'" >> settings.cfg
echo "SECRET_KEY='$(echo $RANDOM | md5sum | head -c 16)'" >> settings.cfg

export OTTERWIKI_SETTINGS=$PWD/settings.cfg
uv run --with gunicorn gunicorn --bind 127.0.0.1:8080 otterwiki.server:app

Via Hacker News

Tags: flask, git, python, sqlalchemy, sqlite, markdown, wikis, uv

Are there any wikis that allow the use of JavaScript on wiki pages?

2011-01-10T14:24:00+00:00

My answer to Are there any wikis that allow the use of JavaScript on wiki pages? on Quora

Such a wiki would be grossly insecure. That said, take a look at TiddlyWiki - it's implemented entirely in client-side JavaScript and allows plugins to be implemented by pasting JavaScript in to a textarea.

Tags: javascript, quora, wikis

InfoWorld: Year of the enterprise Wiki

2005-01-06T16:42:57+00:00

InfoWorld: Year of the enterprise Wiki

Wikis for business collaboration make a whole ton of sense.

Via Jon Udell

Tags: jon-udell, wikis

Some notes on Wikipedia

2004-12-23T00:57:42+00:00

I've been driving myself crazy with coursework over the past couple of weeks, and since it's always good to have something to take your mind off things I've also been spending a fair amount of time lurking around the beautiful Wikipedia. Here are a few things about Wikipedia you may have missed:

It's not just Wikipedia any more; there's also Wiktionary (a multi-lingual dictionary), Wikibooks (developing open content books on various topics), Wikiquote (quotations), Wikisource (a repository of public domain source texts), Wikispecies (a biological species database), Wikicommons (free images and other media) and Wikinews (a new Wikipedia-style news site). Not to mention the huge numbers of projects in other languages.
You can view live stat graphs of the Wikipedia squid cache servers and see an overview of the status of all Wikipedia servers.
Last year's drive for donations was mostly spent on new hardware, and a detailed list of hardware orders is available.
Wikipedia's awesome TeX engine for presenting mathematical formulae may soon be expanded to support rendering of musical scores, SVG graphics, chemical formulae and more, thanks to the brilliant Wikitex module for MediaWiki.
Wikisource has a bunch of stories by H. P. Lovecraft!
Wikipedia's Periodic table links to detailed descriptions of every single element.
Live recent changes feed is a page that shows edits to Wikipedia in real time. It works by keeping the HTTP connection to your browser open and sending updates packaged as JavaScript calls (I think this is the same trick used by CGI:IRC).
The channel #enrc.wikipedia on irc.freenode.net carries a bot-produced live feed of recent changes to Wikipedia. Edits occur so frequently that the bot had to be split in to five to avoid being flooded off the channel!
Wikipedia has a huge vandalism problem, but malicious edits are cleared up so fast that you'd be hard pressed to spot it.
The Wikimedia foundation has an attractive quarterly newsletter, the Wikimedia Quarto. September's issue includes an interview with Ward Cunningham.
Wikipedia provides a great way to sharpen your language skills; not only does Wikibooks have guides to teaching yourself French and German (among others) but the multi-lingual versions of Wikipedia provide excellent practise in reading comprehension. Compare the English and French entries on Bath, for example.
The Wikimedia foundation recently received a small grant to develop a series of children's books.

The deeper I dig in to Wikipedia, the more amazed I become. I see it as more than just a collaborative encyclopaedia; it's a testament to humanity's ability to work together for the greater good. I guess you could say I'm in WikiLove :)

Update: Fixed links, thanks to corrections posted in the comments. If this entry had been a wiki page, people could have fixed them themselves...

Tags: tim-bray, ward-cunningham, wikipedia, wikis

Ward talks Wiki

2003-10-22T19:31:02+00:00

Artima have published the first installment of Bill Venners' Conversation with Ward Cunningham, which focuses on the Wiki. When asked how readers can get a bigger picture of what is going on in a Wiki, Ward responds with this:

The first thing you have to understand is that because we made wiki easier for authors, we actually made it harder for readers. There is an organization there, and the organization can be improved, but it isn't highly organized. So the feeling for a reader is one of foraging in a wilderness for tidbits of information. You stumble across some great ones and you say, "This is fantastic, why doesn't somebody just make a list of all the great pieces so I don't have to look at the rest." In other words, "Why doesn't somebody organize this so I can get answers to my questions quickly?" Sooner or later they realize, "Gee, I could do that." They put in a month or two of finding what they care about, and then they make a page, which is their take on what the organization of wiki is.

I think this goes a long way to explaining why a lot of people dislike the Wiki format.

Tags: ward-cunningham, wikis