[Discuss] Opinions needed: wiki software

[Rich Pieri]

On Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:41:32 -0400
Bill Horne <bill at horne.net> wrote:

> The groups doesn't have any money, so any solution has to be 
> open-source. Please suggest some Document Management Systems that 
> qualify, and tell us why you recommend them.

There are open source document management systems out there. A lot of
them. I'm familiar with only a few and they have very specialized
niches. I won't recommend any of them. Two reasons. One, none of them
fit your users' needs. If they did then your users would already be
using one of them or they'd be demanding one of them. Two, you don't
have a document management strategy. Someone in the organization said,
"let's throw a wiki at it". That's not a strategy; it's a disaster. You
need to address this before you make any decisions.

Ask Google about document management. Peruse the capabilities of the
various offerings. Take note of systems that are used by organizations
similar to yours. I say this because a DMS designed for use by a small,
government-sponsored scientific research laboratory will be unsuitable
for use by a bank.

When it comes time to sell it to the organization you should stress the
key differences between wikis and DMS. Wikis are made for rapid
collaboration and note-taking. They're very good at managing many
small, quick edits to mostly simple text.

Document management systems are made for storing, indexing, searching
and retrieving complete documents. This includes but is not limited to
anything you might create in your favorite office suite such as
spreadsheets, product documentation, presentations, and so forth.

-- 
Rich P.