Showing posts with label knowledge management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knowledge management. Show all posts

A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web Review

A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web ReviewNot only does A Developer's Guide to Semantic Web offer an excellent introduction to "what is" Semantic Web, but it also guides the readers onto the "how to" stage with assiduously, almost mind-numbingly easy to understand, step by step coding examples. Needless to say, the author has an amazing grasp of the Semantic web technology himself. Unlike some quite complicated and mind-boggling books on Semantic Web, A Developer's Guide to Semantic Web is easy to comprehend, therefore an outstanding tool. Concepts such as RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and well-known applications such as FOAF, Wiki, DBpedi and LOD are brilliantly illustrated with ample coding examples. The last section of the book weaves all of them together with raw examples of running applications, which are readily available for use. This is a must-read for students, researchers, software engineers and developers who are interested in the Semantic Web technology. Highly recommended.A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web Overview

Want to learn more information about A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business Review

The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business Review
According to Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert, "this book tells you how leading organizations achieve great results in knowledge management, or KM, and provides the strategic principles to help you do the same in your organization." Note the use of direct address in this, the second paragraph of the Preface. O'Dell and Hubert almost immediately establish a personal rapport with their reader and sustain it as they present their material throughout the book's lively and eloquent as well as substantial narrative.
Although O'Dell and Hubert have extensive experience with all manner of organizations because of their respective responsibilities with APQC (American Productivity and Quality Center), each is a world-renowned thought leader in her own right. It is to the reader's great advantage that they can - and do - bring their considerable talents to bear when examining a wealth of information, insights, caveats, and recommendations generated by hundreds of AQPC-sponsored initiatives that include research studies, special reports, conferences, workshops, seminars, and publications.
As its website correctly notes, "Since 1977, APQC has been focused on providing organizations around the world with the information they need to work smarter, faster, and with confidence. Every day we uncover the processes and practices that push organizations from good to great. As one of the world's leading proponents of process and performance improvement, we follow our mission to help organizations around the world improve productivity and quality by discovering effective methods of improvement, broadly disseminating findings, and connecting individuals with one another and with the knowledge they need to improve."
O'Dell and Hubert carefully organize their material within 11 chapters that (in effect) provide a sequence of stages by which to plan, launch, implement, and then strengthen a KM program to achieve objectives that include these:
o Establish the foundation that positions KM for the future
o Determine the value proposition
o Identify critical knowledge needs
o Identify critical knowledge now available
o Identify critical knowledge gaps to be filled
o Formulate a framework for KM strategy development
o Select and design KM approaches
o Activate social networking
o Determine governance principles, policies, and procedures
o Build a knowledge sharing culture
o Measure the impact of KM operations and initiatives
I especially appreciate O'Dell and Hubert's brilliant use of reader-friendly devices in each chapter such as "Resources" that contextualize and expand on material discussed in the chapter, boxed summaries of key points and suggested action steps, Figures and Tables (to illustrate alphanumeric relationships), and checklists that will facilitate, indeed expedite periodic review later of key passages.
There are hundreds of comments and phrases inserted throughout the book that strengthen the aforementioned rapport. For example, direct address ("you can assess where the flow of knowledge is breaking down" on Page 31) and invitation with use of a first-person plural pronoun ("Let's now examine how to gauge such impact" on Page 142). In other words, from beginning to end, O'Dell and Hubert take the reader under their proverbial wing of knowledge and wisdom and over time prepare their reader to provide the leadership and management that are required to convert the right information into the most effective action.
Near the end of the book, I can almost hear them say, "Now let's take a look at several companies that have gained the new edge in knowledge management. Let's see what we can learn from them that will help you in your own organization." The mini-case studies are of ConocoPhillips, Fluor, IBM, and MITRE. This material, all by itself, is worth far more than the cost of a copy of this book. Their greatest value, however, can only be derived if the material that precedes them is read (and preferably re-read) with appropriate care.
Vision alone is not enough. Thomas Edison once said that "vision without execution is hallucination."
Action alone is not enough. Peter Drucker once said that there is nothing "quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
And knowledge alone is not enough. Extensive research conducted by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton (among others) suggests that a significant percentage of C-level executives have a "knowing-doing gap."
I know of no other single source that offers more and better information, insights, and advice about knowledge management than does this one. I commend Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert on a brilliant achievement. Bravo!The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business Overview

Want to learn more information about The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site Review

MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site ReviewI wish I had this book when I first set out to design a MediaWiki skin for my own wiki. It would have saved me so much time and trouble. Nothing like this existed to my knowledge when I set out to make my skins. Documentation is often the weakest link in the open source community. This book fills an important gap that should democratize MediaWiki even more, making it more appealing to a wider swath of the web population.
The book follows my favorite format for a technical guide, taking the reader step by step through an example that resembles the kind of thing you'd want to do in real life. It breaks down everything thoroughly with plenty of pictures. Topics covered include not only CSS but also MediaWiki PHP functions that are integrated into a MediaWiki skin. As a bonus, there is information on adding on some of the latest widgets that Web 2.0 has to offer, from thickbox to twitter. To make your skin a real professional class act, you can even learn exactly how to use licensing and copyright options and exactly how to make your skin printer friendly. If you're going to be spending any time messing with MediaWiki skin design, and you're like me and don't have time to spend hours spinning your wheels, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book.MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site Overview

Want to learn more information about MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary Review

Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary ReviewLeadership in a Wiki World should be required reading for Fortune 500 company leaders. Rod Collins opens areas of serious changes that must take place for companies to survive in our fast paced business community. Leadership in a Wiki World delivers upfront insight, tools (Work Thrus) and practical how-to that business leaders need to compete in our global economy. Rod takes us from the industrial age thinking,to the knowledge worker thinking to future thinking for today's leaders. My co-workers have downloaded the electronic version on their Kindles. When hard copies are available the book will be required reading for our leadership community.Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary OverviewRod Collins is the owner of Wiki-Management, an innovative consulting company that helps forward thinking business leaders successfully manage complex change by leveraging the power of their collective knowledge. "In the age of speed we live in, new rules emerge at a breakneck pace. As a leader, you can either be blindsided by these new rules or let Rod Collins' book give you a welcome heads-up and head start!"~ Vince Poscente, author of the NY Times Bestseller The Age of Speed"Rod Collins has written an engaging and insightful book that clearly answers the question of how the principles of complexity theory can be practically applied to leading large organizations. Leadership in a Wiki World is a timely and highly readable guide that shows business leaders how they can use the rich reservoir of their collective knowledge to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world."~ Lisa Kimball, President, Plexus Institute"Leadership in a Wiki World provides tremendous insight into how to lead and manage complex, multipartner, large scale business enterprises. Rod Collins' experience as one of the key leaders within the Blues and his accomplishments as the chief operating executive of the single largest employer health plan in the world prepared him well to offer the insights captured in this book. If you want to know what the future of management looks like, I strongly encourage you to read this book."~ Steven S. Martin, Chairman, Board of Managers of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, and President & CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NebraskaThere's a revolution brewing that is about to end the world of work as we know it. We are fast approaching a tipping point where new capacities for mass collaboration will completely redefine the work we do and the way we work. Technological innovations now make it possible for large numbers of people to work together without going through a central organization - and they can do it smarter, faster, and cheaper.Discover the revolutionary business opportunities created by today's unprecedented business realities and learn:' Why a 19th century management model is unsustainable in a digital world' How business leaders are resetting management practices to create smarter and faster companies' How companies are gaining access to the most untapped free resource in every organization to catapult their business performance.Leadership in a Wiki World is a practical guide to the principles and practices of wiki-management, the proven management solution for business leaders who understand that managing great change is only possible if we change how we manage.

Want to learn more information about Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge To Make the Leap To Extraordinary?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide Review

MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide ReviewSurely you have heard of Wikipedia? That online encyclopedia has been a stunning success. Behind it was the MediaWiki engine. That is endorsement enough to have a serious look at MediaWiki. Also, many other websites have taken MediaWiki and modified it for their needs.
What this book does is given an elementary tour of MediaWiki. Starting with how to get and install it. Then various chapters go into the many customisations possible. You learn that MediaWiki sits atop a database [default=MySQL] and uses PHP as its coding language. The book deliberately does not elaborate on the theory of relational databases or the syntax of MySQL. Ditto for the syntax of PHP. The focus is plainly on MediaWiki. We have to be practical here. Otherwise we would be looking at several hundred more pages on peripheral topics.
MediaWiki uses several configuration files, and the book gives examples of how to edit these to change the look and feel of your website. There are some sample SQL statements, of considerable complexity, and some sample PHP code. These hint tantalisingly at many more involved possibilities.
But the book is mostly about the editing of configuration files. As for the logic that uses those files, and how you might change that logic, that is reserved for other books. Perhaps by the current authors, as an Advanced Guide?
Along these lines, a related book, MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site, might be interesting to some readers. It goes further into how the skins [aka. look and feel] can be tweaked for your purposes.MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide Overview

Want to learn more information about MediaWiki 1.1: Beginner's Guide?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual Review

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Wikipedia: The Missing Manual? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual ReviewWikipedia, the free access online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is a remarkable achievement. Started only in 2001, it now comprises over 9 million articles is written in over 250 languages, and is the first choice for reference material for millions of Internet users. Despite criticisms by some for the variable quality of its material, the value of the contributions of tens of thousands of unpaid volunteers is enormous, not only in notable and verified content accessible to the vast majority of the world's population in their native languages, but in the opportunity for everyone to contribute to this repository of knowledge in his or her own way (subject to the review and editing of others just like themselves.)
More importantly, in my view, is the model it represents in human collaboration efforts, this one in creating a repository of knowledge, but applicable more broadly to other efforts. Besides merely creating enormously useful things, the collaborative efforts result in a community of people and groups which has its own intrinsic values. Imagine thousands of volunteers committing their personal time and effort into a nonhierarchical, consensus-based collaboration having as its selfless main purpose the improvement of human society. Socialism at its best! It seems to me that the model may be useful in areas of politics, management and administration, education, and other social endeavors.. The Open-Source software movement, predating Wikipedia, operates in much the same way. Perhaps the earliest example of this collaborative model was the developmental years of the Internet.
As a casual user of Wikipedia, I had no idea of the nature of the Wikipedia project (and its sister projects - Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikinews, and Wikiversity - and no doubt others yet to come) until I read "Wikipedia: the Missing Manual," by John Broughton. He is an experienced Wikipedia editor with over 15,000 edits to his credit and is the creator of the "Editor's Index to Wikipedia" which lists every reference page on Wikipedia as well as other off site pages with information useful for serious Wikipedia editors. "Wikipedia: the Missing Manual" is an extremely thorough guide to creating and editing Wikipedia articles. The book is intended to help train new writers and editors and to improve the skills and knowledge of existing participants.
Broughton encourages people to join the Wikipedia community of researchers, fact checkers, and proofreaders. This community seems to be made up of committed, skilled, and serious people who take great pride in the project. There is little organizational hierarchy involved and a minimum of formal participatory rules, but a large set of informal mores and practices which help maintain production, efficiency, civility, and quality. There is always a need for more articles, although of the thousands created every day, nearly one half of them are deleted within 24 hours by attentive editors for a number of reasons explained in the book.
The book starts with an introduction to the basic principles of the Wikipedia project involving notability, credibility, balance, consensus, and good faith and moves quickly into the process of registering with Wikipedia, setting up a user account, and starting out practicing writing, previewing, and saving edits.
In six parts and 21 chapters, the book covers how to document sources, set up an editor's account, and personal workspaces, create new articles, use page histories, monitor changes, and dealing with vandalism and spam. It explains the value of collaborating with other editors and participants in creating and editing articles and in special Wiki Projects and other group efforts. There are several chapters describing how to deal with the inevitable conflict between editors and explains the Wikipedia editing mores of civility, ethics, legality (mostly copyright issues), and efficiency. He explains why editors disagree, in what ways, and how they resolve disputes. He also provides guidance on how disputes can be avoided in the first place.
Separate chapters of the book detail how to work with article pages and sections, tables, lists, markups and links, images and media, and categories. There are descriptions of what makes a good article and what doesn't and there are step-by-step tutorials on creating better articles and being systematic about good editing practices. A most interesting feature of Wikipedia is its large collection of free-to-use images, videos, sound clips, and other media in the Wikipedia Media Commons area which is available for article use and for non-Wikipedia use by anyone for any purpose.
Advanced topics include customizing your user account via preferences and skins and using JavaScript and templates to facilitate efficiency. There is a short 20 page appendix for those people content with being mere users of Wikipedia and learning how to get the most out of it. More involved users will benefit from Appendix C which itemizes the huge amount of Wikipedia help, reference, coaching, and other educational sources especially valuable for those determined to become better editors or higher-level participants like administrators of Wikipedia.
The presentation is thorough and articulate. It covers basic and advanced editing skills. Broughton frequently notes keyword search items and tips to be more productive and efficient. The community norms demand attentive and educated participants. Experience with coding is appreciated. The book has plenty of screenshots illustrating the discussions of Wikipedia features. Most of the sections contain Notes and Tips which provide more detailed explanations of features and an experienced editor's perspective to the prospective new editor as to how and why to do things. Broughton is (perhaps unintentionally) inspiring about participating in the Wikipedia editor community.
Although the book deserves great credit for its content and its tone a few problems with the layout and design detract a bit. The layout is dense with graphics a bit too tightly packed in with the text. Captions at the bottom of grayscale illustrations occasionally refer to nonexistent color clues resulting in some confusion. The density seems to reflect the nature of Wikipedia editing itself, which can be very involved. But, rewarding.Wikipedia: The Missing Manual Overview

Want to learn more information about Wikipedia: The Missing Manual?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit Review

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit ReviewAlan Porter does a great job of introducing this most powerful collaboration and knowledge management tool, wikis.
The book starts explaining wiki technology and how to plan a collaboration project. Porter lists wiki uses by individuals and organizations of different types and sizes. He offers several questions will help define the scope of the reader's project. He presents "the good" and "the bad" of the technology, and how a proper plan and setup can overcome perceived disadvantages of using a wiki.
Next, Porter deals with initial growth of the wiki. Before there is any content there is no incentive to use the tool. Porter recommends seeding the wiki with content that every member of the community uses and that is updated on a regular basis, such as a company directory, project to-do lists, company procedures and style-books. Once there is a small but critical body of documents, the benefits of the wiki become compelling. Editing and new writing become much, much easier, and the content becomes useful. Porter also advises against establishing a complex hierarchy at first, instead letting the users organize the initial content through cross-links.
An area where collaboration projects often fall short is in dealing with continuing growth. With it comes necessary maintenance. As is common among wiki enthusiasts, Porter calls maintenance "gardening". Porter explains the pitfalls, and why it is necessary to appoint a manager ("gardener"). Then he gives suggestions on what the gardener should do periodically to insure a clean and healthy wiki. He also recommends assigning owners to individual pages, similarly to what is good practice for any documentation system.
And beyond gardening, "landscaping" consists of redesigning the organization of the content to provide or improve navigation and to balance the weight of wiki areas. This is done with indexes, hierarchies and categories. Porter warns readers that this redesign will be inevitable, but rightly suggests that it should be embraced and gives tips on how to do so. Some of these are creating a sandbox or separate test-wikis, making improvements in small steps, and superimposing new organization pages on the existing wiki structure. All good practices.
The book also provides advice on many other issues that come up during the deployment of a wiki, like motivating users, page versioning, content accuracy, barriers to adoption, and publishing to a wider audience. Five separate case studies of actual organizational collaboration with wikis give a taste of what is possible with a successful implementation.
I wish I had had this book when starting on wikis. It will certainly help make its readers' wiki projects successful.WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit Overview

Want to learn more information about WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Wikipatterns Review

Wikipatterns
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Wikipatterns? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Wikipatterns. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Wikipatterns ReviewWikis are one of those "Web 2.0" applications that seem to be right on the edge of jumping into mainstream adoption. If your workplace is anything like mine, you've been spending more time lately answering the "what's a wiki" question than you have in the past. If you're starting to approach the point where you're ready to try one out in your organization, here's a good place to start your planning... WikiPatterns - A Practical Guide To Improving Productivity and Collaboration In Your Organization by Stewart Mader. Rather than a "do this, this, and this" instruction manual, Mader gets into the whys and whats of wiki adoption in the workplace, complete with case studies and real-life examples.
Table of Contents:
1. Grassroots is Best
Case Study: LeapFrog
2. Your Wiki Isn't (Necessarily) Wikipedia
Case Study: Johns Hopkins University
3. What's Five Minutes Really Worth?
Case Study: Sun Microsystems
4. 11 Steps to a Successful Wiki Pilot
Case Study: Red Ant
Case Study: A Conversation with a WikiChampion: Jude Higdon
5. Drive Large-Scale Adoption
Case Study: JavaPolis
Case Study: A Conversation with a WikiChampion: Jeff Calado
6. Prevent (or Minimize) Obstacles
Case Study: Kerrydale Street
7. Inspirational Bull****
Case Study: Constitution Day
Case Study: Peter Higgs: Using a Wiki in Research
Appendix - Questions and Answers
Index
Stewart Mader is the Wiki Evangelist for Atlassian Software, who also happens to be the creator of Confluence, an enterprise Wiki software package. But don't let that little bit of disclosure put you off. He is a well-known personality in the wiki community, and he's done the evangelism gig with many a company and organization prior to joining Atlassian. As such, the material is pretty vendor-neutral in terms of what you should and shouldn't be doing. You don't have to worry about sitting through a long sales pitch.
The book is designed to be used in conjunction with the website [...]. That site lists and explores a number of "patterns" and "anti-patterns" that come into play when launching and running a wiki site. Furthermore, it's split up into people and adoption issues. So as you're reading through the book, you'll see references (especially in the case studies) to patterns and anti-patterns that influenced the successes and difficulties of many of the projects. As the wikipatterns concepts are still evolving, the case studies didn't necessarily set out to follow and implement a certain set of behaviors. Quite often, the patterns are seen only in hindsight. But you have the benefit of being able to observe the patterns at work before you get started on your own project. This should help increase your odds of success at the start, or at least give you a clue as to what might be going wrong before it gets too messy to correct.
I personally am at the point where this information is *exactly* what I need at work. We've got a number of people who are ready to start a wiki pilot project, and the only reason I've put it off is due to some other higher-priority projects. But armed with Mader's wisdom, I think I'll have a much better chance of pulling off a successful pilot. I also saw some great ideas for taking the DominoWiki OpenNTF project and extending it (like with page templates) to make the software even more useful and easy to implement.
If you simply want to roll out a wiki for your own use, you'll probably see most of this information as overkill. But if you want to help lead the way to wiki adoption at your company, you could consider this the "teacher's guide" edition of the textbook. Not only will it ground you in the cultural aspects of wiki adoption, but it will establish you as the "go-to" person when it comes to this particular branch of the collaboration software tree.Wikipatterns Overview

Want to learn more information about Wikipatterns?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Mediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond) Review

Mediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Mediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Mediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Mediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond) ReviewThis book is for anyone who wants to read wikis, add material to a wiki, or install and run their own MediaWiki site. Each type of user is granted their own section in this book. Part 1 of this book is dedicated to wiki readers, explaining how to navigate a MediaWiki site effectively. Part 2 is for authors, and discusses how to write and edit wiki articles, beginning with the basics and moving to more complex tasks. Part 3 is for administrators and programmers. It covers how to install and maintain a MediaWiki site, how to configure its many settings, and how to program its own features, called MediaWiki extensions. It's a pretty easy and well-organized read in the O'Reilly tradition of technical books. However, if you plan to write extensions, you'll need to know, at minimum, the PHP programming language. This book assumes you already know it. For anything complicated, you'll also need to become familiar with MediaWiki's PHP code - particularly its classes, constants, and global variables - and its database schema. The following is the table of contents, not yet available as part of the product information:
Part 1: Getting Started
Chapter 1. A First Look
Section 1.1. What's MediaWiki?
Section 1.2. A Typical Day on a MediaWiki Site
Section 1.3. When to Use MediaWiki
Section 1.4. When Not to Use MediaWiki
Section 1.5. Additional Resources
Chapter 2. Basic Use
Section 2.1. Quick Tour of a Wiki Page
Section 2.2. Articles
Section 2.3. Editing Primer
Section 2.4. Menu Reference
Section 2.5. Getting Help
Chapter 3. Your User Identity
Section 3.1. Creating an Account
Section 3.2. Logging In and Out
Section 3.3. User Pages
Section 3.4. Signatures
Section 3.5. Watchlists
Section 3.6. Tracking Your Contributions
Section 3.7. Preferences
Section 3.8. User CSS and JavaScript
Part 2: Writing and Editing Articles
Chapter 4. Editing Articles
Section 4.1. Getting Started with Editing
Section 4.2. Creating an Article
Section 4.3. Paragraphs and Headings
Section 4.4. Typestyles and Fonts
Section 4.5. Links
Section 4.6. Images and Uploaded Files
Section 4.7. Lists
Section 4.8. Tables
Section 4.9. Mathematical Formulas
Section 4.10. Escaping Wikitext with nowiki
Section 4.11. Conflicts
Section 4.12. Beyond the Basics
Chapter 5. Links
Section 5.1. Internal Links
Section 5.2. External Links
Section 5.3. Interwiki Links
Section 5.4. Interlanguage Links
Section 5.5. Graphical Links
Section 5.6. File Links
Section 5.7. Linking Tips
Chapter 6. Organizing Articles
Section 6.1. Categories
Section 6.2. Namespaces
Section 6.3. Subpages
Section 6.4. Redirects
Section 6.5. Disambiguation Pages
Section 6.6. Renaming Articles
Section 6.7. Deleting Articles
Chapter 7. Advanced Article Construction
Section 7.1. Maintaining a Consistent Wiki
Section 7.2. Variables
Section 7.3. Templates and Transclusion
Section 7.4. Logical Parser Functions
Section 7.5. Dynamic Page List
Section 7.6. Recipes for Refactoring
Chapter 8. Special Pages
Section 8.1. Maintenance Reports
Section 8.2. List of Pages
Section 8.3. Login/Sign Up
Section 8.4. Users and Rights
Section 8.5. Recent Changes and Logs
Section 8.6. Media Reports and Uploads
Section 8.7. Wiki Data and Tools
Section 8.8. Redirects and Random Pages
Section 8.9. High-Use Pages
Section 8.10. Page Tools
Section 8.11. Other Special Pages
Section 8.12. Special Pages Grouped by Task
Part 3: Running and Administering MediaWiki
Chapter 9. Installing MediaWiki
Section 9.1. Before You Begin
Section 9.2. Installing the Prerequisites
Section 9.3. Installing MediaWiki
Section 9.4. Important Optional Features
Section 9.5. A Tour of MediaWiki's Files
Section 9.6. Maintaining the Code
Chapter 10. Practical Wiki Design
Section 10.1. Adopting MediaWiki
Section 10.2. Planning
Section 10.3. Establishing Standards
Section 10.4. Governance
Section 10.5. Integrating with Other Websites
Chapter 11. Configuring MediaWiki: An Overview
Section 11.1. Administrative Roles
Section 11.2. Advanced Page Constructs
Section 11.3. Special Pages for Sysops and Bureaucrats
Section 11.4. System Messages
Section 11.5. Cascading Stylesheets
Section 11.6. JavaScript
Section 11.7. Configuration Settings
Section 11.8. Extensions
Section 11.9. Skinning
Section 11.10. SQL Programming
Section 11.11. Maintenance Scripts
Chapter 12. Controlling Wiki Features
Section 12.1. Users
Section 12.2. User Rights and Permissions
Section 12.3. Article Content
Section 12.4. Configuring the Editing of Articles
Section 12.5. Maintaining Articles
Section 12.6. Configuring Namespaces
Section 12.7. File Uploads
Section 12.8. Search
Section 12.9. Special Page List
Section 12.10. Database Configuration
Section 12.11. Email Configuration
Section 12.12. JavaScript Configuration
Section 12.13. Logging and Debugging
Chapter 13. Changing Appearances
Section 13.1. The Basics
Section 13.2. Menus
Section 13.3. Search Box
Section 13.4. Tables of Contents
Section 13.5. External Link Appearance
Section 13.6. Page Credits
Section 13.7. Overall Look and Feel
Section 13.8. International Support
Chapter 14. Installing Extensions
Section 14.1. Obtaining Extensions
Section 14.2. Installing an Extension
Section 14.3. Recommended Extensions
Chapter 15. Creating Extensions
Section 15.1. Overview of Extension Types
Section 15.2. Creating a Variable
Section 15.3. Creating a Parser Function
Section 15.4. Creating a Tag Extension
Section 15.5. Behavior Changes
Section 15.6. Creating a Special Page
Section 15.7. Useful Tasks for Extension Writers
Section 15.8. Creating a Skin
Section 15.9. Publishing an Extension
Section 15.10. Other Extension Topics
Section 15.11. Finding a MediaWiki Programmer
Chapter 16. Wiki Administration
Section 16.1. Maintenance Scripts
Section 16.2. Backups
Section 16.3. Upgrades
Section 16.4. Read-Only Wiki
Section 16.5. Performance and Scaling
Section 16.6. Security
Section 16.7. Vandalism
Section 16.8. Common Maintenance Tasks
Section 16.9. For More InformationMediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond) Overview

Want to learn more information about Mediawiki (Wikipedia and Beyond)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer) Review

Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer) ReviewThis is one of the best technical guides I have encountered and I have used hundreds of them. I am not a programer, but I work with open source software regularly and I am comfortable hacking code.
I have administered simple MediaWiki sites successfully, but this book has shown me how to make major improvements with my existing sites, and will serve as a guide in the creation of many planned wikis. This book has also extended my understanding of php.
The author, not only clearly outlines how to work with MediaWiki software, but concisely and intelligently discusses the merits of options in configuring and working with the software.
Even if you are not currently administering a MediaWiki site, his discussion of formating wiki text is excellent for those seeking more than the basics.Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer) Overview

Want to learn more information about Professional Wikis (Programmer to Programmer)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...