Wikis vs FM

[Alan T Litchfield]

Mathieu,

It is difficult to compare chalk and cheese as they are two different  
substances that can be used for different things, are created through  
different processes, have differing feel and texture, and are composed  
of different properties.

Many of those properties either do not match or are in conflict, for  
example FM is a publishing tool whereas a wiki is more of a tool for  
information sharing, deiberation, and so on. Any capabilities a wiki  
may have for publishing in alternative formats to having on-screen  
readability exist outside those. I think a wiki can be a single source  
of data, the real question is, how much effort is available to make it  
such?

I don't know if anyone has made a direct comparison of properties,  
features, etc. between application but I would presume the first place  
to start is to consider what are the practical requirements of the  
people who will be using the information and then what tools are best  
equipped to deliver them.

Good luck
Alan

On 23/01/2011, at 10:04 AM, Tim Pann wrote:

> I don't know if I'm a good data point but my company, a telecom,  
> adopted a wiki (JBoss I think) as essentially our knowledge base and  
> it was a miserable failure. You could attach files but existing  
> content could not be easily "ported" into the interface, and there  
> were all kinds of things we needed it to do that it couldn't do.  
> They abandoned it a while back in favor of Sharepoint.
>
> So, I can't really answer your questions point by point but I can  
> say we had a bad experience trying to put what we had into a wiki.
>
> On the upside, I did write the user guide for it, and that was  
> really cool. That probably doesn't help you though. :)
>
> Tim
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com on behalf of mathieu  
> jacquet
> Sent: Sat 1/22/2011 8:43 AM
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Wikis vs FM
>
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> I'm reading here and there that a number of companies consider  
> moving their documentation to a Wiki. One of my clients did so a  
> couple of months ago.
>
> What are the limitations of a Wiki such as Confluence compared to  
> FM? Can a Wiki be the single source of data, and does it allow  
> exporting to formats such as those offered by MiF2Go for instance?
>
> Thank you all for your expertise,
>
> Mathieu.
>
> _______________________________________________
>

--
Alan T Litchfield
AlphaByte
PO Box 1941, Auckland, 1140
New Zealand
http://www.alphabyte.co.nz
http://www.alphabyte.co.nz/beatrice