Terms
Content management system (CMS)
A software system used for managing, publishing, and archiving content. A wiki can be considered a Web-based CMS.
Extensions
A computer program that enhances, or extends, the functionality of the main application. MediaWiki extensions are generally written by third-party developers.
- Related terms: Add-ons, plug-ins
Folksonomies
User created taxonomy to categorize and retrieve content.
- Related terms: Categories, metadata, tags
Namespaces
A way of organizing a large collection of content within MediaWiki's application. MediaWiki has 18 pre-defined namespaces with the ability to add additional ones.
Open source software
The open source community, a collaborative user community, develops and distributes computer software whose source code is open/viewable for use, study, change, and/or further refinement/improvement.
- Examples: Apache, Linux, PHP, and SourceForge.net.
Proprietary software
Software with legal restrictions on use, modification, and distribution. Does not provide source code.
- Examples: Adobe, IBM/Domino, Microsoft, and Unix.
Sandbox
An area to "test-drive" an application, "play around" with features and functions.
Seeding wikis
A seed (noun) is a starting point, a beginning. Add content and organization to a wiki and/or wiki pages to facilitate collaboration.
Skins
Term used by MediaWiki for the layout and appearance of wiki pages.
- Related terms: Cascading style sheets (CSS), styles, website templates (Dreamweaver, PHP)
Wikis
An easy-to-use collaborative Web-based technology for organizing information.
Wiki farms
Hosted wiki applications.
- See also Wikipedia's Comparison of wiki farms
Wiki gardeners
Individuals who take the lead in setting standards, editing content, and organizing pages on a wiki.
- Related term: Content editor
Wiki software
Collaborative application that runs a wiki.
- Related term: Wiki engine
- See also Wikipedia's Comparison of wiki software