TWiki in the News
See also: What is TWiki,
DevelopersNews,
TWikiTestimonials,
WikiInTheNews,
TWiki Screenshots,
Public TWiki Sites,
TWiki.org Blog,
Social Media and Structured Wikis at Work - Enterprise Collaboration for Millennials,
Getting Involved,
TWiki Consultants
2015
2014
- 2014-10-05: TWiki-6.0.1 has been released - again a rock solid release
2013
- 2013-10-24: Linux Magazin, Germany: Twiki 6.0 bringt Watch Pages und bessere Skalierbarkeit
http://www.linux-magazin.de/NEWS/Twiki-6.0-bringt-Watch-Pages-und-bessere-Skalierbarkeit
"Nach zwei Jahren Arbeit ist das freie Enterprise-Wiki Twiki in Version 6.0.0 mit zahlreichen Neuerungen erschienen. Anwender der neuen Release können Watch Pages einrichten, die sie über Änderungen an beobachteten Themen informieren, auf Wunsch auch per E-Mail. Als neues Addon gibt es zudem ein Dashboard, das dem Benutzer eine Übersicht über seine Arbeitsbereiche bietet. Der Wysiwig-Editor erfuhr ein Update aufTinyMCE-3.5.8 und beherrscht nun Autosave." ...
- 2013-10-23: Pro-Linux.de, Germany: TWiki 6.0 mit neuen Dashboards und verbesserter Nutzerfreundlichkeit
http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/20387/twiki-60-mit-neuen-dashboards-und-verbesserter-nutzerfreundlichkeit.html
"Die TWiki-Gemeinschaft hat ihre freie Wiki- und Applikationsplattform nach ca. zweijähriger Entwicklungszeit in der Version 6 (Codename »Jerusalem«) veröffentlicht. TWiki kann unter anderem als als Wiki, Kollaborations- und Applikations-Plattform, Dokumentenmanagementsystem oder Intranetlösung eingesetzt werden. Die Software wurde in Perl implementiert, ist durch Plugins erweiterbar und steht unter der GPL."
- 2013-10-21: University of Delaware's The Review: Newark mayor candidates talk issues, goals
http://www.udreview.com/newark-mayor-candidates-talk-issues-goals-1.3097987
Matthew Vento, a Newark mayor candidate mentions TWiki: "Vento said he believes in transparency and technology so community members can be proactive rather than reactive. Vento said he supports the use of TWiki, a free web-based collaboration program that allows people to communicate with others."
- 2013-10-14: TWiki-6.0.0 has been released - it has a shiny new dashboard look, brings many usability enhancements, strengthens TWiki as an application platform, and scales to very large deployments with thousands of webs and a million pages
2012
- 2012-10-07: TWiki-5.1.2 has been released - it is a patch release that adds some minor new features and fixes a number of bugs
- 2012-01-14: TWiki-5.1.1 has been released - it is a patch release that adds some minor new features and fixes a number of bugs
2011
- 2011-08-20: TWiki-5.1.0 has been released - it is a major release that brings many usability enhancements (such as point and click user data management, more visual user profile pages with picture selector, and a backup feature that helps upgrade TWiki sites) and strengthens TWiki as an application platform (such as a new macro language with parameterized variables)
2010
- 2010-09-08: pxquim, The Birth of a Company-Wide Wiki, by Joaquim Baptista
http://pxquim.com/publications/the-birth-of-a-company-wide-wiki.html
"A small software company with a worldwide presence uses one wiki to store or access most company information. Using open source software, the wiki started as a small team tool and then grew to reach technical people. An innovative content strategy proposal later extended the reach of the wiki to non-technical people. Five years later, the system is still the backbone of the company."
2009
2008
- 2008-06-18 KennethLavrsen will give a presentation of TWiki used for an ISO9000 quality management system at the Wikis - videndeling og samarbejde (Wikis knowledge sharing and collaboration) at VidenDanmark 16 Sep 2008. The seminar is in Danish. This is the 2nd seminar about Wikis held by VidenDanmark and between 50 and 100 people from many different companies and business are expected to participate.
- 2008-04 - Article in the German Linux Magazin: Der Inhalt zählt by Peter Kreußel "testing" MediaWiki, TWiki and Wiki on a stick. (5 pages)
- 2008-04 - Article in the German "Perl Magazin" (will be linked and posted soon)
2007
- 2007-10-15: Collab-Ware: Web 2.0 Collaborative Resources - Best of the Web, Alen Docef (ECE, Virginia Commonwealth U.).
IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 24(5):149-152, Sep/Oct 2007 (subscribers only)
In a short overview of collaborative web tools, TWiki is highlighted as the wiki of choice. "A wiki can be thought of as a combination of a Web site and a Word document. One or more individuals may access, edit and collaborate using the wiki. There are numerous wikis available for student projects and a smaller number for lectures/courses ... Twiki is a flexible Web-based collaboration system with many useful features such as editing, formatting, searching, email interfacing, revision control, and user management. It also offers plugins for extended capabilities and several sample applications."
- 2007-09-27 - TechRepublic.com Blog, USA: Wiki your office's technical knowledge and reduce support calls
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/helpdesk/?p=106
Joe Rosberg blogs about help desk request systems and covers wikis. "We're using a local TWiki installation in my office, and my colleagues are fleshing out our knowledge base with topics I couldn't begin to address on my own. My users are answering each other's questions and solving some of their own problems without my intervention."
- 2007-09-20 - VentureBeat, USA: PlugandPlay winners: BlueGem, Gigya, Twiki and Zipidee
http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/20/plugandplay-winners-bluegem-gigya-twiki-and-zipidee/
"Four companies took top prize at today’s start-up competition in Silicon Valley’s Plug and Play incubator." The article introduces TWiki.org as an "open source wiki software project that has been around since 1998. It has flown under the radar, accumulating more than two million total users and more than 60,000 installations, it claims, and is in use somewhere within many Fortune 500 companies. TWIKI.NET is the for-profit manifestation of the software. It launched last month at Linux World, offering services like automated software updates and email and phone support to businesses for a fee. Perhaps the company is well-positioned to catch the wave of hype around using social software in businesses? More than eighty percent of commercial software will be open source by 2011, a Gartner analyst said yesterday. The company is led by TWiki.org founder Peter Thoeny, together with Rod Beckström, a veteran entrepreneur who co-authored a widely read book called The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations."
- 2007-09-13 - BusinessWeek.com, USA: Make Some Noise: How web 2.0 tools can help you communicate with customers more effectively
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_36/b4048441.htm
The article describes how DanWoods uses TWiki to manage is business: "Woods uses TWiki software to create about 50 secure online workspaces since starting Evolved in 2002. Woods divides a project into small chunks, and the wiki functions much as a conveyor belt. One person may conduct interviews and post digital audio files. An alert is then sent to the transcriber, who downloads the file, transcribes it, and posts the results. Writers then use that information to craft chapters, and so on. Clients sign on via Evolved's Web site to see the progress of their project."
- 2007-09-10 - InformationWeek, USA: Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With Content Management Systems
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201805279
This article describes several popular CMS. Among wikis, TWiki is listed as a: "structured wiki, which is a combination of a traditional freeform wiki and a more structured database. Because content can be added to the system using simple form-based applications, the data is structured so that it's better organized and should be easier to search for and find. TWiki also focuses on providing very granular control over access groups, meaning that it's easier to limit who can create, edit, or even read certain content. This may result in additional administration, of course, but this granular control is welcomed in situations where some information might be sensitive."
- 2007-09-06 - http://O'Reilly Radar, USA: Recent conversations about online documentation
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/09/recent_conversa.html
Andy Oram covers online documentation: "I had several discussions with Adam Hyde of FLOSS Manuals, which provides tools to facilitate the creation of documentation for free software. Hyde has built a formatting layer on top of the popular TWiki software so that documents can be presented as more attractive web pages."
- 2007-08-14 - Livre.nl, Netherlands: Future of TWiki benefits from 'Enterprise version'
http://www.livre.nl/achtergronden/mkb/kmo/ontwikkeling-van-twiki-is-gebaat-bij-enterprise-versie-14082007.html
"Met de introductie van TWIKI.NET, bijna een week geleden, zet TWiki een belangrijke stap. TWiki, het open source collaboratie platform volgens het structured wiki-principe, heeft hiermee een 'Enterprise'-versie. Hiermee verstevigt TWiki zijn positie in het enterprise-segment. Helemaal geruisloos ging de stap ging niet. Het ging gepaard met enige groeistuipen, zo constateerde Koen Martens*, maar 'elk nadeel heb z'n voordeel'. De introductie van TWIKI.NET en de reactie binnen de community gaf een aardige kijk op open source businessmodellen."
- 2007-08-03 - Nikos Drakos. Altitude's user-centered wiki becomes a mission-critical tool. Toolkit Case Study G00150519, Gartner.
http://www.gartner.com/ (research note for members only)
Altitude Software's successful early experiment in using an open-source wiki for technical documentation was expanded to include all business activities and all workers, overcoming the difficulties of having multiple information repositories. Adding a social dimension to a transparent view of activities across the organization has led to more effective collaboration in all business functions.
Key findings: ... Only minimal investment is necessary to support mission-critical collaboration and information-sharing activities. ...
- 2007-05-16 - Baseline Magazine, USA: Primer: Enterprise Wiki
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,2129654,00.asp
"Only one in ten businesses reportedly has a strategy for managing content-sharing Web sites." Wikis are explained at a high level. "Open-source options include MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) and TWiki." The article points out that wikis have a different design philosophy compared to previous generations of collaboration software. "Traditionally, the database administrator only unlocks the doors for the person who is assigned to do the work," notes Peter Thoeny, the original author of TWiki. "With a wiki, you delegate the security to the end users."
- 2007-03-12 - BusinessWeek.com, USA: No Rest for the Wiki - The online tools for building collective info banks are making deeper inroads in corporations
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070312_740461.htm (also MSNBC article)
This story starts with an example of a corporate wiki, the Intelpedia wiki started at Intel in 2005. Commerical wiki software is mentioned, as well as free software. "Because there are several freely available open-source software packages like MediaWiki and TWiki, it's easy for employees to start one without even alerting the IT department. TWiki is used by companies such as Motorola, Yahoo!, Amazon, Google and Nokia, according to a report written by Ann Majchrzak and Christian Wagner for the Society of Information Management."
- 2007-02-24 - InformationWeek, USA: Most Business Tech Pros Wary About Web 2.0 Tools In Business
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197008457
An article covering the slow adoption of Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, and online social networks) at the workplace. "Most business collaboration and information sharing remains mired in endless e-mail strings and scheduled conference calls." And, "Enterprise 2.0 is a passel of separate products today, which helps explain why more than half of companies cite the lack of staff expertise as a major obstacle." TWiki is mentioned as part of an Enterprise 2.0 push at American Tire. "In one small step, the IT team uses Twiki open source wikis to build editable documents about Sarbanes-Oxley compliance policy and IT processes instead of sending e-mails."
- 2007-02-22 - Red Herring, USA: Wiki Providers Score Funding
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=21412
This article covers how venture capitalists fund wiki companies. The latest one is PB Wiki, which received $2M VC investment. "Several other wiki-building sites are out there, but most--such as Twiki and Socialtext--aim squarely at a business audience. Recently, Google acquired its own wiki-building site, JotSpot--a sign that big Internet companies recognize the power of such tools."
- 2007-02-20 - PC Magazine, USA: Wicked Productive Wikis
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2089103,00.asp (and in print)
"Forget daily status reports. Set up a wiki to collaborate more effectively with your project teams." The article covers DanWoods' Evolved Media Network company. "Challenge: Organize a team of writers, clients, transcribers, graphic designers and producers to improve project communication. Solution: TWiki (free). Saving: 90 percent of administration time; 20 man-hours per week." The article mentions also Wikispaces, Socialtext and MediaWiki.
- 2007-02-15 - BeeTooBee.com, USA: Winner of The 2007 Web 2.0 Idol is...
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=27545
"BeeTooBee.com tabulated 287 Web 2.0 start-ups in the Company Review forum at TechCrunch posted in the past 40 days to reveal the 2007 Web 2.0 Idol." Web 2.0 products in the consumer space cover rank 1 through 4: Si-Mi, iJigg, Send2, listpic. Rank 5 is "TWiki: Wiki collaboration technology for the enterprise". Nice testimonial to be the #1 web 2.0 tool in the enterprise space!
- 2007-02-01 - PublishingTrends.com: Thomson Teaches Tech Through Twikis
http://www.publishingtrends.com/copy/07/0702/0702Thomson.html
"We wanted to develop a platform conducive to open environment collaboration in order to get managers at the tail end participating. So, [we] downloaded free open source wiki software from twiki.org, and got people to log on." and "the technology took hold much faster than anyone anticipated - only about a month and a half. When Ken started using it, it grew exponentially, Birla said. We outgrew the one server that we originally used, and are now using one in Mason Ohio that supports 600-700 users."
- 2007-01-24 - Financial Times, UK: CASE STUDY: Wikis give ARM Holdings a leg-up
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e6df0a4a-a7d3-11db-b448-0000779e2340.html
The article describes how ARM initially "chose TWiki, an open source wiki programme that is particularly popular for corporate use behind the firewall" for its engineering group. And, "as part of formalising TWiki's role, ARM last year hired Euan Semple, who was credited with bringing wikis, blogs and electronic forums to the BBC and is now a consultant on social computing for businesses." He organized workshops for non-engineering staff. "Once people see the potential of it, they become enthusiastic." TWiki is now a supported business application of IT: "TWiki was initially hosted and maintained by some of the engineers who used it, and it took about two years from its initial appearance inside ARM for the software to become formally supported by the IT support staff."
- 2007-01-20 - PressZoom, Netherlands: TWiki.org Accelerates Pace Of Wiki Innovation In The Enterprise
http://presszoom.com/story_123158.html
"Situational Applications are enterprise software programs, created in short timeframes and with limited budgets, for small groups with specific needs. Created by users themselves, Situational Applications are often implemented without formal support from the IT organization. Accordingly, the Situational Application development process relaxes or omits many of the design, planning, scalability, and integration requirements associated with traditional enterprise software projects."
- 2007-01-19 - AJAXWorld (SYS-CON Media): AJAX-Based TWiki.4.1 Accelerates Pace Of Wiki Innovation in the Enterprise
http://www.sys-con.com/read/325520.htm
"TWiki is an open source enterprise wiki platform, and a pioneer in the field of situational applications. TWiki extends the free-form world of wikis by adding structure. With TWiki, wiki content can be browsed, searched, grouped, categorized, filtered and restricted for limited access. TWiki looks and feels like a Web 2.0 web site, and can be easily modified through standard web browsers."
2006
- 06 Dec 2006 - Red Herring: Startups Convene: TWiki Offers 'Structured' Wikis for Biz
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=20099
"As the popularity of wikis continues to grow, corporations are increasingly testing them out in a variety of ways to get work done more efficiently. Combining the structural features of a database with the ease of use of wikis, TWiki's structured wikis also make it easy for users to create their own wiki applications."
- 20 Nov 2006 - eWeek: Wikis Are Alive and Kicking in the Enterprise
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2061135,00.asp
The article claims that the use of wikis in enterprise environments spreads like wildfire, and reports from the collaboration environment in Motoral which is expanding rapidly (blogs/wikis/instant messaging). "We don't have a wiki police group," Redshaw said. "We just think it's the way the business runs. All a business is, is human beings talking to each other, trying to get stuff done." Despite the laissez-faire approach, all is not anarchy at Motorola. Managing the platform's usage are 250 "knowledge champions" who take responsibility for different subject areas in the Open Text collaboration infrastructure. The group meets biweekly to set governing processes. "The knowledge champions are all part-time volunteers," said Redshaw. "They are deciders. It's just like Wikipedia. It polices itself."
In addition to the corporate Open Text platform, engineers at Motorola are using TWiki enterprise collaboration software, which is better suited to engineering applications.
- 10 Nov 2006 - Processor.com: The Power Of Collaboration
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/P2845/21p45/21p45.asp
Article on Web 2.0 introducing the power of communities; and mentioning SharePoint, Scalix, Groove. "Also worth investigating is the next generation of wiki technology applications. Once just shared online spaces, wikis have evolved into distinctive enterprise collaboration platforms that have all the functionality of a multilayered company intranet," and: "Wiki aficionados may want to check out TWiki (twiki.org), an enterprise collaboration platform and knowledge management system that’s structured specifically for project management. It has a document system, groupware tools, and the ability to reside either online or on a company intranet."
- 28 Sep 2006 - Dice: Wikis at Work
http://www.dice.com/content/seekert/wiki/wiki.html
Journalist Mathew Schwartz is introducing wikis and asks: "Does your workplace need a wiki?" and "will wikis work for you?". "Wikis differ from other collaborative tools because they allow information to be shared and retrieved in a free-form yet user-structured manner. Furthermore, the two most widely used types of wikis - TWiki (a corporate collaboration and knowledge management tool) and MediaWiki (for public-facing uses) - are free." On deployment at the workplace, "it is very important to identify and train the right people to take on a 'wiki champion' role. A wiki thrives or dies depending on how it is being used." And, "when using a more structured wiki, such as TWiki, in which structure can be added to free-form wiki entries as needed, champions also help organize information to make it easier to find and use."
- 11 Sep 2006 - AjaxWorld Magazine: "Web 2.0" Questions Dominate the Fall Conference Season
http://ajaxworldmagazine.com/read/270254.htm (also in Linux World and Web 2.0 Journal)
AJAXWorld Magazine publisher Jeremy Geelan writes: When Web 2.0 Journal editor-in-chief Dion Hinchcliffe asked recently 'Is 'Web 2.0' Really About the Web, or Us?' he touched a vein. Peter Thoeny, founder TWiki.org and StructuredWikis, joins the discussion. "Collective content creation is spreading quickly on the web, the latest example is Wired News' "Veni, Vedi, Wiki" article that was edited by the wiki community on a wiki. It was largely a success." Thoeny adds: "Wikis are taking off not just on the web, but also behind corporate firewalls. Google, Yahoo, Motorola, Sun and more run large wikis of 50K and more pages. Corporate wikis are largely powered by TWiki , but many other wiki engines [are] used as well, such as SocialText, Confluence and MediaWiki."
- 07 Sep 2006 - Wired News: Veni, Vidi, Wiki
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71733-0.html
An interesting story on wikis, written by wiki experts. Wired News reporter Ryan Singel created a first version, and put it up on a wiki page for two weeks for anyone to edit. The article starts with Wikipedia, mentions other public wikis, then covers enterprise wikis. "Though they serve the same purpose of collaboration and knowledge sharing, enterprise wikis such as Confluence, SocialText and TWiki require different functionality than citizen wikis. Enterprise-class features -- such as strong permission schemes, advanced search and user management -- help organizations share information securely. The enterprise wikis TWiki and Jot move beyond the traditional whiteboard sharing mode of a wiki by providing a platform where users can create simple, embedded applications within the wiki itself. These applications support basic business processes within a workplace; employees can track issues and call center status, manage tasks and reserve resources." Ryan Singel wrote a post mortem on the story, The Wiki That Edited Me; Ross Mayfield blogged about Wiki Wired.
- 05 Sep 2006 - Web Host Industry Review: Tera Launches Grid OS for Hosts
http://www.thewhir.com/features/090506_3Tera_Launches_Grid_OS_for_Hosts.cfm
A press-release type of news, "the ability to scale an application to hundreds and thousands of servers is a laborious and costly challenge for Web hosts, a challenge that took even the Googles, Yahoo!s and eBays of the world 10 years to execute properly. Open source software developer 3Tera (3tera.com) set out to tackle the problem head-on with its upcoming release, AppLogic, a grid operating system that runs and scales Web applications on grids of commodity servers." The article mentions TWiki, "among the ready to deploy applications are CPanel, SugarCRM, Bugzilla, Twiki and SiteKreator."
- 21 Aug 2006 - GCN (Government Computer News): The amazing Wikis: From the CIO Council to the CIA, the lightweight collaboration platform is taking hold - but it's not a no-brainer.
http://www.gcn.com/print/25_25/41673-1.html
Joab Jackson writes an introduction to wikis, and how they are used in government agencies. He notes a paradigm shift when creating news for internal use: "Instead of editing and then publishing material, the material is published first and edited later." Joab continues, "at last spring's LinuxWorld Conference in Boston, Peter Thoeny, who manages the Twiki Wiki software, also expressed a similar sentiment. Managers usually first see wikis as chaotic, he noted. They want the content to be perfect before it's posted. But overall, it is more efficient to post new material early and then revise it often. Thoeny noted that this is the approach used by embedded software maker Wind River Software, which has an internal corporate wiki that, with over 85,000 pages, is updated 22,000 times a month."
- 25 Jul 2006 - Computerwoche article: "JotSpot bohrt seine Wiki-Lösungen auf" (German version of the above article, see babelfish translation)
"Ähnliche Ansätze gibt es auch schon anderswo - beispielsweise beim quelloffenen "Twiki", für dessen formularbasierende und datenbankgestützte Seiten es unter anderem Plug-ins für Tabellen, Graphen, Rechenblätter oder Datenbankabfragen gibt."
- 11 Jul 2006 - Main Rheiner article. "Schule ist mehr als Unterricht" (babelfish translation)
"In addition there is our Intranet, "TWiki", where our pupils can download the agency plan and exercise materials themselves - such things are typical for our school."
- 26 May 2006 - KM World front page. Wikis--a disruptive innovation
Talks through how wikis should not be considered a secret but as a vital tool for sustaining innovation practices. Confluence, JotSpot, Socialtext and TWiki are mentioned, as is MartinCleaver.
- 15 May 2006 - Burton Group analyst report: Wikis in the Enterprise: Democratizing and Directing Collaboration and Content Management
http://www.burtongroup.com/research_consulting/publicdoc.aspx?cid=901
The in-depth research report written by Peter O'Kelly is covering the current wiki landscape. TWiki is mentioned many times. "The plug-in model used in TWiki, as one example, has contributed to the creation of a wide assortment of plug-in options for TWiki, helping to make TWiki one of the most popular structured wiki offerings." Wiki content tagging is covered as well, mentioning Socialtext and TWiki. "TWiki has more extensive support for tagging, with support for a tag cloud plug-in as well as pervasive tagging controls." The emergence of StructuredWikis are covered: "Wiki-based application templates for structured wiki offerings such as TWiki and Confluence are also likely to gain market momentum, as wiki-based applications can often extend the empowering nature of wikis to casual application developers."
- 04 May 2006 - Linux Magazine: Gettin TWiki with it (Product Picks)
The May issue of the print publication is announcing the new TWiki 4.0 version in the Product Picks page. Matthew Tanase describes that he is a wikiholic, and that his life would grind to a halt if you took away one of his four wikis he is using daily. "It's no wonder that TWiki is used inside Google, Yahoo, and Novell. It certainly makes the cut of this wiki freak."
- 06 Apr 2006 - Perl.com: Unraveling Code with the Debugger
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2006/04/06/debugger.html
Nice tutorial by Daniel Allen on how to debug Perl programs. He takes the example on debugging a TWiki installation where a TWiki web was hidden, e.g. not listed in the list of webs even though he had a NOSEARCHALL = no
setting. He explains that "TWiki is quite easy to install from packages; it took me 3 minutes under Ubuntu, including answering a few installation questions." He then continues in details how to debug TWiki to find out what is happening in the code, and comes to the conclusion to set the NOSEARCHALL
setting to an empty value.
- 06 Mar 2006 - Line56.com: Open Source CRM Power - How TWiki can be used in customer-facing contexts; another use for open source
http://www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?articleID=7399&TopicID=5
Demir Barlas covers the (outdated) TWikiSuccessStoryOfTakeFive, "TWiki.org website offers an example of a company, TakeFive Software, that is using TWiki for customer relationship management (CRM)," and "TakeFive's CRM/KM use of Twiki is a reminder that, even when it comes to customers, there is a use for the decentralized authorship, trackability, and openness features of the wiki concept. If you've thought about TWiki as a way for your developers or other internal groups to collaborate, consider the relevance that this kind of collaboration can have in the CRM context. When you break it down, a lot of CRM's components fall into areas like collaboration and content authoring, and TWiki plays all over those fields."
- 27 Feb 2006 - IT Manager's Journal: What IT managers can learn from software developers
http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/management/06/02/24/1552213.shtml?tid=4
Cade Fassett writes, "I recommend that you implement a wiki on your corporate intranet. In this way, all of your staff members can update documentation as necessary," and continues with "probably the two most popular wiki programs are MediaWiki and TWiki. Both are free software licensed under the GPL. I strongly recommend TWiki for these documentation projects, as it was designed from the ground up to be an enterprise collaboration program."
- 27 Feb 2006 - Linux Journal: Using Wikis and Blogs to Ease Administration
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8779
The tutorial on TWiki and WordPress shows how wikis and blogs can be useful for system administration and documentation. "There are several open-source wikis available, such as MediaWiki and MoinMoin, each with its own philosophy on markup and layout, but here we concentrate on TWiki" TiLeggett writes, and continues with TWiki benefits such as webs, modular plugin and skin system, well-established base of users and developers, and more. The article covers a beta version of TWiki.
- 13 Feb 2006 - Computerworld.dk: Danish enterprises are toying with wikis
http://www.computerworld.dk/art/32696
Wikis are gaining ground as a tool to share knowledge in Danish enterprises. There are different open source-solutions for creating a wiki, in the enterprise setting it is "TWiki" who has won the major ground. "Now we have a solution that facilitates that people can enter the ISO 9000-system and have fixes and changes shown instantly. Earlier on it could take a year for changes to show, now it is done in two minutes. To an enterprise that wants to stay agile this has great value", says KennethLavrsen.
- 20 Jan 2006 - Line56 E-business Newsletter: SAP Using TWiki
http://www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?articleID=7267&TopicID=5
Demir Barlas writes about "Powerful Web collaboration via free open source; the case of the world's largest enterprise software company" and quotes part of the TWikiSuccessStoryOfSAP. He concludes, "Most businesses still think of groupware as proprietary, but you can now set up your own. It might not become an enterprise-wide system but, as in SAP's case, it could address the concerns of an entire department -- for free."
- 17 Jan 2006 - Times-Standard: Use a Wiki to create a village
http://www.times-standard.com/business/ci_3410375
Daria Topousis writes that wikis are a "cost-effective way to collaboratively write and share content", and continues, "anyone interested in starting a new wiki has a couple of choices. One option is to use a structured wiki like TWiki or MoinMoin, which are Open Source applications, meaning any user can make changes to the software. TWiki, the most popular structured wiki, uses Perl, so customization requires some knowledge of the Perl language. There are structured wikis based on Python and JavaScript too."
2005
- 14 Oct 2005 - Computerwoche: Wikis bündeln das Mitarbeiterwissen
http://www.computerwoche.de/index.cfm?pageid=255&artid=82461&type=detail&category=258
"Mit einem komplexeren Wiki lässt sich das Intranet eines Unternehmens verwalten. Speziell zu diesem Zweck wurde "TWiki" entwickelt, welches unter anderem die Vergabe von individuellen Benutzerrechten und die Einrichtung von Sub-Webs zum Beispiel für individuelle Projekte ermöglicht." and "Die durch den Erfolg von Wikipedia gestiegene Aufmerksamkeit sowie die Entwicklung von speziell an die Bedürfnisse von Unternehmen angepasster Wiki-Software wie TWiki, "Jotspot" oder "Socialtext" könnten ihrer Anwendung in Unternehmen jedoch zum Durchbruch verhelfen."
Babelfish translation: Computer Week: Wikis bundle coworker knowledge - "With a more advanced Wiki the Intranet of an enterprise can be administered. Particularly for this purpose "TWiki" was developed, which makes among other things the assignment of individual user rights and the mechanism of Sub Webs possible for example for individual projects." and "the attention risen by the success of Wikipedia as well as the development of particularly Wiki software such as TWiki, "Jotspot" or "Socialtext", adapted to the needs of enterprises, could help its application in enterprises to the break-through."
- 21 Sep 2005 - BusinessWeek: Learning to Work with Wikis
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2005/09/learning_to_wor.html
Editor Rob Hof describes how BusinessWeek writers and editors started to maintain a Best of the Web list in a Wiki. "We tried a wiki, and it worked great--as far as we took it. But we could have done better with it. Most of all, habits are hard to break." They used a demonstration wiki setup by Socialtext, but mentioned that "JotSpot or TWiki or MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) or any of dozens of other wiki programs and services would have worked fine--and presented the same challenges."
- 29 Aug 2005 - InformationWeek: Wikis Make Collaboration Easier
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170100392
Ezra Goodnoe writes in this business oriented wiki article "although wikis have been around for a decade, they're just starting to take off in business." Labelled as a "field guide to wikis", TWiki is mentioned as "Yahoo Inc. uses TWiki software to help its development team overcome the problems associated with working from a variety of separate locations. Michelin China also uses Twiki as a knowledge-management tool." The sidebar "Wiki Tools: Who's In The Game" lists Atlassian Software, JotSpot, Socialtext, Tikiwiki, TWiki ("...can be expanded dramatically with server-side plug-in modules that allow for specific handling of functions such as calendars, spreadsheets, Really Simple Syndication, and bar codes"), Zwiki, and Perspective.
- 08 Aug 2005 - InformationWeek: How To Use Wikis For Business
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600331
Intro to Wikis, "a simple open-source app called the wiki may soon rule the knowledge management roost." Two TWiki success stories are mentioned: "Yahoo uses TWiki software to help its development team overcome the problems associated with working from a variety of separate locations. Michelin China also uses TWiki as a knowledge management tool. Jean-Noel Simonnet, from the company's IT department, writes, "Our purpose was to share ALL the information, procedures, setup documents, so that we were less dependent on a particular staff member knowledge, so that nobody in the team has any document left in a personal directory."
- 23 May 2005 - TechRepublic, CNET, Blogs vs. wikis: Which is best for internal government use?
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878-5711955.html
Aiming IT managers, this article compares Blogs and Wikis for intranet use. "The wiki is a nice enhancement to intranet capabilities, offering collaboration functionality for a relatively low cost. Twiki [sic] is an open source, structured wiki that has been adopted by several large corporations including Motorola, SAP, Yahoo, and Disney to name a few." ... "The disadvantage of a wiki is that everyone can contribute, which means less control over the content; however, some wikis, such as Twiki [sic], are more structured and include fine-grained permissions, so that control is less of a problem."
- 05 May 2005 - Linux-Magazine, UK, Team Builder - the TWiki wiki and the enterprise
http://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/55/TWiki.pdf
Cover story written by Peter Thoeny for the June 2005 edition. This article is based on the German TWiki article published in Linux-Magazin on 10 Mar 2005, and concludes with "TWiki is a powerful platform for web collaboration and web development. The TWiki platform supports free form content sharing in Wiki style. Plan your Wiki rollout carefully, and provide training for users. You will see an explosion of interest after people 'get it'."
- 01 May 2005 - Certification Magazine, Working Together: Collaboration in the Enterprise
http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/cmag_tools_generic.asp?articleid=1183&zoneid=92
Short overview of collaboration tools, including wikis. "TWiki is an enterprise collaboration platform based on a structured wiki. It�s been used to replace static intranets, as a knowledge base, to design and document software projects, to track issues, as a document management tool, to help teams collaborate on common goals and as an internal company message board."
- 14 Apr 2005 - Springer Verlag Book, WikiTools - Kooperation im Web
http://www.wiki-tools.de/
The German WikiToolsBook, written by AnjaEbersbach, MarkusGlaser and RichardHeigl, covers MediaWiki and TWiki. English translation of abstract: "The book describes the practical use of Wikis for projects, both for users and for administrators. It covers a step-by-step introduction of the philosophy and functionality of Wikis, an overview of user interface and components, as well as the installation and configuration of the Wiki-clones MediaWiki and TWiki. A case study shows how to use the software as a project tool to plan a conference."
- 01 Apr 2005 - Brand Eins Wirtschaftsmagazin, Die Dot-Kommune (The Dot community)
http://www.brandeins.de/home/inhalt_detail.asp?id=1677&MenuID=130&MagID=62 (German; Engish machine translation)
Brand Eins, a German economics magazine, writes mostly about Wikipedia. Corporate Wikis are mentioned at the end of the article, and Wind River's use of TWiki is described in a case study. Peter Thoeny is quoted as "Domain experts are needed to look after content and to coach [users]. Wikis are a social revolution, where [content] is no longer filtered from top down, but created and modified from bottom up."
- 28 Mar 2005 - InfoWorld, TWiki: Open source with a corporate following; Perl-based wiki offers easy customization, extension
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/28/13FEblogwiki-rev3_1.html
Labelled as a review, Mike Heck's article gives a good albeit short overview of TWiki. "TWiki, an open source project, is a structured wiki written in Perl. Its active development community has contributed multiple Web applications based on TWiki's plug-in API, yielding a solution that's flexible enough for document management, knowledge bases, or wiki message boards." Several Plugins are mentioned, validating our strategy that Plugins add a lot of value to TWiki. Mike concludes the article with: "Although not a turnkey solution, TWiki is more user-friendly than some commercial groupware software."
- 28 Mar 2005 - PCWorld.com, Movable Type: Powerful Business Blog Tool
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120169,00.asp
Mostly identical to InfoWorld article from 25 Mar 2005, with one notable difference, "It's more difficult to install than competitor TWiki..." Huh, TWiki is a competitor to Movable Type? It can be in a broad sense, both are targeting the enterprise. InfoWorld is using both systems internally.
- 25 Mar 2005 - InfoWorld, Movable Type: Powerful enterprise blogs
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/25/13FEblogwiki-rev2_1.html
Mike Heck mentions TWiki in a sidenote, "[Movable Type is] more difficult to install than TWiki, partly due to Movable Type's mediocre documentation and spotty online help." We are on the right track by further improving the TWiki installation and docs!
- 25 Mar 2005 - InfoWorld, Enterprise collaboration with blogs and wikis
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/25/13FEblogwiki_1.html
Michelle Delio's article compares blogs and wikis in a detailed analysis. TWiki is mentioned in a case study: "Edward Williams, head of the fraud and security department at a consumer bank, relies on several wikis to protect the bank's customers from online scams. ... Williams uses TWiki software to manage his company's internal security database. He says standard database software didn't enable security staff and help desk workers to quickly create a complete picture of each threat as their understanding of a new scam or virus developed. "Our support workers can easily add information to the wiki while they are working with the customer, which allows us to connect the dots and make a complete picture of a new threat very quickly -- something that wasn't really possible with a database solution," Williams says."
- 08 Mar 2005 - Silicon.com, World's top 10 intranets named
http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,39128464,00.htm
Article focuses on one of the choosen "top 10 intranets," London-based Orbis Technology, which earned it's place on the list partially due to its innovative use of a wiki for internal communications. In the final paragraph, it mentions that their wiki is based on the "open source structured environment TWiki."
- 07 Mar 2005 - eWEEK, Ziff Davis Media, Dispersed Software Teams Call on New Aids for Collaboration
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1771175,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
Peter Coffee describes the expansion and intensification of collaborative development efforts, with a need for "better tools and practices for communicating software developers' goals and tracking their progress - despite impediments of time, distance and culture." TWiki is mentioned briefly: "Enterprise development managers may be tempted to look at the open-source community as an exemplar of collaborative practice and as a source of affordable, often well-polished distributed development technology, including the GPL'd TWiki (twiki.org), Project Logger (projlogger.sourceforge. net) and phpCollab (www. php-collab.org/blog)."
- 28 Feb 2005 - Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, Ten Best Intranets of 2005
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050228.html
"This year's designs were so good that our list of runners-up included at least ten additional intranets that were worthy of being recognized, featured, and emulated. However, a top-ten list can only include ten winners, so we had to select the best of the best." ... "Orbis has probably the most unusual intranet approach, building its site entirely on a Wiki platform. In this collaborative authoring environment, any employee can edit any page at any time (except for a few modification-controlled pages). As a result, employees can easily and immediately update information whenever they come across outdated content." ... "Open-source software also made a strong showing this year. Beyond the heavily used Apache, winners used Eclipse, Linux, Mambo, MySQL, PHP, PostgreSQL, and TWiki." (Orbis also posted a TWikiSuccessStoryOfOrbis in Nov 2004)
- 25 Jan 2005 - Emma Tonkin "Making the Case for a Wiki";
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/
Emma Tonkin considers Wikis in the context of emerging technologies and while explaining the benefits they may offer, provides a timely warning on the feasibility of their deployment. TWiki is compared to other Wikis. This article also mentions concept mapping, a powerful concept-visualisation technique.
- 09 Jan 2005 - WebProNews (article portal for Internet and technology professionals) : Putting The Mac Aside In 2005
http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20050109PuttingtheMacAsidein2005.html
Jeremy D. Zawodny describes how he hooked up a Powerbook to the network, and how he "was able to access mail, LDAP, printing, CVS, TWiki, and so on." Although this article mentions TWiki just once among other utilities, it is nice to see that TWiki gets listed alongside ubiquitous tools.
2004
- 30 Dec 2004 - InfoWorld, Year of the enterprise Wiki
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/12/30/01FEtoycollab_1.html?
Column on the increasing business use of wiki tools. Nice anecdote on use of TWiki at InfoWorld, "Our CTO, Chad Dickerson, became interested in TWiki... When he began installing the software, however, he learned that IT operations manager, Kevin Railsback, had already done so!"
- 27 Dec 2004 - Express Computer, India: Gettin' wiki with it
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20041227/edit02.shtml
An article with an interesting thought on open-source paradigm applied to collaboration. Mainly about Wikipedia, mentiones also TWiki, "if ... your geekometer readings have been consistently high, dive in at the deep end and install the open-source TWiki (twiki.org)."
- 13 Dec 2004 - Forbes.com: Extreme Blogging
http://www.forbes.com/best/2004/1213/bow001.html
A well written introduction to Wikis mentiones: "Unfortunately for the big corporate collaboration players, Microsoft and IBM for example, most software that wikis are built from is free. Mediawiki, the software that the Wikipedia runs on, is freely downloadable, as are other programs like XWiki, TWiki and more than a hundred others, which are listed at Wiki Engines."
- 07 Dec 2004 - ZDNet, Tech News: What's wrong with RSS is also what's right with it
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5482204.html
David Berlind writes in his commentary on web technology, "In an effort to better collaborate over ZDNet's presence in the blogsphere; we've established an internal Wiki." and "I used Twiki's headlines plug-in to aggregate RSS-based syndication feeds onto one page that's basically a portal into the corner of the blogsphere that I think we should be watching."
- 01 Dec 2004 - Sams Book, Red Hat Linux Fedora 3 Unleashed
ISBN:0672327082
The book written by Billy Ball and Hoyt Duff has a small section on "Collaborating with TWiki" in the "System Services and Administration" chapter.
- 23 Nov 2004 - Knowledge Sharing in Agile Software Teams (pdf) - Thomas Chau, Frank Maurer - Abstract: Traditionally, software development teams follow Tayloristic approaches favoring division of labor and, hence, the use of role-based teams. Role-based teams require the transfer of knowledge from one stage of the development process to the next. As multiple stages are involved, the problem of miscommunication due to indirect and long communication path is amplified. Agile development teams address this problem by using cross-functional teams that encourages direct communication and reduces the likelihood of miscommunication. Agile approaches usually require team members to be co-located and only facilitate intra-team learning. To overcome the restriction in colocation and support organizational inter-team learning while supporting the social context critical to the sharing of tacit knowledge is the focus of this paper. We also highlight that humans are good at making sense of incomplete and approximative information.
TWiki also supports those agile team-related features provided by VersionOne and Xplanner but its usage is not targeted to agile development teams. It differentiates itself as a collaboration platform, not just a tool. This can be seen in the multitude of team-oriented tools it provides, such as event calendar, action tracker, drawing editor, and vote collection. [...] One drawback of TWiki is that it provides no direct support for online team members to be aware of each other's presence. This limits the opportunities for team members to establish informal and spontaneous encounters with one another.
- 12 Nov 2004 - InfoWorld: Wiki goes to work
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/11/12/46OPconnection_1.html
Columnist Chad Dickerson writes in his CTO Connection column, "One of the unique features of TWiki is its forms capability, which allows users to create quick-and-dirty, structured, databaselike applications. Using TWikiForms, I was able to design a simple workflow system for rolling out laptops to end-users, built around a simple TWiki-powered, Web-based checklist our IT staff could use to ensure that key functions such as VPN access had been tested before being delivered to end-users."
- 05 Nov 2004 - InfoWorld: Is Wiki under your radar?
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/11/05/45OPconnection_1.html
Columnist Chad Dickerson writes in his CTO Connection column, "TWiki is being actively and enthusiastically used as the platform for everything from document management to project planning and corporate knowledge bases at corporations as varied as Disney, Yahoo, British Telecom, and SAP. TWiki.org publishes detailed case studies of these organizations with gushing testimonials from employees who gladly publish their names and job titles. This is clearly the real deal."
- 19 Oct 2004 - Blog of JonUdell, InfoWorld columnist: The Wiki way
http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/10/19.html
TWiki is mentioned as "a popular choice on corporate intranets. As TWiki founder Peter Thoeny reminded me, TWiki's forms capability predates JotSpot's. For a wonderful demonstration of the Wiki way, incidentally, look at this page. The TWiki team compares JotSpot to TWiki; JotSpot CTO Graham Spencer acknowledges TWiki as an inspiration; Spencer makes factual corrections to the comparison; TWiki contributor Crawford Currie in turn acknowledges some of the heavy lifting done by the JotSpot team. How cool is that?"
- 08 Sep 2004 - Gartner, Inc: Wikis Can Improve Collaborative Work and Knowledge Sharing
http://www.gartner.com/ (research note for members only)
The paper introduces key concepts of Wikis. TWiki is mentioned as one of the earliest Wikis in a business scenario of continuously maintaining a support knowledge base.
- 26 Sep 2004 - The Associated Press: 'Wikis' Offer Knowledge-Sharing Online
Shown in ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC, USA Today, Internet Week, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Examiner, Yahoo! News, Miami Herald.com, BizReport, Boston Herald, Canada.com, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Times, National Post, Canada, Hindustan Times, Australian IT and more
A short article that discusses Wikipedia, a brief history of 'Wiki', and their practical use. Mentions TWiki, "Setting up a Wiki typically means running a Web server and installing such software as TWiki or MediaWiki"
- 29 Jul 2004 - Wall Street Journal: 'Wiki' May Alter How Employees Work Together
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109105974578777189,00.html (subscription required)
Kara Swisher mentiones TWiki in this paragraph: Until now, most of the development of wiki software has been led by noncommercial, open-source efforts such as TWiki (twiki.org), whose free software has been downloaded by tens of thousands of people, who then typically unleash it within companies on their own. "Of course it comes from the bottom, since information technology departments in companies don't naturally embrace things they perceive they can't control," says Peter Thoeny, Twiki's founder.
- 08 Jul 2004 - Gartner, Inc: Hype Cycle for the Knowledge Workplace
http://www.gartner.com/ (research note for members only)
The paper explains the hype cycle (trigger, inflated expectations, disillusionment, productivity) and puts Wikis near the trigger. TWiki is mentioned alongside TikiWiki as one of the selected vendors. (vendor huh?)
- 09 Jan 2004 - CXO Magazine for Top Management, Poland:
http://www.cxo.pl/news/62614.html
Article by AndrzejGoralczyk, is an introduction to social software and Wiki; TWiki is mentioned as one of the leaders, and dedicated for enterprises. The article is also published in Feb. 2004 paper issue of CXO (Poland) -- AG
2003
- 01 Jan 2003 - http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-01/lamp_01.html
TWiki Extensions and Other Wikis - The second installment of the LINUX MAGAZINE article is much shorter and mostly focuses on plugins, including how to create them. Also touches very briefly on alternative wikis but does not mention any specifically. Closes by looking forward to combining wikis with other tools like CMS
2002
2001
- 01 Apr 2001 - Addison-Wesley Book, The Wiki Way: Collaboration and Sharing on the Internet
http://www.wiki-tools.de/ ISBN:020171499X
The WikiWay book, written by Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham, covers several Wikis including TWiki. Abstract: "WikiWikiWeb (aka Wiki) is an open source collaborative server technology that enables users to access, browse, and edit hypertext pages in a real-time context. Such servers are a critical tool for efficiently, and effectively, coordinating collaborative documents, databases, and projects. Unlike many alternatives, Wiki supports flexible, user-defined attributes and structure. It is easy to use, concordant with current technologies and standards, and requires little investment in hardware, software, or training."
2000
- 31 Jul 2000 - http://udell.roninhouse.com/GroupwareReport.html
JonUdell's "Internet Groupware for Scientific Collaboration" paper for the Software Carpentry mentions "Another variant, called TWiki, addresses one of the concerns about classic Wiki, which is that its egalitarian "edit every page" philosophy leaves no change log. TWiki includes powerful revision support. Every change leaves a footprint, and you can follow these easily and effectively."
News Search & Alerts
Contributors: PeterThoeny,
MarcelTrap,
MattWilkie - 2013-10-18
Discussions
Today's WSJ article explains Wikis nicely. And TWiki has finally made the WSJ. I greatfully appreciate the work of all who actively helped/are helping in advancing TWiki and bringing it to the next level. Today's article would not have been possible without you! Thank you all!
--
PeterThoeny - 29 Jul 2004
Someone asked if I get to review the draft of an article before it gets published. This does not happen, there is an interview with a reporter and that's it. I wish I could review the drafts, for example I would have spotted the typo in my last name in the last two InfoWorld articles.
Someone asked why the
JosWiki and the TWiki developers are not mentioned. In every interview I make sure not to take credit for everything, I explain that TWiki was originally based on JosWiki, has an active community, and that the project is too large for one person. Ask a reporter why they do not mention this, my
guess is that they have limited space and these "details" do not add value to the article (we know that these are
not details)
If you have questions, please ask.
Don't second guess, this usually does not reflect the reality.
--
PeterThoeny - 25 Nov 2004
I've also been interviewed by reporters sometimes and the degree of mis-quotation and misunderstanding has always been amazingly high - so this makes complete sense. I think that reporters like to have a personality to focus on - easier to say 'Mr X wrote Y' than talk about a whole team - hence some recent
FirefoxBrowser stories that have focused on a single developer.
--
RichardDonkin - 26 Nov 2004
Please post Wiki news not mentioning TWiki in
WikiInTheNews
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PeterThoeny - 07 Jan 2005
See also: What is TWiki,
DevelopersNews,
TWikiTestimonials,
WikiInTheNews,
TWiki Screenshots,
Public TWiki Sites,
TWiki.org Blog,
Social Media and Structured Wikis at Work - Enterprise Collaboration for Millennials,
Getting Involved,
TWiki Consultants