# MediaWiki

MediaWiki is a free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation and others, it is used to run all of the Foundation’s projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites. It is written in the PHP programming language and uses a backend database. The software's code is structured functionally.

## Quotes

* MediaWiki is a useful tool for supporting group collaboration but when we apply it to the academic setting, we need to consider and adapt some features to match the needs of the classroom environment, which requires mandatory collaborative writing.
** Eli B. Cohen (2009). Growing Information Part I. Journal of Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology; Volume 6. p. 61. ISBN 1932886168.
* While there are many different wiki content-management systems available for free or fee, MediaWiki is one of the most robust and well-maintained systems available to wiki publishers.
** Rob Garner (2012). Search and Social: The Definitive Guide to Real-Time Content Marketing. Wiley Publishing. p. 223. ISBN 1118287215.
* MediaWiki makes it very easy both to track changes to the pages of their sites, and to revert to older copies of the pages.
** William Hagen, Brian Jones (2005). Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two. O'Reilly Media. p. 146. ISBN 0596100825.
* MediaWiki is the most well-known wiki software because it is what runs WikiPedia. MediaWiki is simple to use and an excellent way to start collaborating on documentation or articles.
** Tim Jowers (2006). The Business Guide to Free Information Technology. LuLu Press. p. 59. ISBN 1430301015.
* A notable irony of Wikipedia's popularity is that the editing process of its supporting technology, MediaWiki, is complex to learn. Editing Wikipedia pages requires significant investment to learn MediaWiki's unique and powerful code structure.
** Terry T. Kidd, Irene Chen (2009). Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0. Information Age Publishing, Inc.. p. 187. ISBN 1607520966.
* The main downside of publishing a site using MediaWiki is that it won't give you a great opportunity to use or improve your HTML skills.
** Laura Lemay, Rafe Colburn (2011). Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML and CSS in One Hour a Day. Sams Publishing. ISBN 9780672330964.
* Clear your mind and build your collective offline memory using MediaWiki (http://mediawiki.org), the same software that powers Wikipedia.
** Adam Pash, Gina Trapani (2011). "Hack 73". Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better. Wiley.
* MediaWiki is not as easy to use as web-based services, but it does have quite good functionality.
** Megan Poore (2012). Using Social Media in the Classroom: A Best Practice Guide. Sage. p. 63. ISBN 1446268845.
* MediaWiki is the most popular opensource software used for creating wiki sites.
** Mizanur Rahman (2007). MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide. Packt Publishing. ISBN 1904811590.
* First released in 2002, MediaWiki is one of the top wiki engines and runs most of the wiki hosting sites. The name was a play on “Wikimedia,” and many people find it to be annoyingly confusing.
** John K. Waters, John Lester (2010). The Everything Guide to Social Media. F+W Media Inc.. p. 166. ISBN 1440506310.
* MediaWiki (www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) is one of the best publishing wiki engines in existence.
** Dan Woods, Peter Thoeny (2007). Wikis for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0470043997.
* In Germany, we have a famous children's TV show called "Löwenzahn". It starts with a time lapse sequence of a dandelion flower breaking its way through the asphalt. This is what I've always associated with the MediaWiki logo, technology (brackets) being merely the basis for the growth of something wild and beautiful which transcends it.
** Möller, Erik (16 June 2006). Re: MediaWiki logo experiments. wikitech-l.
* Some wiki engines try to represent functionality that's more CMS-like (e.g. complex workflows and access controls), while MediaWiki's functionality tends to be driven by the needs of open communities with minimal barriers to entry.
** Möller, Erik (22 October 2012). User talk:Eloquence. Meta-Wiki.

## See also

* Computers
* Computer science
* Internet
* Programming languages
* Technology
* Wikipedia

## External links

* MediaWiki homepage, with Hubs for users, system administrators and developers.
* MediaWiki on the Meta-Wiki, Wikimedia's meta website.
* MediaWiki history at MediaWiki
* #mediawiki on freenode
* MediaWiki version lifecycle
* MediaWiki news
* MediaWiki download page