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MediaWiki--New from O'Reilly: Wikipedia and beyond

October 24, 2008

MediaWiki Sebastopol, CA—MediaWiki is the world's most popular wiki platform, the software that runs Wikipedia and thousands of other websites. Though it appears simple to use at first glance, MediaWiki has extraordinarily powerful and deep capabilities for managing and organizing knowledge. In corporate environments, it can transform the way teams write and collaborate.

"In 2001, Wikipedia changed the world by proving that thousands of strangers could collaborate to produce a valuable information resource. Encyclopedia publishers shuddered. Skeptics scoffed. And in the meantime, users around the world have produced millions of Wikipedia articles," says Daniel J. Barrett, author of MediaWiki (O'Reilly, US $39.99).

"Wikipedia was not the first wiki," reports Barrett, "but it's clearly the most successful, largely due to its powerful software, MediaWiki." In his new book, Barrett covers MediaWiki's rich (and sometimes subtle) features, helping readers turn into wiki experts in no time.

With MediaWiki, you'll learn how to:

  • Find your way around by effective searching and browsing
  • Create and edit articles, categories, and user preferences
  • Use advanced features for authors, such as templates, dynamic lists, logical parser functions, and RSS, to organize and maintain large numbers of articles
  • Install and run your own wiki, and configure its look and behavior
  • Develop custom wiki features, called extensions, with the PHP programming language and MySQL database

The book also provides special guidance for creating successful corporate wikis. For beginners who want to create or work on collaborative, community-driven websites with this platform, MediaWiki is the essential one-stop guide.

"A good book! It's a nice overview of wiki editing and administration, with pointers to handy extensions and further online documentation."
- Brion Vibber, Chief Technical Officer, Wikimedia Foundation

"This book is filled with practical knowledge based on experience. It's not just spouting some party line."
- Rob Church, a developer of MediaWiki

"I was a MediaWiki newbie before reading this book. Now, many aspects of the platform that were murky before are crystal clear."
- JP Vossen, author of O'Reilly's bash Cookbook

For a review copy or more information please email kathrynb@oreilly.com. Please include your delivery address and contact information.

Daniel J. Barrett has been immersed in Internet technology since 1985. Currently, he is working as a software engineer. He is the author of O'Reilly's Linux Pocket Guide, and the coauthor of two more O'Reilly books: Linux Security Cookbook, and SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide.

Additional Resources:
For more information about this book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and cover graphic, see the catalog page for MediaWiki.

MediaWiki
Daniel J. Barrett
ISBN: 9780596519797, 374 pages, Book Price: $39.99 USD, £24.99 GBP
PDF Price: $31.99 USD

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