Wikidot
Encyclopedia
Wikidot.com is a social networking service
and wiki
hosting service (or wiki farm
), developed in Toruń
, Poland
. Wikidot Inc., which owns and operates Wikidot.com, is incorporated in Delaware, USA, Division of Corporations, file no. 4326793. Wikidot.com was launched on August 1, 2006 and in 2009 it was the world's third-largest wiki farm, with 570,000 users running 150,000 sites with 5.6 million pages of user-created content (as of September 24, 2010). Wikidot.com grows by about 900-1,000 new users each day. Wikidot.com has roughly doubled in size during the last year.
Wikidot.org is the official FOSS version of the Wikidot.com software project with an Ajax
-based interface. It is meant as a stable and free software for a single Wiki
install or a Wiki farm
on a GNU/Linux computer. The FOSS Wikidot.org software is licensed under the AGPL v3. There are Debian/Ubuntu (*.deb) packages for the free Wikidot.org software, which are considered experimental, as of October 2011, and may break existing Wikidot installations.
The officers of the company were Pieter Hintjens
(CEO) and Michał Frąckowiak, who is also a General Manager of Polish operating office. Pieter Hintjens is CEO of iMatix Corporation, past President of the FFII, and has been active in the free and open source software field since 1991. Michał Frąckowiak is a former astrophysicist, certified software developer and the architect and lead developer of the Wikidot.com project since 2006. However, as of 26 February 2010, Pieter leaves the CEO position in Wikidot to continue his work in iMatix
Wikidot has been consistently placed in the top 10,000 web sites by Alexa since the beginning of 2008, and is currently ranked in the top 4,000.
From March 2008, Wikidot.com began offering pro account features to beta testers, and on December 17, 2008, Wikidot.com rolled out Pro accounts to all users.
Starting with January 2011 Wikidot.com began offering multilingual model on an experimental wiki-basis, by inviting the world-wide community to translate most used commands, help-text and other literals from English to "every wished" language. After a week some languages like German, French and Serbian were translated 100% by the community, and Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Finish, Italian are following now and growing in their completeness. This is now on a site basis and planned for the future is user-based translation. Whomever wants to build a wiki in a special language - this is now possible even in "Klingon".
. It provides page templating, so that the appearance of pages can be changed in one place. It provides page processing (the ListPages module) so that users can create summaries, graphs, lists, and reports. It provides data forms, so that pages can be edited as structured data (and not as a wiki at all). Some of the applications that Wikidot users have recently built are: calendars, chatrooms, issue trackers, blogs, and even MediaWiki
emulations.
Wikidot.com supports unlimited pages and users. Users can apply SSL encryption, map their wiki to an existing domain (other than wikidot.com), customize privacy settings, assign roles, and interact in wiki-specific forums. A wiki can easily be enriched with content from Flickr, YouTube and other sites by embedding features.
Wikidot.com uses a custom wiki engine, that has been released as free software under the terms of the Affero General Public License
. The software is written in PHP
and is notable for doing extensive caching
to reduce database accesses. The Wikidot software runs Wikidot.com. Wikidot.org appears to be the only FOSS
wikifarm software, see Comparison of wiki farms
, and a number of competing wikifarm services use it, such as Wikicomplete.info.
Wikidot's datacenter is operated by SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.
. However, there are plans to move Wikidot's services to Amazon Web Services
. Currently, many static files (like CSS Stylesheets, User Avatars and Javascript files) are now delivered through Amazon CloudFront
and their DNS services have also been moved to Amazon Route 53.
Wikidot uses an open source modified Text_Wiki software (engine). Each site gets a subdomain
on .wikidot.com (like mywiki.wikidot.com). Site owners can also map custom domains (like mywiki.com - if previously registered by the wiki owner). There is also a list of subdomains registered by Wikidot for users, which provides an alternate wiki URL without requiring the user to buy a domain name beforehand. One can optionally allow Wikidot to display ads on their wiki and get 80% of revenue. Other possibilities are RSS
import/export, private RSS feeds for Users (notifications and watched items), RSS for page changes and forum, customizable themes which also can be styled by adjusting Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
, advanced forum for each Site, custom page hierarchies, powerful search engine, advanced page (full/section/append) edit locking, blocking users and IP addresses. Users can send each other personal messages. Wikidot uses an Ajax
user-interface. There are no limits on site size. There are embedable widgets (such as YouTube, Google Video, Flickr, Meebo etc.)
Until December 17, 2008, Wikidot offered only a free service and, unlike other free wiki hosts, it had no advertising or premium service. On December 17, 2008 Wikidot introduced premium accounts. There are three types of premium accounts: Pro-Lite, Pro and Pro+. The difference is in price and quantity of pro features offered.
Both free and pro accounts can have open, closed or private wikis. Open and Closed wikis are visible to everyone on the Internet, with Open wikis available for any registered Wikidot member to join, and Closed wikis having restricted membership rules. Private wikis are only visible to members and Wikidot users added to the site's extra access list.
The service supports advanced editing, tag clouds, a flexible permission system, custom themes, and the ability to generate revenue through Google AdSense
which are not obligatory for free sites.
Today, the Wikidot user community also makes themes, packages, dashboards, roadmaps, site templates, and reusable applications. In October 2009 Wikidot launched a competition for a new user-designed home page. In many respects Wikidot.com can be considered an "open source service" as these reusable building blocks are licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. New features can be requested using the Wishlist.
Each user has karma, which is an indicator of that user's activity, engagement and experience. The highest karma level indicates that a user is experienced with the Wikidot syntax and is active in the community, and is considered to be a Wikidot Guru.
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
and wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
hosting service (or wiki farm
Wiki farm
A wiki hosting service or wiki farm is a server or an array of servers that offer users tools to simplify the creation and development of individual, independent wikis...
), developed in Toruń
Torun
Toruń is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is more than 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus....
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Wikidot Inc., which owns and operates Wikidot.com, is incorporated in Delaware, USA, Division of Corporations, file no. 4326793. Wikidot.com was launched on August 1, 2006 and in 2009 it was the world's third-largest wiki farm, with 570,000 users running 150,000 sites with 5.6 million pages of user-created content (as of September 24, 2010). Wikidot.com grows by about 900-1,000 new users each day. Wikidot.com has roughly doubled in size during the last year.
Wikidot.org is the official FOSS version of the Wikidot.com software project with an Ajax
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
-based interface. It is meant as a stable and free software for a single Wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
install or a Wiki farm
Wiki farm
A wiki hosting service or wiki farm is a server or an array of servers that offer users tools to simplify the creation and development of individual, independent wikis...
on a GNU/Linux computer. The FOSS Wikidot.org software is licensed under the AGPL v3. There are Debian/Ubuntu (*.deb) packages for the free Wikidot.org software, which are considered experimental, as of October 2011, and may break existing Wikidot installations.
Company history
Wikidot.com is owned and operated by Wikidot Inc., incorporated in Delaware, USA in 2007 by Wikidot.com founder Michał Frąckowiak and a group of private investors. Wikdot.com was developed in Poland and was published as open source in January 2008. Wikidot Inc. derives revenue from opt-in advertising and services including support licenses. The company's operational offices are located in Toruń, Poland.The officers of the company were Pieter Hintjens
Pieter Hintjens
Pieter Hintjens is a Belgian software developer, writer, and past president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure , an association that fights against software patents...
(CEO) and Michał Frąckowiak, who is also a General Manager of Polish operating office. Pieter Hintjens is CEO of iMatix Corporation, past President of the FFII, and has been active in the free and open source software field since 1991. Michał Frąckowiak is a former astrophysicist, certified software developer and the architect and lead developer of the Wikidot.com project since 2006. However, as of 26 February 2010, Pieter leaves the CEO position in Wikidot to continue his work in iMatix
Wikidot has been consistently placed in the top 10,000 web sites by Alexa since the beginning of 2008, and is currently ranked in the top 4,000.
From March 2008, Wikidot.com began offering pro account features to beta testers, and on December 17, 2008, Wikidot.com rolled out Pro accounts to all users.
Starting with January 2011 Wikidot.com began offering multilingual model on an experimental wiki-basis, by inviting the world-wide community to translate most used commands, help-text and other literals from English to "every wished" language. After a week some languages like German, French and Serbian were translated 100% by the community, and Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Finish, Italian are following now and growing in their completeness. This is now on a site basis and planned for the future is user-based translation. Whomever wants to build a wiki in a special language - this is now possible even in "Klingon".
Software and features
Originally conceived as a pure wiki, the Wikidot engine today has become more than just a web application frameworkWeb application framework
A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, web applications and web services. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in Web development...
. It provides page templating, so that the appearance of pages can be changed in one place. It provides page processing (the ListPages module) so that users can create summaries, graphs, lists, and reports. It provides data forms, so that pages can be edited as structured data (and not as a wiki at all). Some of the applications that Wikidot users have recently built are: calendars, chatrooms, issue trackers, blogs, and even MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
emulations.
Wikidot.com supports unlimited pages and users. Users can apply SSL encryption, map their wiki to an existing domain (other than wikidot.com), customize privacy settings, assign roles, and interact in wiki-specific forums. A wiki can easily be enriched with content from Flickr, YouTube and other sites by embedding features.
Wikidot.com uses a custom wiki engine, that has been released as free software under the terms of the Affero General Public License
Affero General Public License
The Affero General Public License, often abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL , refers to two distinct, though historically related, free software licenses:...
. The software is written in PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
and is notable for doing extensive caching
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
to reduce database accesses. The Wikidot software runs Wikidot.com. Wikidot.org appears to be the only FOSS
Foss
Foss may refer toPeople*Foss , people with the last name Foss*Foss Shanahan , New Zealand diplomat*Foss Westcott , English bishop...
wikifarm software, see Comparison of wiki farms
Comparison of wiki farms
This comparison of wiki farms details notable online services which host wiki-style editable web pages. General characteristics of cost, presence of advertising, licensing, and Alexa rank are compared, as are technical differences in editing, features, wiki engine, multilingual support and syntax...
, and a number of competing wikifarm services use it, such as Wikicomplete.info.
Wikidot's datacenter is operated by SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.
SoftLayer
Founded in 2005, SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. is a dedicated server, managed hosting and cloud computing provider.-History:GI Partners acquired all of the equity in SoftLayer in August 2010....
. However, there are plans to move Wikidot's services to Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon.com...
. Currently, many static files (like CSS Stylesheets, User Avatars and Javascript files) are now delivered through Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network offered by Amazon Web Services. CloudFront operates on a pay-as-you-go basis. The service was launched in Beta on November 18, 2008....
and their DNS services have also been moved to Amazon Route 53.
Wikidot uses an open source modified Text_Wiki software (engine). Each site gets a subdomain
Subdomain
In the Domain Name System hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain.- Overview :The Domain Name System has a tree structure or hierarchy, with each node on the tree being a domain name. A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain, the only domain that is not...
on .wikidot.com (like mywiki.wikidot.com). Site owners can also map custom domains (like mywiki.com - if previously registered by the wiki owner). There is also a list of subdomains registered by Wikidot for users, which provides an alternate wiki URL without requiring the user to buy a domain name beforehand. One can optionally allow Wikidot to display ads on their wiki and get 80% of revenue. Other possibilities are RSS
RSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
import/export, private RSS feeds for Users (notifications and watched items), RSS for page changes and forum, customizable themes which also can be styled by adjusting Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
, advanced forum for each Site, custom page hierarchies, powerful search engine, advanced page (full/section/append) edit locking, blocking users and IP addresses. Users can send each other personal messages. Wikidot uses an Ajax
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
user-interface. There are no limits on site size. There are embedable widgets (such as YouTube, Google Video, Flickr, Meebo etc.)
Until December 17, 2008, Wikidot offered only a free service and, unlike other free wiki hosts, it had no advertising or premium service. On December 17, 2008 Wikidot introduced premium accounts. There are three types of premium accounts: Pro-Lite, Pro and Pro+. The difference is in price and quantity of pro features offered.
Both free and pro accounts can have open, closed or private wikis. Open and Closed wikis are visible to everyone on the Internet, with Open wikis available for any registered Wikidot member to join, and Closed wikis having restricted membership rules. Private wikis are only visible to members and Wikidot users added to the site's extra access list.
The service supports advanced editing, tag clouds, a flexible permission system, custom themes, and the ability to generate revenue through Google AdSense
which are not obligatory for free sites.
Synopsis of the Main Features
- Each site gets its own subdomain on wikidot.com
- Flexible permission system suitable for both public and private wikis
- Customizable themes to create a unique look and feel
- Numerous widgets available to embed in the wiki
- Generate revenue through different advertising programs including Google AdSense
- Extensive documentation, and an active community support forum
Advantages
Wikidot has a clean user interface that is easy to learn and use. For experienced wiki users, Wikidot is powerful and user friendly. Private wikis are a much appreciated feature: more than 40% of created sites are private.Criticisms
Wikidot has been criticised for being too complex for beginners. It does not have a WYSIWYG editor and the wiki syntax is incompatible with other wiki syntaxes. Storage space for free accounts is limited, and free sites still show text advertisements in some cases. Its permissions model is too simple for advanced users. Development of the product goes slowly and a long list of user feature requests is pending. Also, it does not provide a proper multilingual model, currently working only starts in English and Polish and the admin/owner has to decide after creation of the wiki to switch over another language for most of the site - depending commands and literals. This model works fine on a site-basis but not yet on a user-basis.Wikidot community
Wikidot expert users have worked together to build large parts of the service. Initially, this was a community site (for supporting new users and discussing solutions), a snippets site (for reusable pieces of code), and a multilingual handbook. At present, there are German, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Turkish, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Chinese, Indonesian, Romanian and Portuguese Handbooks.Today, the Wikidot user community also makes themes, packages, dashboards, roadmaps, site templates, and reusable applications. In October 2009 Wikidot launched a competition for a new user-designed home page. In many respects Wikidot.com can be considered an "open source service" as these reusable building blocks are licensed under the Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. New features can be requested using the Wishlist.
Each user has karma, which is an indicator of that user's activity, engagement and experience. The highest karma level indicates that a user is experienced with the Wikidot syntax and is active in the community, and is considered to be a Wikidot Guru.