Hi,
back in 2008 I started my first enterprise wiki based on MediaWiki.
Since 2011 I run my own company (gesinn.it) with a focus on semantic
business applications (semantic::apps) based on SMW.
The business model is as follows:
We provide a LAMP-Stack SMW virtual appliance including everything you
need for an enterprise wiki (storage, authentication, backup, e-mail,
ntp, monitoring, MW, SMW, extensions, patches). This package is called
semantic::core. It's an 'off-the-shelf product', highly customized for
the deployment environment, thus no plug & play download.
On top of semantic::core, there are several business solutions,
currently for quality management systems/business process management
(semantic::bpm), project management (semantic::prj) and contact
management (semantic::cm). Solutions for Balanced Scorecards,
Requirements Engineering, Facility Management, Product Management and an
IT-Configuration Management Database are in the pipeline.
These apps define the ontology, categories, properties, forms and
templates. Technically we define 'classes' e.g. for a process, a person
or a project to be deployed on the target wiki.
To connect SMW with the rest of the world we use an ETL-Pipeline based
on Pentaho Kettle (semantic::connect) talking to the MW API.
- What was the project about?
Intranet Business
Solutions.
- Who was the customer? Was it an open project?
95% closed projects, SMBs, Global Players, Public Sector. All industries.
- What the community looked like? Where those people
on the wiki came from?
Different 'social' circles inside the companies.
- Why you've chosen MediaWiki and not another
solution?
MW is SMW's foundation and SMW is the best semantic wiki available.
MW/SMW community is very active with a lot of really awesome people.
- Did you program anything additional for MediaWiki,
did you integrate
with some other services and applications?
Yes, everything we do is about
integration. And: We love data ;-)
- Or maybe you've elaborated some tricky
methodology?
Internally we have some tricky workflows to build, deploy and maintain
our solutions.
- How did the project change the life of your
customer?
Before: :-(
After: :-)
- Was the community motivated? How active they were?
People need some time to warm up. As soon as they know how to contribute
to their new wiki, they have fantastic ideas.
- Did you provide any kind of support and consulting?
Yes. That's our main business.
- Maybe you've provided admins, moderators,
facilitators? How did you
teach them?
On-Site and remote trainings.
- Did you have any trainings?
Yes, but these
trainings are also customized to fit.
- Anything about money? $-)
Yes, we provide
service and knowledge and in return, we get money ;-)
- What obstacles and difficulties have you faced?
Tracking bugs and enhancements is difficult, because not all extensions
provide good change logs/bugzilla bug reports. For us, it is essential
to see, that extension bug #1234 has been fixed in extension release
1.3.4. In Bugzilla, there are no version numbers for extensions.
- How much time did you spend on a different stages of
your project?
It took us ~2 years to develop semantic::apps.
- Do you have any open results? The project itself,
the skins,
extensions, papers, articles, photos of the happy users?
As soon as we have any
technical issues with the code we try to fix it
an give feedback/commit the changes. We publish results/findings on our
website/twitter channel or in the lists. We try to use as much existing
pieces as possible.
- What have you learnt from the project?
- In general: was it worth it?
SMW is an awesome project with awesome people!
Alexander Gesinn
Managing Director & Partner gesinn.it
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semantic::apps by gesinn.it
Business Applications with Semantic Mediawiki.
http://semantic-apps.com