Hi Guys, I'm sure some of you remember me from the early days. Sadly 'real life' has kicked in and I really don't have time for the 'pedia anymore. I miss it a lot.
I do however have a business proposition to throw out into the ring. I am interested in getting an estimate of the cost of porting something equivalent to the Phase III 'pedia into the DotNetNuke (DNN) framework. (In $US or Euros please.)
Some of you may remember that I am professionally involved in meta-data management, and I believe that the combination of the best of DNN with the functionality of Wikipedia might be an ideal solution to the challenges of corporate meta-data management, particularly as DNN is making serious inroads into the corporate intranet world.
I am not interested in a "pure" clone of the current Wikipedia software, the most notable change would be the introduction of user classes including "reader", "limited scope editor" (able to edit pages within a custom-defined subject area), "global editor" (similar to the standard user of the 'pedia now), and "admin (just like the 'pedian admin, rights to delete, rename pages, etc). All user classes would be able to edit in the Talk: namespace. The Wiki Namespace would need to be renamed (as it's not going to really be a Wiki anymore).
If you're interested, send me a private email, although feel free to discuss the general notion of the idea on the list if you desire. If your estimate runs into the $000's then it's out of my budget (I have no financial backing for this and I'm funding it out of my own pocket).
However, by posting to this list I acknowledge that I am throwing the idea into the public domain, so feel free to investigate it on your own. (If you end up making a million dollars off of my idea, I'm going to expect a REALLY nice dinner at a VERY fancy restaurant some time.)
Best regards to all of the old faces, and a big hello to the new ones.
Manning Bartlett
PS - I'm flying all over the world at the moment for work and so my responses to your email might be erratic. My apologies in advance.