BTW from a marketing POV it's better to say that
"XWiki is a wiki farm
solution" than "XWiki is a wiki" since it differentiates us from other
solutions such as Confluence, TWiki, Mediawiki, etc.
If you say that with XWiki you can create work spaces, then so does
confluence. You can create as many spaces as you wish with Confluence. But
Confluence doesn't support multi tenancy.
It's probably the only real differentiator of XWiki vs other wikis. You're
trying to make this difference disappear while I'm trying to make it
surface. That's probably one of the reasons of non-agreement.
Is it really ? What drew me into XWiki at (almost) the very beginning, was
that killer-feature of exposing an XClass model right into wiki pages, and
ability to create applications through scripting and structured data
without any server-side coding or custom database schema creation ... To me
it's still the core originality of XWiki compared to others, and that's the
'X'. I don't think any other wiki does that, but many of them propose
various solutions to organize content, whatever the name. Components are
nice (to build additional/structured/stable/maintanable/documented APIs)
but it's not original at all, as Extensions (sometimes called "plugin"
elsewhere, as in old xwiki system).
Multi-tenancy is also a killer feature in its kind, but I'm not sure it's
very exposed (so, here, going in the same direction as you, naming these
"wiki" or better "sub-wiki" versus "workspace" may be a way
to promote
this, but "workgroup" does not add any information more than
"workspace"
when it comes to multi-tenancy), nor does it interest the same category of
people.
"workgroup" or "group" makes me think about a team and its members,
but not
at a subwiki at all. Typically, the sentence may be "A workgroup uses a
dedicated [workspace|wiki|sub-wiki] [to work collaboratively|to share] on a
specific subject". I think the term "(work)group" is even more generic
(and
less meaningful) than workspace can be ... The confusion between "space"
and "workspace" may even be a good thing, as even you consider both can
fulfill almost same needs when nested spaces will be implemented (by the
way, why having 2 different ways to do almost exactly the same thing, and
how could this make xwiki easier for end users, while their main issue to
add content to a wiki is that they are lost understanding what is correct
location to put the information ...).
Anyway I think "sub-wiki" is far better and clearer than "wiki" even
if
longer.
Thanks
-Vincent
On Jul 31, 2013, at 10:57 AM, Silvia Rusu <silvia.rusu(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
Hi,
Without wanting to add more fire to the debate I'd like to make a few
comments regarding the naming issue. Edi said above "For me, the
"wiki" is the entire environment (main wiki + all its subwikis), as a
whole, by definition." I was remembered of an old thread I read while
googling "XWiki Workspaces" where a potential TWiki user was comparing
options and he only used the term wiki in its singular form (
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Support/SID-00140 ). I agree that users
tend to think of the whole environment as "the wiki". If I wasn't part
of the XWiki community I'd probably be sharing their opinion :)
I think the naming depends a lot on the message we are trying to
transmit. Do we want the emphasis to be on the content, or are we
looking to underline the collaboration aspect more? If we are trying
to say XWiki should be used for:
* Knowledge building > the term "wiki" is appropriate
* Collaboration > "workspaces" sounds better IMO
An argument in favor of workspaces would be avoiding the intimidation
& fear factor: most users associate wikis with Wikipedia. Let's say
I'm an HR manager and I need a place where I can store CVs, employee
information and where I can discuss things with the HR team. Do I need
Wikipedia to achieve this? Sounds a bit too much. Also I thought I
already was on a wiki. Should I create a wiki in a wiki? Does that
exist ("inception")? This sounds terribly complicated. What if I mess
up the wiki?! Maybe I'll get a sys admin to help. Or maybe I'll just
create a space somewhere since I don't want to mess up the wiki. Email
and Excel I guess are not that bad in the end either.
In conclusion I understand the arguments of both parties which makes
it very hard to choose one of the names. In the end if I have to
choose I prefer the notion of workspace, since to me this suggests a
tool that's easy to use, that helps one get organized, but most of all
collaborate more efficiently. I'm not -1 for wiki, I just like the
workspace name better.
Silvia
On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Jeremie BOUSQUET
<jeremie.bousquet(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
>
> 2013/7/31 Sergiu Dumitriu <sergiu(a)xwiki.com>
>
>> On 07/30/2013 05:32 PM, Vincent Massol wrote:
>>> Hi Sergiu,
>>>
>>> On Jul 30, 2013, at 6:47 PM, Sergiu Dumitriu <sergiu(a)xwiki.org>
wrote:
>>>
>>>> Vincent, stop thinking so technical! You're describing the technical
>>>> implementation of the current "workspace" feature, not the user
friendly
>>>> name that users can understand.
>>>
>>> <joking>
>>> ok let's stop the xwiki project then! Because it contains the word
>> "wiki" which our users don't understand…. I don't even
understand how
we
>> get users since obviously they can't
understand what xwiki is about… ;)
>> Let's call it "stuff" which is a word that everyone understands
surely…
>>> </joking>
>>
>> Are you sure you want to go this way?
>>
>>
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=xwiki%2C+mediawiki%2C+confluence
>>
>> XWiki is almost unknown. XWiki doesn't get the volume of users that a
>> mature and popular project usually gets. We've been struggling to
market
>> it as an application wiki, yet few users
use it that way. How many high
>> quality third party applications do we have in our repository?
>>
>> I've seen more questions about migrating from Mediawiki than from
>> Confluence, which is our direct competitor. And Confluence is only
>> getting more popular.
>>
>> The peak of Mediawiki popularity was also the peak of interest in
>> plaintext wikis (Gartner's peak of inflated expectations). And
>> unfortunately the decrease in popularity in Mediawiki is also reflected
>> in the decrease in popularity in XWiki:
>>
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=xwiki (and twiki, dokuwiki,
>> moinmoin, pmwiki, jspwiki).
>>
>> Confluence seems to be the winner on the Gartner Hype Cycle.
>>
>> We haven't even been able to overcome our precursor, TWiki, and I've
>> considered TWiki almost dead for several years:
>>
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=xwiki%2C+twiki
>>
>> So don't wonder how we even get users, because we almost don't.
>>
>>
>> And I didn't say that users don't understand what "wiki" means,
just
>> that they misunderstand what XWiki is and what a wiki is in XWiki,
>> because they already know what a wiki is in the traditional way. It's
>> like calling a teleportation device a TCar because it gets you from one
>> place to another, just like a car, but then users will expect all the
>> things they have in a car. There's a reason why different products get
>> different names, instead of just extending the base name: reusing the
>> old name with a prefix causes confusion.
>>
>> So +1 for choosing something better than "XWiki" as the name of the
>> product, this one hasn't been lucky so far.
>>
>>>> No matter how much more accurate the term "wiki" is to
what's
happening
>>>> inside, it means less than
nothing to our target users. Less, because
>>>> it's misleading instead of helpful.
>>>>
>>>> So yes, on the inside we have __entities__ named documents, spaces
and
>>>> wikis, and this isn't about
changing those. It's about adding names
that
>>>> end users can understand to the
__concepts__ that those entities
>>>> represent.
>>>
>>> <joking>
>>> Yeah, let's rename "document" by "book page",
"space" by "book" and
>> "wiki" by "shelf". I"m sure users will understand
better!
>>> </joking>
>>
>> Did I even mention "renaming"? I explicitly said that this isn't
about
>> changing our entity names, but about labeling for users. It's a
>> marketing strategy.
>>
>> But yes, even "document" and "space" have been occasionally
misleading.
>>
>>>> It is a wiki, but it lets users collaborate. Our users do
>>>> their jobs in such a wiki, and for __our users__ that means much more
>>>> than what "wiki" means to them.
>>>>
>>>>
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=define%3Awiki
>>>
>>> You just proved that the wiki word is exactly the right word… :)
>>
>> What exactly do you see? I see:
>>
>> "A Web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing
>> any user to add and edit content"
>>
>> So if this is indeed the correct term, adding a new subwiki, is...
>> "creating a new website"? Do you even know what a "website"
means for
>> the average user? Or "content"?
>>
>>>> Remember the XWiki (SAS) mottos: work better together, the best way
to
>>>> organize information, free your
knowledge... Users do their work
>>>> collaboratively, they don't just write pages in a wiki. They write
in a
>>>> forum, write review, write press
releases, vote, plan, review job
>>>> candidates, take meeting notes, draw UML diagrams, etc. This is why
>>>> "wiki" is WRONG for __end users__.
>>>>
>>>> I think that this is not a technical decision, but a
marketing/usability
>>>> one, so it would be better to see
what someone from marketing thinks.
>>>
>>> I definitely don't agree, sorry… We're building a collaborative
solution
>> based on a wiki and as such I definitely
don't agree to rename the base
>> concepts of a wiki: pages, spaces, wiki, etc.
>>
>> Again, when did I ever said that we should rename them? I just said
that
>> it would be more intuitive for users to
label a virtual wiki as a
>> workspace.
>>
>
> I must say I somehow share this vision ... From the very start, I never
had
> the same perception about sub-wikis and
workspaces, even though I knew
they
> mostly shared same technicals (and
fundamentally it's the same thing).
> But in my mind (and it's totally irrationnal), "sub-wikis" are
associated
> to wiki farms, something a bit huge, a bit
difficult to put in place,
> something to host thousands of isolated wikis, something I never really
> envisaged to put in production for myself.
> While workspaces is a light collaborative concept, that can be installed
> from EM in a few clicks, that has a nice and easy UI, and that I started
> playing with nearly from the start and that I've put in production to
> manage distinct projects Mail Archives at my office with 5.1.
>
> Of course it might seem stupid, but I can't help but feeling that going
> back to "wiki" (for naming those kind of subwikis) is like a step back.
My
> users start to get used to seing that
"Workspace directory" entry point.
> And I don't want them to consider these as "wikis", because I don't
want
> them to edit anything (or add manually new pages) in these. Still, they
are
> collaborative (thanks to ratings, comments,
activity stream, page
sharing,
> and thanks to its nature of mail archive).
But I wouldn't want my users
to
> imagine that it could be nice to add a Blog
in this kind of workspace,
or
> use any other wiki feature.
>
> For example, seems the concept of "Space" is taken for granted as basic
> wiki feature, but maybe I didn't test much of them, but I never heard of
> this "Space" concept in any other wiki. The fact that it's called a
"Space"
> (and not a group, or a workspace, or a
folder, or just anything) is a
> choice done by XWiki from the start. IMHO, the choice to call a subwiki
a
> "wiki" or a "workspace"
is only your choice, and it should be more
based on
> what you want XWiki to be than on what it
currently is inside ...
>
> What I can only say on my side, is that I love my XWiki with my
workspaces
> (and eagerly wait for flavours), and I
somewhat don't care at all about
the
> wiki farm concept ...
> Maybe to explain better:
> - a wiki farm is a set of distinct full-fledged wikis, like a cluster of
> wikis, with a top-hat admin and container. The container itself has no
real
> interest, apart from grouping things together
and providing central
> navigation
> - the main wiki + workspaces is a full-fledged wiki, with specialized
> collaborative places for particular topics, projects, tools,
documentation
> creation ... The main wiki is not just an
entry point, it is THE wiki,
THE
> knowledge base, with some satelites graviting
around this central
planet.
>
>
>
>>
>>> Remember that we're talking here about the base platform. Then there
are
>> flavors and customizations done by our
users which can be anything
specific
>> for their project if they want to hide
the wiki concepts…
>>>
>>> I think you're confusing applications based on xwiki concepts with
core
>> concepts. A subwiki is a core concept in
the same manner as a document
or a
>> space. What we're doing now is making
the notion of subwiki part of the
>> core concepts as it should have been a long time ago (this is why btw
it's
>> also in the new model). Again, on top of
these core concepts you could
>> create apps for specific uses cases. You could have a workspace app if
you
>> want although with the core concepts
it's not required ATM since it
doesn't
>> add any additional feature...
>>
>> Rerepeating myself, this isn't about the workspace feature. This isn't
>> about the workspace feature. This is about the XWiki vision, and the
>> XWiki marketing strategy. Is XWiki just a wiki? Or is it much more than
>> that, with collaborative applications as the focus instead of just
plain
>> text.
>>
>> What is XWiki trying to be? How do we present it to our potential
users?
>> As a wiki? Or as a platform empowering
collaboration? An intranet
>> environment, where employees can do their work better.
>>
>> Compared to first generation wikis, XWiki is like an atomic bomb next
to
>> a hand grenade. Let's not market
XWiki as a Bigger Grenade.
>>
>>
>> And please, read more carefully what I'm actually saying.
>>
>>> Thanks
>>> -Vincent
>>>
>>> PS: BTW you haven't proposed a good name so far IMO…. At least not one
>> that is better for all use cases. Some might be better for a specific
usage
>> of xwiki but not generally speaking.
>>>
>>>> On 07/30/2013 12:15 PM, Vincent Massol wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Jul 30, 2013, at 5:53 PM, Eduard Moraru
<enygma2002(a)gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Just my point of view on this point, since I keep seeing similar
>> topics
>>>>>> popping up once in a while...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> For me, the "wiki" is the entire environment (main wiki
+ all its
>>>>>> subwikis), as a whole, by definition. Since they are all
connected,
>> it is
>>>>>> wrong to say that we are creating new wikis (subwikis) when, in
fact,
>> we
>>>>>> are just creating new "spaces"/"workspaces"
(spaces where the user
>>>>>> does/groups/catalogues his work). Also, this view is enforced by
our
>> new
>>>>>> direction towards virtual by default and of making subwikis part
of
>> XWiki's
>>>>>> data model (including the new model).
>>>>>
>>>>> In the future you'll be able to either:
>>>>> - create wikis, they are real wikis.
>>>>> - create nested spaces
>>>>>
>>>>> So you'll be able to choose the way you want to organize yourself
by
>> either creating a (sub)wiki or a (nested)space.
>>>>>
>>>>> The notion of "workspace" is not needed in either case:
>>>>> - for (sub)wikis, it matches with the notion of a wiki and flavors
>>>>> - for (nested)space, it matches with the notion of a space + space
>> template (which I guess could also be implemented as a flavor in the
future)
>>>>>
>>>>>> Since we are currently lacking the hierarchy feature of the the
new
>> model,
>>>>>> and we are faking it technically (and maybe this is where the
>> confusion
>>>>>> comes from) by using new wikis(subwikis) in new databases, the
term
>>>>>> "workspace" would, IMO, remain the best candidate.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't agree. The "workspace" feature was done ad-hoc
outside of
the
>> platform and as a consequence was thought
as an add-on. Now, what we
are
>> doing and preparing for the future is to
have the notion of subwiki at
the
>> core of XWiki. And this concept of
workspace is no longer needed as
>> something adhoc. It can be integrated in the platform.
>>>>>
>>>>> What is a workspace:
>>>>> * it's a set of pages/applications
>>>>> * using existing users
>>>>>
>>>>> Those 2 items can be done without the need for any new
name/concept. A
>> set of pages/applications is what we call
a flavor. And the notion of
users
>> already exists (what we need to work on,
is to have a config feature so
>> that a subwiki can have or not have local users).
>>>>>
>>>>>> If we consider the fact
>>>>>> that we want to make workspaces the default (as proven in
practice),
>> we
>>>>>> find that the "corner" cases are actually the term
"wiki" (actually
>>>>>> "subwiki"), which occur only in farm deployments where,
indeed, a
>> subwiki
>>>>>> is a fully fledged and generally isolated "wiki" from
the point of
>> view of
>>>>>> the owner and its users.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Also, in an enterprise environment, try explaining each time to
the
>>>>>> Accounting, Marketing, etc. departments that:
>>>>>> - a "wiki" is "a set of pages that can be
edited/modified by users
>> with
>>>>>> links between pages, using some syntax, etc."...
>>>>>> - a "workspace" is "a/the space where you (do
*your*)
>> work/collaborate"
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't understand. Why have the 2 concepts? The idea of option B
is
>> to have only 1 concept: that of (sub)wikis.
>>>>>
>>>>>> +1 for "workspace" as first-class term being promoted
to users
>>>>>> +1 for "wiki" as technical term being mentioned in
documentation to
>> admins
>>>>>> (specifically for farm deployments)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Also, being an enterprise wiki, I`m not sure we want to be
labelled
>> as the
>>>>>> company's "wiki" instead of the company's
"collaboration tool" (or
>> "tool
>>>>>> used to get our work done").
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Eduard
>>>>>>
>>>>>> P.S.: As a technical/background note, just not to be
misunderstood,
>> indeed,
>>>>>> a workspace is implemented as just a wiki right now with
additional
>>>>>> restrictions to satisfy its usecase. However, this is only due to
our
>>>>>> platform's
limitations. Normally, a workspace should just be a
space
>> where
>>>>>> a user can install apps, create other sub-spaces, and collaborate
with
>>>>>> others. The initial
proposal (for the "Wiki 3.0" XWiki SAS research
>>>>>> project) was to actually use spaces to implement workspaces, but
>> since we
>>>>>> could not install apps (among other things), we chose to use
subwikis
>>>>>> instead.
>>>>>
>>>>> We still need the ability to "Add a new Wiki" in 5.2 so
this doesn't
>> change anything.
>>>>>
>>>>> And if in the future we support nested spaces then users will also
be
>> able to use them + space templates with
flavors.
>>
>
> I was also eager to check out this nested spaces feature.
> But now that I've tasted the workspace/subwikis, I feel that this is
really
> less "important". I even feel, it
might bring much more complexity to
> XWiki, than what it could solve or help doing. Is it really comparable,
> defining a tree of spaces, and a subwiki/workspace ? In my own
(enterprise)
> use-cases, I always felt that at least one
additional level (above
spaces)
> was missing, and I currently use workspaces
also for that. But I feel
> bringing many additional levels + subwikis, might make things even more
> complex for end users and application writers ... But that's another
topic.
>
>
>>>>>
>>>>> So for me that makes it even more important to not introduce the
>> notion of "workspaces" in 5.2 and to only have the notion of adding a
>> (sub)wiki :)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> -Vincent
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Vincent Massol <
vincent(a)massol.net>
>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Jul 30, 2013, at 4:15 PM, Sergiu Dumitriu
<sergiu(a)xwiki.com>
>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 07/30/2013 08:28 AM, Vincent Massol wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Definitely +1 for B. I really think we need to drop
the concept
of
>>>>>>> workspaces and come
back to the concept of wiki/subwiki. It's much
>> simpler
>>>>>>> for the user. What we call "workspace" can be seen
as a
>> configuration for a
>>>>>>> wiki, i.e. the usage of global users only.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I disagree. For us XWiki veterans it's obvious that
an XWiki wiki
>> is an
>>>>>>>> all-powerful collection of applications and pages that
can do
>> anything
>>>>>>>> we want it to. But for users, a wiki is Wikipedia, where
you can
>> find
>>>>>>>> documentation written by amateurs that's hasn't
been proof-read
by a
>>>>>>>> real
professional. It takes months or years of using a wiki to
shift
>>>>>>>> from the external
viewer bad opinion to the internal collaborator
>> good
>>>>>>>> opinion of the term "wiki".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So "wiki" is a bad name for users. I think
"workspace" is a much
>> better
>>>>>>>> name than "wiki", although it's far from
perfect. First of all
>> because
>>>>>>>> it creates confusion between a "space" and a
"workspace (wiki)".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> So, what better word describes a "collaboration
space" than
>> "workspace"?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Some random ideas, most of them bad:
>>>>>>>> - node
>>>>>>>> - workgroup
>>>>>>>> - community
>>>>>>>> - rename space to directory and we can use space or
workspace for
>> the
>>>>>>>> current "wiki"
>>>>>>>> - virtual server
>>>>>>>> - environment
>>>>>>>> - sandbox
>>>>>>>> - appspace
>>>>>>>> - office
>>>>>>>> - location
>>>>>>>> - rack
>>>>>>>> - stack
>>>>>>>> - instance
>>>>>>>> - room
>>>>>>>> - workroom
>>>>>>>> - desk
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm not sure this is needed. XWiki is all about the
notion of
wiki…
>> even
>>>>>>> in its name. The generic name "wiki" seems a much
better name to
me
>> than
>>>>>>> anything else:
>>>>>>> * it's a set of pages that can be edited/modified by
users with
links
>>>>>>> between pages, using
some syntax, etc.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I don't think we need to change that. Any other name
would be
>> awkward IMO.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Let's not forget that some of the instances are
customized so
much
>> that
>>>>>>>> users don't even know they're using a wiki, so
just seeing the
word
>>>>>>>> "wiki"
might cause confusion: "Wiki? What wiki? I'm using our
>> company's
>>>>>>>> internal Foobars application!". So it would be a
good idea to
make
>> this
>>>>>>>> term configurable.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If the instance is customized so much that it doesn't
look like a
>> wiki,
>>>>>>> then whoever did this customization can easily also customize
the
>>>>>>> translation resources to pick whatever suit their needs! ;)
>>
>
> It's not only about customization, even not customized at all, a subwiki
> might not be used (at all, or partly) as a standard wiki because of its
> flavour. XWiki is more than just a wiki. Subwikis are more than just
> subwikis. Still, the "wiki" features are fundamental to XWiki (I believe
> that), but I'm not sure it's (always/mandatorily) the case for subwikis
> use-cases.
>
> Maybe that's only resistance to change ;-)
>
>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> For example, if the wiki is used as a projects wiki and they
want
to
>> have
>>>>>>> one project = one wiki, they could rename "Wiki"
to "Projects".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> We'll never be able to use a specialized name by default
so we
might
>> as
>>>>>>> well stick with "wiki" which is the best name for
what it is… a
wiki
;-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> -Vincent
--
Sergiu Dumitriu
http://purl.org/net/sergiu
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