[Wylug-help] WikiWikiWebs and unstructure workflow

[Nigel Metheringham]

Folks,

One of the things I do outside of computers (there is a real world out
there, so I'm told) is work within a community based theatre (backstage
before anyone quails at the possibility of me in tights).

Everyone involved is a volunteer so there is no "office infrastructure"
or stuff like that.  I am wondering about the idea of using a wiki as an
information base and some degree of workflow management.

I'd like to get suggestions as to what wiki software is worth
considering and any comments on how to pull this sort of thing
together.  I'm going to give some background on what I'm trying to do to
give context on how I see this working...  I'm really only covering the
workflowish stuff since general information linking can be handled by
pretty much any wiki.

When arranging a show we have a batch of basic information on the show
itself (title, company, performance nights, setup/rehearsal nights,
contacts (ie who can tell us what this show will need)).   That could
easily be built into a standard wiki page about that show.

It would be *really* nice if the date information could be linked into
calendar pages easily - to give a calendar as to whats happening on this
day (we need years as well - I did think the wikipedia stuff at eg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_24 was a good start but it
appears to be manual links).  I guess what I am asking for is an indexer
of date terms over the wiki.

We would then build up the per-show page, adding details on what set is
required, special effects, any permissions needed, which of our crew is
stage managing it, what staff we are likely to need, and late on
allocating the staff (sound, backstage, followspots).

We may also have pages with information on whats broken, or changed, or
work parties planned etc - linking this stuff into the calendars would
also be useful.

Editing this has to be pretty easy for any of those involved.  The
backstage tech crew are reasonably computer literate, however if the
front management team got involved its got to have a low learning
threshold.

We also, unusually for a wiki, need authentication on things - probably
to read any of it, since for it to be useful we need to dump phone
numbers and contact details into it.   Frankly that part is likely to be
easy to do.

Currently I've had a look at MoinMoin (no calendar functions I can see),
and Twiki (Feels rougher edged and potentially more user hostile, but
good functionality), although neither of those at the level of
installing it and trying things out.

I'd be interested in any comments on this, and ideas on what would work.

	Nigel.
--
[ Nigel Metheringham           Nigel.Metheringham at InTechnology.co.uk ]
[ - Comments in this message are my own and not ITO opinion/policy - ]