Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The document-centric design of SharePoint governance and
customisations keep it from turning into another disorganised fi le storage.
By contrast, the data-centric design of Semantic MediaWiki requires an
effort of knowledge mapping from users, and in turn, a signifi cant effort
to assist them in extracting knowledge into individual wiki pages instead
of uploading documents and relying on search alone to sort things out.
Semantic MediaWiki can coexist with SharePoint as a complement.
Integration is possible in both directions. The wiki provides XML
representations of queries to its content using simple URLs. SharePoint
provides web parts capable of consuming that XML content from generic
format (using XLST to render the results) or using specialised formats
such as RSS feeds. Extracting content from SharePoint into the wiki is
possible using web services. However, at this time, importing content
from SharePoint requires some development, as there is no MediaWiki
extension available to perform this task out of the box (although
extensions such as Data Import provide basic mechanisms to connect to
REST or SOAP services and could be used as the start of a SharePoint
specifi c extension).
Security
MediaWiki has the reputation of being a weak security model, partly
because of the many warnings visible on extensions designed to augment
security. The security model used by MediaWiki is in fact robust when
applied as intended, using groups and roles, although it lacks the level of
granularity of other collaboration tools. However, more granular security
models are available, such as the Access Control List from the Halo
extension [9].
To reduce the likelihood of vandalism, already rare within a corporate
environment, anonymous access was replaced by identifi ed user names
based on an Enterprise Directory. Using network accounts removed the
need for keeping track of separate passwords.
Workfl ow
Based on earlier experience with collaborative knowledge bases, the
editorial workfl ow model was deliberately left open, making full use of
alerts and education instead of various levels of approval. This policy
reduces bottlenecks, fosters collaboration and, overall, increases quality
of the content and accountability of authors, as changes are made
available immediately, with the name of authors visible to everyone.
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