Mozilla Melds with MindTouch Wiki

MindTouch, a provider of open-source wikis for collaborative work spaces, has released a new version of its Deki Wiki platform to let programmers better manage Web content.

Released May 7 with improved search, user perks and mashup tools, Deki Wiki 8.05 will be the collaboration platform for the relaunch of the Mozilla Developer Center, which serves 1 million page views per day.

Mozilla's embrace of MindTouch is a coup of sorts for the San Diego startup, which competes with the more lustrous Socialtext and other lesser-known wiki providers such as Atlassian with its Confluence enterprise wiki. Google joined the wiki provider pack earlier in 2008 with its Google Sites application, formerly known as JotSpot.

"They dig it [Deki] because they can connect to disparate systems, presenting through a common interface, and their community being able to write tools on top of that platform for adding content, reviewing content or navigating content," MindTouch CEO Aaron Fulkerson told eWEEK.

Mozilla developers will now be able to enjoy the new features in Deki Wiki v8.05, including a "polyglot feature" that allows users to upload content in multiple languages on a single site on a per-user or per-section basis. The feature adapts the user interface of Deki Wiki to the appropriate language, which can be specified by sections and pages. Users can search across all languages and receive search results prioritized by the user's default language.

For new customer Mozilla, for example, this is a departure from the group's previous approach of managing 16 different sites for each language it supports. A 3-minute video of how the polyglot feature works can be viewed here.

Deki Wiki v8.05 also includes a new file uploader that provides single or multiple file uploading and the ability to cancel files selected for upload. There are also more than 100 new functions in the DekiScript run-time, a scripting language programmers can use to create reports and mashups by simply pointing and clicking.

Fulkerson told eWEEK that MindTouch does not want to be mistaken for a social media site, most of which are hosted Internet sites that let users chat and share apps. Users can chat and share apps in MindTouch, but he said 90 percent of the company's installations are inside the firewall.

Despite this on-premises adoption, Fulkerson said the new features pack the "enterprise 2.0" punch customers are craving, letting sites provide alternative interfaces and mashup capabilities.

"Some customers are accessing their ECM [enterprise content management] system directly, but a larger segment are accessing their ECM and Oracle databases through Deki Wiki," Fulkerson said.

MindTouch Deki Wiki 8.05 is, as the previous versions were, free, but Fulkerson said MindTouch charges businesses that require support.