3 Reasons to Choose DokuWiki to Preserve Your Company Knowledge

Updated March 27, 2019

Brain drain is one of the biggest threats to businesses today as they face loss of talent (and acquired knowledge) with employees changing roles and companies more frequently.  Read on for 3 of the reasons DokuWiki is a great tool for preserving your company knowledge.  Note: KnownHost uses DokuWiki for our web hosting wiki – and we’re pleased with its results.

Preserving your company’s knowledge – systems, processes, cultural values, standards and more – is essential for long-term business success. But how do you retain institutional knowledge amidst the long-term retiring employees and the ambitious younger employees?

Companies spend lots of time and resources developing capability and knowledge. Although some of it translates into policies and procedures, most of it resides in hearts, heads and hands of functional experts and individual managers. Over time, most of this company knowledge moves away as employees relocate, take on new jobs or retire. Knowledge also degrades when an incoming CEO or senior executive launches a different agenda that does not build on the existing knowledge or differs with what was done earlier. And knowledge disintegrates even faster when a company merges with another or reorganizes, and there is a subsequent reshuffling of the characters and cast.

This is a typical scenario that happens in organizations of all sizes. The outcome is that the informal, people-based company information that’s critical to the firm’s effectiveness appears to have a dwindling shelf life.  Luckily, there’s something you can do to overcome the rapidly accelerating loss of company knowledge – you can use DokuWiki to create a process that your team continually captures and preserves company knowledge. This ensures that you always have a live body of crucial data that’s accessible to employees as they enter your organization.

Today, when dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are commonplace, we all know that a person’s memory is fragile. What we fail to recognize is the fact that company knowledge is constant – and if we do not preserve it actively, then we put ourselves at risk.

What is DokuWiki?

DokuWiki is a simple, yet versatile open source software package that’s written in PHP and designed to be utilized as a wiki. It’s free to download and install on both private and public servers and use indefinitely to come up with any website. Most of DokuWiki platforms are wikis, but can also be used as a content management system to create a “static site.”

At KnownHost, DokuWiki can be installed via Softaculous with just 1-click.  You can choose web hosting for your DokuWiki application install – at KnownHost, you can get wiki hosting, such as Dokuwiki from just $3.47/month.  More demanding wiki installs can go on a VPS from $28.00 per month.

That said, here are three of the many reasons company knowledge should be preserved with DokuWiki.  

Access Control List

DokuWiki has a built-in Access Control Lists (ACL) feature that lets you set and control which user or user groups has access to certain parts of the site. An ACL specifies which system processes or users are given permission to access objects and what operations are granted on individual objects. Each object has a security attribute that identifies its ACL. Some common privileges include the ability to read a number of files or every file in a directory, to edit the file and execute the file or program (if it’s executable).

ACL’s primary goal is to limit access, which is essential when access to someone’s account data is enough to alter or steal the owner’s identity. It allows for varying levels of security like the use of four-digit pin or password to lock out trespassers. In addition to the extended Access Control Lists, other access controls and anti-spam measures by DokuWiki include:

•      • Spam blacklist
•      • Simple support for read-only pages
•      • Mail address obfuscation & rel=nofllow support
•      • Delayed indexing

Easy integration

DokuWiki doesn’t need any database as it uses plain text files. Once you have activated ACL in the file config, you’ll need to decide how you want to store user information. The platform supports a range of methods, and developing one is straightforward. DokuWiki uses authentication plugins that offer specific ways to store company information and data. Users won’t even notice this plugin, but as an administrator, you’ll have to set up your desired authentication plugin and adjust it accordingly. You can even create your authentication plugin if the available plugins don’t meet your threshold. Besides, DokuWiki makes some its information available as XML. All these attributes make it convenient for you, and your team too. The platform also supports the following:

•      • Authentication Backends for integrating with MySQL, LDAP, Postgres etc.
•      • Syndication of recent changes like ATOM or RSS feeds
•      • Open source and well-documented source code

Revision control

DokuWiki keeps all versions of every wiki page, allowing you to compare the newer version with the older one. It provides a special page that highlights a list of pages that were edited recently, including the modification time, responsible user and edits summary. Thanks to the revision control feature, you can monitor all changes, and trace back anything should a need arise. And the best part is users only get to see pages to which they have read access.

DokuWiki has section editing, which lets you edit a sub-section of the page only, making it easier to change long document. It also has toolbar and access keys that make editing easy for professionals and beginners alike. Storing your company data on DokuWiki gives you control and power to ensure that everything stays up-to-date and that any mistake is rectified.

• Other basic features include:
•      • Simple Syntax
•      • Customizable interwiki links
•      • Embedding of HTML syntax
•      • Straightforward configuration
•      • Optional CamelCase support
•      • Colored side by side difference viewer support
•      • Unlimited page revisions
•      • Content can be categorized in namespaces
•      • Uploading and embedding media

Conclusion

If you are looking for a fast, powerful and easy-to-use Wiki, look no further than DokuWiki. It features numerous options that need minimal work to get started. Besides, it is incredibly fast and easy to use and customize. In a world where there is plenty of complicated and confusing software, DokuWiki is a breath of fresh air that could be great for your company.