I’m sure you are all 100% familiar with the infamous WikiPedia by now. What you may not be so familiar with is the software that runs the site called MediaWiki. MediaWiki is a fully featured php wiki module and it was built by, and for, wikipedia.

The MediaWiki software is 100% free and installs really easily on most shared linux hosting. It has an authentication feature which allows you to password protect the entire application’s content, which makes MediaWiki the perfect software for organizing your life.

I personally have about 4 installs of mediawiki running for various projects I’m working on. I have one to organize my online properties and projects and it helps me track bugs, changes, ideas for future development. My team has one installed on our boxes at work to track the various apps and projects that we’re responsible for.

Before you begin to use MediaWiki as a project manager or organization tool, you really need to become familiar with a few of the main concepts.  Wiki code is something you’ll have to learn if you want to use a wiki at all. The second most important one is to learn how the page relation works. There is no formal hierarchy – which is good. The whole system relies on tags or categories. This will be essential to organizing your MediaWiki.

If you have questions about install or config just visit their site. Its rediculous full of easy-to-follow instruction for everything.