Misc

In a nutshell they basically took MediaWiki and then extended it to make it easier to use and to appeal to the needs of business users.

Or at least thats how they started. Deki was initially a hacked version of MediaWiki, but since then the core has been rewritten on top of a distributed web framework engine called Dream, which is implemented in .Net / Mono. I think they chose that platform to allow cross-platform compatibility (many IT departments insist on using Windows). Also its a better development platform than Java, the skillset is widely available and its easier to market to conservative enterprise users than a system based on a "scripting" language like Python or Ruby. This is important aspect because Deki is pitched not just as a business "Wiki"-like application but as a development platform for integrating information from multiple information sources ("information silos").

In addition to the standard MediaWiki featureset, Deki also has:

• a much easier to use AJAX based interface
   
• rich editor: nicest WYSIWYG editor I've seen yet
   
• heirarchies: powerful support for heirarchies of pages (each page can have subpages), seamlessly integrated with a navigation tab and security controls.
  
  You can move pages around between heirarchies easily and when you do, all the links in all the various pages are updated automatically.
   
• security controls: fine grained, yet easy to use security controls. You can control who has what type of access to a page or a heirarchy of pages.
   
• Multiple modes of collaboration: each page supports threaded comments
  and file attachments
   
• Rich extensibility: an extension language called DekiScript, that
  allows you to easily invoke a rich selection of local and remotely
  hosted extensions that allow you to integrate information from
  multiple sources, such as for example:
  • shell output
  • atom/rss feeds
  • google maps/calendar/spreadsheet
  • yahoo stock quotes
  • flickr images
  • imagemagick effects
  • mysql
  • subversion.
     
• RSS feeds of watched pages, whats new, etc. They don't support email
  integration yet but I think its a planned feature.

From the screencast demos of MindTouch extensions (done by the CEO/founder himself) Its clear there is a very nice architecture that offers fantastic potential here.

Deki is being used mostly behind the firewall right now, but there is at least one major user online besides MindTouch - the mozilla developer community website at http://developer.mozilla.org/

Mozilla migrated from MediaWiki not too long ago. They customized the look and feel quite a bit (e.g., got rid of the navigation tab)