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Chapter 11 of “Take Control of OS X Server” Now Available

Last week in the streamed “Take Control of OS X Server,” we looked at what was necessary to run a general-purpose Web site. But if your goal is instead to host a wiki or a blog, you don’t have to mess with the Web service at all. Instead, in Chapter 11, “Wiki Services,” Charles Edge explains how to enable OS X Server’s Wiki service, and how to create your own wikis.

The massively popular Wikipedia is the best known example of a wiki, but with OS X Server, anyone can set up and run a wiki, whether it’s for a family, a class, a volunteer organization, or a business. Wikis are tremendously useful, because they allow anyone (to whom you’ve given permission) to create and edit pages, spreading the load and enabling those who have information to share it without going through a webmaster or other gatekeeper.

You can use a wiki for household documentation, employee manuals, process lists, collaborative class projects, and nearly anything else that can be created with text, graphics, and links. Plus, with a click of a single checkbox, a wiki can also host a blog, with chronologically arranged posts that are nothing more than special wiki pages.

There’s almost nothing to do in the Server app when it comes to enabling the Wiki service; the main work comes in setting up your wikis. It’s not hard, but it’s worth putting some thought into setting permissions, choosing the theme, and creating a skeleton for the site. Users aren’t likely to build the site you envision on their own, but if you give them a framework in which to work and encourage them, they’ll be more likely to add the necessary content. Frankly, I could easily see small organizations running OS X Server just for the Wiki service; it’s that useful.

We encourage everyone to read the first two chapters of “Take Control of OS X Server” to see where the book is going — all subsequent chapters are available only to TidBITS members for now. If you have already joined the TidBITS membership program, log in to the TidBITS site using the email address from which you joined. The full ebook of “Take Control of OS X Server” will be available for purchase by everyone in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats once it’s complete. Published chapters include:

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