2017
- Store all wiki pages and objects in S3. Store the objects in an editable format, something like Markdown, but also store it as HTML as well so it can be served directly out of S3. Think of how static site generators work.
- The wiki itself should live in Lambda functions exposed through API Gateway. All editing and modifying of objects in the S3 bucket should be done via this method.
- The wiki should be self-managed by a central source to update it. Wiki’s have a history of being poorly maintained. You should be able to create an IAM credential and give the ability for the Lambda functions and infrastructure of the wiki to be updated automatically.
Envisioning a Cloud Native Wiki
A few years ago I dove deeply into the wiki ecosystem and learned all about MediaWiki, its plugins and various extensions. I started a wiki to index all of the other wiki’s called WikiApiary. The wiki movement was huge, and it still has a tremendous amount of energy and incredibly devoted users. Wikipedia, in my opinion, is one of the most amazing creations of the Internet.
However, the wiki movement has hit the skids lately. There was a significant rush of wiki hosting platforms early on, and those mostly didn’t work. Wikia is perhaps an exception however it’s driven itself into the hole of fandom in a big way. Sadly many wiki platforms continue to sit on top of ugly PHP code and MySQL databases, with old codebases and arcane syntax.
In recent years email newsletters have seen a resurgence. I’d like to see wikis make a similar revival but for that to happen, we need to have some new energy in the wiki ecosystem. We need a cloud-native wiki solution. What would that look like?
Cloud Native Wiki
First thing first wikis should enable communities of any size, so the cost of running a wiki needs to be as cheap as possible. A serverless approach seems to make the most sense. If nobody is using the wiki the cost of running it should be no more than the storage, and that can be very cost effective.
Let Millions of Wikis Flourish
Ideally, someone should be able to start a wiki by creating an AWS account and then creating the IAM account for provisioning and updating. That account should then do all the initial setup as well as updating over time.
The content would be held in Markdown files in S3, as well as rendered HTML. This content would be easily mirrored off of S3 so it could be taken somewhere else. If the Lambda functions were all removed, the wiki should still run in static mode with no editing.
If we had this kind of capability, perhaps we could see wikis reenter the landscape for all the good that they can provide.
32-bit color. 🎨
Got my ScanSnap iX500 setup tonight. Cloud scanning seems to be working well.
Family night out with dinner at Bacio and then went to Coco. What a great movie! Highly recommended!
Playing The .com Edition of Monopoly, of course. 😜 Hilarious tiles. Game starts with $1.5 billion per player. 💸 CBS MarketWatch has a tile, right next to Sun Microsystems!
Google and Amazon are not on The .com Edition Monopoly board. 🤷♂️
I had to buy Sun Microsystems in .com Monopoly. 💙
56k modem for the win! .com Monopoly. 😊
Very true → “You are either building a learning organization, or you are losing to one who is." — John Allspaw
Christmas Tree decorating and reminiscing. 🎄
I don’t get 1000%+ price increase in Bitcoin. 🤷♂️
Finished Stranger Things 2 tonight. Very good. 👏🏻