Wikia - creating communities

Jonathan Nolen proposed an open company test:

"I don't just want open source code. I want a partnership with an open company. You also have to provide channels of communication -- and participate in them. And you have to be honest about your product..."

Wikia, Inc., which hosts Wikia, is not an open company according to this test.

1. Open Sourcecode: Do you have access to the sourcecode? True open source is great, but simple access to the source code, even if it's not under an open source license, is often enough.

   No. Although Wikia uses MediaWiki, which is open source, Wikia has made many extensions and hacks to the software, and most of these are not open source.

2. Open Data: Can you easily get your data into or out of the application, should the need arise?

   Somewhat. All Wikia have a full database download available so you can take the data at any time. It's released under the GFDL, so it is reusable and free. However, Wikia adds a nice "From blank, a Wikia wiki" to the bottom of each exported page, downgrading the database's external usability.

3. Open APIs: Can your other software interact with the application? The best applications provide different means of access: GUI, command-line, RSS, SOAP or REST, for example. These additional avenues of access enable you to build more complex and customized solutions using the product. Remember the philosophy of small pieces, loosely joined.

   Yes. Various APIs are being worked on within MediaWiki. There is an extension to MediaWiki to provide an OAI-PMH repository interface by which page updates can be made to mirror sites. There is a SOAP interface available in CVS. Special:Export allows an XML-Export of any page.

4. Open Pricing: Can you easily find out from the company's website how much the product costs, or do you have to talk to a sales-person? If it's the latter, they're hiding that information for a reason.

   Yes. This one's easy. Wikia is completely free. The site is supported by investments and advertising.

5. Open Bugtracking: Can you access the real bug tracking system (not a neutered, customer-only bug ghetto)? Not all bugs (like security bugs) or information (like resource assignment) must necessarily be available, but the more the better.

   No. Wikia's bugzilla redirects to inside.wikia.com leaving only MediaWiki's bugzilla.

6. Open Feature Voting: Can you vote for your most critical issues and influence, to some degree, the allocation of development resources? There is obviously no guarantee, and there are dozens of factors that determine which bugs or features will be worked on in a given time period. But a user-visible voting system allows you to know that your voice is being heard and see how your request is balanced against other influences to effect the product.

   No. There is no bugzilla to "vote" for features, and general community input is usually ignored.

7. Open Communication / Open Community: Are you able to communicate with other users and with the developers of the product? There are many venues where this communication can occur: mailing lists, discussion forums, blogs (both employee author and customer authored) or wikis.

   Somewhat. You can do this on the mailing lists, Wikia IRC channel, community portal, and other pages on this Central Wikia. The Special:Contact form can also be used to contact staff. It should be noted, however, staff are rarely on IRC, so that is not a valid place to communicate with developers.

8. Open Documentation: Can users contribute to the product documentation? As I mentioned here, allowing users to help each other creates better, more accurate documentation. Knowledge hard-won through actual deployment and use should be shared as efficiently and directly as possible for the benefit of all.

   Yes. All documentation occurs on this wiki. See Category:Help. All of these pages are openly editable.

9. Open Customer Support: Can you see tech support issues filed by other customers? Not every customer issue is appropriate to share with the world, but openness should be the default. Learning from other users' problems can help prevent your own.

   Somewhat. Many technical support issues are handled on wiki, however, finding which specific page has which specific issue is a hassle.

[edit] See also

• JotSpot takes the Open Company Test
• XWiki takes the Open Company Test