MediaWiki

MediaWiki is an open-source wiki software package used by some of the largest wikis in the world, most notably Wikipedia, and many smaller wikis. It uses a flexible modular system in which components have dependencies and build on each other. For example, the Asirra anti-spam extension depends on the ConfirmEdit extension. According to a 26 September 2012 email by software developer Timo Tijhof, the philosophy of keeping the core software minimal can be summed up as "unless other existing core functionality would need it, it doesn't make sense to include it. Instead, extensions should prove themselves. If an extension provides functionality that other extensions need, those other extensions will simply add 'Make sure X and Y [are] installed first' to their instructions". One of the benefits of this is fair competition, in that extensions can decide what they want to use; this modularity also makes it easy for developers to fork a utility and improve it.

In this respect, MediaWiki is much like other successful modular software packages such as Wordpress, which have many hundreds or even thousands of extensions available from different authors. This type of system is analogous to the ideal of a federalist political framework, in which the "core" or "central" government performs only a relatively small set of functions necessary to enable the state and local governments to operate without forcibly interfering with one another. The idea behind a minarchist state or local government, in turn, is to provide only the amount of regulation and other public goods necessary to create an environment in which competing private enterprises can function.

It is similar to how on a server, an extension depends on another extension, which in turns depends on MediaWiki, which in turns depends on PHP, which in turn depends on the operating system, which in turn depends on the firmware. Virginia Postrel writes, "That computer programs are themselves strings of rules, which in turn depend on more-fundamental rules embedded in hardware or lower-level software languages, means that even a nonphilosophical programmer has a practical knowledge of rule structures. And for the more ambitious, developing the virtual frontier offers a chance to explore and create rules that enable other people to generate rich, dynamic systems of their own."

As in a libertarian society, in the MediaWiki community, freedom and personal responsibility go hand in hand. A developer is free to create and distribute an extension that is marked as "beta," "experimental," or "unstable," and a wiki system administrator is free to install and use it, at his own risk. He or the wiki owner for whom he works bears the consequences if a glitch in the extension causes problems.

MediaWiki and its documentation are copylefted, the former under the GNU Public License and the latter under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. Its success could be considered proof not only that people (including wealthy donors such as Google's investors) are generous enough to fund such projects, but that copyright protections are not needed to ensure the advancement of new technology. The ability to produce derivative works from others' contributions provides a significant advantage for MediaWiki developers, and the development community is willing to provide code review services free of charge to those who are willing to allow the community to benefit from their work product.

External link

• MediaWiki.org