---
title: Knowledge Management and Wikis
date: 2025-12-27
summary: Tools for documenting, organizing, and sharing community knowledge. When institutional memory lives in systems you control, it survives leadership transitions and serves future generations.
draft: True
featureImageCaption: "Photo by [Giammarco Boscaro](https://unsplash.com/@giamboscaro) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/zeH-ljawHtg) (Unsplash License)"
---

Every community accumulates knowledge: how things work, why decisions were made, what was tried before, who knows what. This knowledge is precious—and fragile.

When key members leave, undocumented knowledge disappears with them. When information lives in scattered documents, email threads, and people's heads, newcomers struggle to get up to speed. When decisions aren't recorded, communities relitigate the same questions over and over.

Wikis and knowledge bases solve this problem by creating shared, searchable, continuously updated repositories of community knowledge.

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## Why This Matters for Communities

### Institutional Memory

The "bus factor" problem is real: when key community members leave, retire, or become unavailable, undocumented knowledge disappears. Communities without documentation systems face "organizational amnesia"—lessons learned are repeatedly forgotten.

Good documentation preserves not just decisions, but the reasoning behind them. This prevents future members from repeating past mistakes or relitigating settled questions.

### Onboarding New Members

New members with access to well-organized documentation can become productive contributors much faster than those who rely on asking questions and tribal knowledge.

Self-service learning allows newcomers to learn at their own pace without requiring constant mentorship. Everyone receives the same foundational knowledge, reducing confusion from conflicting verbal explanations.

### Transparency and Trust

When processes, policies, and decisions are documented publicly, community members can understand how things work and hold leadership accountable.

Knowledge hoarding creates informal hierarchies. Shared documentation democratizes access to information. Transparent documentation of governance, finances, and operations builds trust with members, donors, and external stakeholders.

### Collective Intelligence

Community members collectively know far more than any individual. Wikis allow this distributed expertise to be captured and organized.

Unlike static documents, wikis enable continuous refinement as the community learns and grows.

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## Real-World Examples

### The Arch Wiki

Widely considered one of the best community-maintained documentation resources in existence. Used even by users of other Linux distributions. Demonstrates how community-driven documentation can exceed commercial quality.

### Wikipedia

The ultimate proof-of-concept that collaborative knowledge management works at massive scale: 60+ million articles in 300+ languages, maintained by volunteers.

### Hackerspaces and Makerspaces

Noisebridge, NYC Resistor, and makerspaces worldwide commonly use wikis to document equipment usage, project ideas, and organizational procedures.

### Cooperatives and Community Organizations

Housing cooperatives use wikis for member handbooks, maintenance procedures, and governance documentation. The knowledge stays with the organization even as members come and go.

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## Key Considerations

### Ease of Editing

| Approach | Pros | Cons |
|:---------|:-----|:-----|
| **WYSIWYG** (BookStack, Outline) | No learning curve, familiar interface | Less precise formatting control |
| **Markdown** (Wiki.js, Outline) | Developer-friendly, portable format | Learning curve for non-technical users |
| **WikiText** (MediaWiki) | Powerful, proven at scale | Steeper learning curve |

### Organization Methods

**Hierarchical** (BookStack's Shelves → Books → Chapters → Pages): Intuitive for structured documentation.

**Flat with Tags** (Outline): Flexible, good for cross-cutting topics.

**Category-based** (MediaWiki): Powerful but can become complex.

**Hybrid** (Wiki.js): Supports multiple organizational paradigms.

### Permissions

Consider who can view (public vs. members-only vs. mixed) and who can edit (open vs. registered users vs. approval workflows). Different communities need different balances of openness and control.

### Search

Full-text search is essential—all four major tools provide this. For large wikis, advanced search with Elasticsearch integration (Wiki.js, MediaWiki) becomes important.

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## Choosing the Right Tool

### Wiki.js: Modern and Flexible

Best for technical communities wanting flexibility and modern UX.

**Strengths**: Beautiful interface; multiple editor options (Markdown, Visual, HTML); 50+ integrations; Git-based storage sync; highly performant.

### BookStack: Intuitive and Structured

Best for organizations wanting structured documentation with minimal learning curve.

**Strengths**: Very intuitive organization model (Shelves → Books → Chapters → Pages); easy for non-technical users; built-in diagramming; good permission system.

### Outline: Clean and Collaborative

Best for teams wanting a modern, Notion-like collaborative writing experience.

**Strengths**: Beautiful, distraction-free interface; real-time collaboration; Markdown-native with slash commands; fast search.

### MediaWiki: Battle-Tested at Scale

Best for large communities needing Wikipedia-style collaborative editing.

**Strengths**: Proven at massive scale (powers Wikipedia); extremely powerful and extensible; huge ecosystem of extensions.

**Considerations**: Steeper learning curve; WikiText syntax; more complex administration.

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## Open Source Options

| Project | Description |
|:--------|:------------|
| [Wiki.js](https://js.wiki) | Modern wiki with multiple editors and extensive integrations. <br><small>📊 25,900+ GitHub stars. Active development.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/requarks/wiki) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
| [BookStack](https://www.bookstackapp.com) | Simple, self-hosted platform with intuitive organization. <br><small>📊 16,000+ GitHub stars. Popular with non-technical organizations.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack) · MIT</small> |
| [Outline](https://www.getoutline.com) | Modern team knowledge base with real-time collaboration. <br><small>📊 29,000+ GitHub stars. Clean, Notion-like interface.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/outline/outline) · BSL-1.1</small> |
| [MediaWiki](https://www.mediawiki.org) | The software behind Wikipedia. Proven at massive scale. <br><small>📊 Powers Wikipedia's 60M+ articles. Used by thousands of organizations.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki) · GPL-2.0</small> |

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## Getting Started

Start by documenting what you wish you'd known when you joined. The most valuable documentation often comes from newcomers who can identify what's confusing or missing.

Don't aim for perfection. "Good enough" documentation that exists beats perfect documentation that never gets written. Wikis enable continuous improvement—start simple and refine over time.

Create a culture of documentation. Make it normal to update the wiki after meetings, after solving problems, after learning something new. The habit matters more than the tool.

And remember: knowledge documented in systems you control stays with your community forever. It survives leadership transitions, serves future generations, and becomes part of your community's lasting legacy.
