Confluence
I re-design Confluence to appear the same as a current Intranet, or for a unique design, by using Adaptavist's Theme Builder plug-in. An administrator can apply themes to a site or individual spaces with a host of Theme Builder plug-ins to produce almost any functionality that may be required. One major advantage is that no additional work is required in Theme Builder if Confluence is upgraded. An alternative to using Theme Builder is to modify the Velocity templates in Confluence, but this requires an experienced developer and all the templates have to be re-built if Confluence is upgraded.
Many companies are now seeing the benefits of including a wiki in their Intranets. Once the idea that anyone can edit a page written by someone else has sunk in the Wiki quickly becomes a valuable resource. Experience has shown that the material added is actually what people need and not what a central bureaucracy thinks people need. The quality of material is also high, as the name of anyone adding or editing a page is shown and no one wants to be humiliated by adding poor content.
There are many wikis available, but if you want to include a wiki as a part of your corporate Intranet then Confluence stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is designed to include versatile permissions from the start. Something most other wikis just cannot do, or are near impossible to implement successfully. There are hundreds of plug-ins available to extend the functionality of Confluence. The majority are open source and are fully supported by the sponsoring organisation.
Compare Wiki
View this guide in Wikipedia to compare the currently available wiki.
Guide to growing a wiki
There are a number of points that you can follow to increase the chances of creating a successful wiki. wikipatterns.com is an excellent guide to good practice and the pitfalls that you should be aware of to help to grow your wiki.
