MIKE2:Comparison with Wikipedia

From MIKE2.0 Methodology

In moving to the open source version of MIKE2.0, we took much of our inspiration from Wikipedia and the work being conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation. In what has become one of the most popular web sites in the world, Wikipedia is a great example of the power of open source and a collaborative community.

The similarities and differences between MIKE2.0 and Wikipedia are summarised below.

Similarities Between MIKE2.0 and Wikipedia

• Both sites are focused on content-building in a collaborative fashion
• Both sites use the same MediaWiki technology for building wiki pages
• Because they use the same software, the core syntax used on the MIKE2.0 site and Wikipedia for creating Article pages is the same
• The process of using Talk Pages to discuss Article pages is similar
• Both sites allow for parallel improvement of articles, although there are differences in the approach

Differences Between MIKE2.0 and Wikipedia

• MIKE2.0 is much more narrow in its focus that Wikipedia. MIKE2.0 is focused on topics related Enterprise Information Management; Wikipedia contains any content appropriate for an encyclopedia and has far more content than any other encyclopedia. Other projects by the Wikimedia Foundation include definition of a shared images commons, a dictionary and thesaurus and News.

• The open source version of MIKE2 is very immature compared with Wikipedia and was released in December 2006. Wikimedia is one of the most visited sites in the world, has been active since the year 2001 and has millions of registered Wikipedians. It should be noted, however, that the MIKE2 content was in active use by BearingPoint before being made available to the open source community.

• As MIKE2.0 provides a methodology for how organisations can manage their data better, it is inherently biased in its approach and does not necessarily align to the Neutral Point of View that is one of the core tenets of Wikipedia. There will, however, be an option to express a point of view on any asset on Talk Pages.

• Not all MIKE2.0 content would be deemed to be of general interest - some content may be considered specialist material that would be inappropriate for an encyclopedia. In addition, it is expected that some Vendor Solutions will be commercial in nature

• MIKE2.0 has the concept of core assets which can be thought of as the "approved" aspects of the MIKE2.0 Methodology that provide the most value to a broad audience. Although Wikipedia also employs concepts such as Featured Articles, MIKE2 employs this at a stricter level.

• A much larger percentage of MIKE2.0 (all of the Core MIKE2.0 Methodology) is Protected Content. Content is protected as part of providing a stable Release Cycle. This content has a direct impact in shaping other artifacts that are added to the methodology.

• Release Cycles mean that there will be period when some aspects of the Core MIKE2.0 Methodology will not change and will only change as part of a release.

• There are overlaps in MIKE2.0 and Wikipedia around descriptions of key concepts and processes such as ETL and Business Activity Monitoring. In some cases, the Wikipedia description of these concepts are far more comprehensive; the MIKE2.0 description is always framed in specific terms related to the overall method.

License Dependencies

• MIKE2.0 has referenced some limited content from Wikipedia in the MIKE2.0 Framework for an Open Methodology by directly linking to this content on Wikipedia. This approach is allowed without permission by the WikiMedia Foundation as referenced in the following article.

• Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License; MIKE2.0 is released under the similar Creative Commons License.

Affiliation

Other than the use of some referenced content to make up the MIKE2.0 Framework there is no affiliation between the MIKE2.0 initiative and the Wikimedia Foundation, nor has there been any communication between the creators of MIKE2.0 and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Content Mashups from Wikipedia

As Wikipedia provides such an excellent online reference of objectively written material, it is an ideal source of content for MIKE2.0 . Some content has therefore been mashed up for articles in MIKE2.0 that are definitional in nature and for which the focus is to explain Information Management concepts.