Your personal Wikipedia
Depository
Do you have lots of information which you save in all kinds of documents? Why not create your own Wikipedia server where you can deposit photos, documents, etc.? This will make your Wikipedia pages accessible from any computer in your home network and even on the Internet. This will enable family, team members, colleagues throughout the world to be able to access them!
Your own server
You can set up your own Wikipedia server using MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org), a free program for Windows computers. It works on older computers too, as long as they run Windows XP or higher. Of course, if you want to have constant access to your Wiki, your computer should always be on. This computer should also run webserver software and a database server. We recommend WampServer (http://www.wampserver.com), a free program which contains webserver Apache, database MySQL, and scripting language PHP.
WampServer
First of all you should download WampServer and install it in the default folder, c:\\wamp. If you receive an alert by the Windows Firewall, click on Unblock. Next, enter (optionally) the details of your provider’s mail server. WampServer will be launched and you will see a new icon in the system tray (beside the clock). Launch a browser and surf to http://localhost. If the WampServer information page (Server Configuration) appears, this means that the installation has been successful.
MediaWiki
Next, install MediaWiki. You can unpack the compressed tar.gz file by means of a tool such as 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org). Copy or move the resulting mediawiki-1.16.0 folder to, for instance, c:\\wamp\\www\\wiki. Now surf to http://localhost/wikiin your browser. You will see a flower icon and below it MediaWiki and the text “Please set up the wiki first”. Click on this link and a very detailed installation page will appear. Fortunately, there are only a few things that need to be changed. First, enter a Wiki name - use no spaces and by preference choose a short name, such as MyWiki.
Next, enter an e-mail address and choose a language. Then type a safe password for the administrator (username WikiSysop, but you can change this). In the Database Config section, select MySQL. Enter a safe password next to DB Password and tick Use Superuser Account.
Finally, click on Install MediaWiki! After a few seconds, the Installation Successful page will appear. You now only need to move (not copy!) the LocalSettings.php file from the c:\\wamp\\www\\wiki\\config folder to c:\\wamp\\www\\wiki in order to finish the installation.
When you now surf to http://localhost/wiki, you will have access to your own wiki. You will see that it’s the spitting image of Wikipedia!
Tip 1. Click on Manual for an excellent guide for configuring your wiki server, for instance, how to change the logo.
Tip 2. Via Sign up/Register you can now log in as WikiSysop user to create and edit pages.
Create your profile to unlock this advice and many more.