CarmenWiki Project History
TELR (now part of Learning Technology) initiated the CarmenWiki pilot in 2007 in response to campus-wide interest in a university-sponsored wiki. The system moved from "extended beta" to a production service during the summer of 2010.
A team of staff members reviewed nearly 40 wikis, evaluating each on robustness, security, stability, usability and functions, and technical requirements for implementation on a large scale. Through a process of elimination, we arrived at three wikis: Confluence, DekiWiki, and JSPWiki.
Faculty and staff who had expressed interest in wikis were invited to evaluate ease-of-use of these wikis. Evaluators provided feedback on navigation structures, communication options, user interface, and access controls. Staff from the Web Accessibility Center also reviewed these options.
Based on the information gathered, Confluence (http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/) was selected for the pilot test.
The Ohio State installation of Confluence was named CarmenWiki. Word about the tool spread as faculty and students explored its use and talked about it to colleagues. A group management plug-in was added and eventually a web-based utility to enable OSU personnel to easily request spaces was developled.