I quickly controlled these extensions from the Web administration console; there’s no messing with configuration files. The same usability let me edit users, groups, and permissions; alter the site’s look; and perform server maintenance, including one-button backup and restore.

The more I used Atlassian Confluence, the more I appreciated the thought behind its design. It doesn’t go overboard with extraneous features, yet still stuffs in an amazing amount of functionality — all surrounded by a good-looking, friendly interface. This adds up to an enjoyable, productive experience.

Near-Time
The self-service Near-Time lets team members share ideas and files through a group Weblog (News). Users also contribute unstructured knowledge by creating pages in traditional wiki fashion. All this content is assembled within spaces that are public or private. In both cases, podcasts and RSS feeds can be created to communicate with broad audiences. Information is organized and discovered using categories and tags, which also help refine searches. Last, Near-Time’s Event calendar helps track activities.

As a hosted product, Near-Time requires minimal setup time. I tested the Power Plan option ($699.95 annually), which provides all possible management controls, SSL data encryption, Roles and Permissions, and 1GB of file storage. Registering users by sending e-mail invitations is a one-step process. Similarly, controlling what these users can see and do within a space only requires checking off appropriate roles (such as editor, author, commenter, or reader).

Accompanying Near-Time functions follow this simple model. For example, a tab in the clutter-free Web interface let me create pages, which included links, images, and file attachments. Editing controls are among the most complete I’ve encountered, with advanced options to insert Word documents, draw tables, and insert anchor links. Creating and editing News posts works identically. Further, I had no trouble sending e-mails to my News and Pages addresses, which automatically created entries from the content in messages.

The system’s intelligence streamlines linking to other content. In the editing toolbar I typed link text followed by a partial name of the desired page or attachment. Near-Time then displayed the best matches and I merely clicked the correct target content to construct a working link. However, Near-Time sometimes had its own idea where links got inserted within the page, placing them at random rather than where I positioned my cursor.

Click for larger view.

Near-Time doesn’t support a formal hierarchy for wiki and Weblog entries. As an alternative, you create Categories and Tags, which are applied to pages and articles. By filtering on these classifications and metadata in the well-done search engine, I quickly found relevant content. Further, searches (the ones you own and those of colleagues’) can be saved and placed on the search page.

Files are managed more traditionally, where you create main folders and subfolders underneath. Document management functions are ample, with the ability to replace, edit, check-in, and check-out documents. But I would like versioning control (currently, when you check in an update, the original file is overwritten).

Near-Time’s main Dashboard consolidates what’s new in all your spaces, including recent files, pages, and events. Between this display, RSS subscriptions, and e-mail notifications it’s easy to stay informed about colleagues’ activities.

Although Near-Time is primarily a private collaboration tool, I exposed some content to the public. This was simple, by changing a space’s access settings. You can further restrict viewing to just content categorized as public.

Near-Time generally performed well in creating content, collaboration, and sharing knowledge — all at a low price. It doesn’t have the granular permissions, organizational capabilities, and extensibility of some other products. But it’s nonetheless a smart choice because there’s no need to learn wiki markup or jump through hoops to administer users and spaces.

Socialtext Workspace 2.3
Socialtext was first with a commercial wiki product and has a strong presence in Global 2000 corporations. It has the most deployment options of the test products: hosted Professional and Personal versions, an Enterprise appliance, and community-supported open source software. I tested the Professional version, which lacks only a few features found in the Enterprise version, such as integration with a directory server.