FAQ application for work

May 18, 2006 / Filed under: Ponderings, Services

I’m currently looking to create a web application for the IT department, at my company, to act as an "FAQ," where information can be saved, for later reference.

The idea is this: There are so many little things we do on a daily basis that should be documented, for later reference, or for other employees to access.

You can consider this to be a complete "how to" manual, for everything we do.

But... with the advantage of the web, we should include these capabilites:

  • Ability to handle lots (hundreds or thousands) of pages
  • Collaborative editing
  • Customizable pages
  • Searchable index
  • Ability to add files (such as Excel, Word, etc.)
  • Ability to add images

I’m not looking to create this myself. I want to use an existing application/technology.

However, I’m undecided on what approach to take.

I thought about using Backpack, because it seems to have all these capabilities, but I’m not sure how well it would handle hundreds or thousands of separate pages.

I thought about using a blog publishing platform, but this would probably require all users to have good knowledge of HTML, which most users won’t.

I thought about using Google Notebook, because of Google’s extensive search capabilities, but Notebook seems to be limited, when it comes to adding files and images. But I could be wrong. I haven’t used it extensively yet.

I thought of a few other services, too, but nothing seems to "click," yet.

Anyone got any ideas of how I could accomplish this?

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