MediaWiki -- does it help or hurt?

Almost every large organization that has an IT department that I speak to has at least one instance of MediaWiki running somewhere.  Sometimes a CIO-type even knows about it.  Sometimes its lauded as the corporate wiki.  I like to call them "Work-apedias" - since they tend to mimic the encyclopedic nature of Wikipedia.  

However, MediaWiki has some severe functional limitations that make widespread adoption (even within IT) a big challenge.  Some organizations overcome these challenges, while some opt for commercial products - and find that they settle for other limitations there.

Some love MediaWiki, some hate it.  It was never designed for Enterprise use, but it certainly scales well.  Let's lay out the issues together and debate the merits of MediaWiki in the Enterprise.

Gil Yehuda is an industry analyst covering the Enterprise 2.0 marketplace.  Before launching his independent practice, Gil was a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research covering Enterprise 2.0.  Prior to that, Gil was an Enterprise Architect at Fidelity Investments, where he was involved in rolling out employee communities and E2.0 technologies.  Gil is a frequent speaker and workshop leader on the topic of purposeful social computing.

GilYehuda.com is a consulting practice dedicated to helping organizations find success though the effective use of Enterprise 2.0 tools and behaviors.