A profile is a collection of Tiki configuration data, including
which features are selected
which groups are set up
which permissions a group has
Profiles can be chosen at initial setup
At the beginning of the webbased part of the installation process, the admin can choose what profile to install with
examples could be "minimal", "standard news portal", "full fledged monster"
There is a link "download more profiles" (like with themes or extensions in mozillafirebird)
after choosing initial profile, the admin can finetune to her needs
Example: Profile "Tiki for a music band"
uses features calendar, CMS, Wiki, Forum
uses groups Band, Booking, Venues, Fans
permissions so that Band sees more than Fans etc.
a musicians magazine could provide a version of Tiki that loads with the "Music Band" profile by default. The whole thing just looks like designed ONLY for musicians.
Profiles are mergable
Suppose I already have a running and configured Tiki, but I want to add all the functionality of profile "Band", then I can merge that into the current instance
Wherever this is possible without conflicts, Groups and permissions are just automatically added
Admin can choose what to do in conflicts
Profiles are dumpable
Suppose some band is quite happy with their configuration after some tweaking.
Then they just click "dump profile", set the appropiate checkboxes on which part of the configuration to dump (export) and contribute the resulting profile to tikiwiki.org, where others can download it.