What is a Wiki?

Melissa Lynch HoffmannMSPC3050

Jan. 26, 2011

[A] website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.

Source: Oxford American Dictionary

History of the WikiProgrammer Ward Cunningham developed the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, in 1994. It was named for the Wiki Wiki Shuttle at the Honolulu International Airport: In Hawaiian, “wiki-wiki” means “quick.”

The Wonders of the Wiki

A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki website, using only a standard Web browser without any extra add-ons.

Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by allowing easy page link creation.

A wiki seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the website landscape. The user is able to add content and edit the content added by others.

Why Wiki?

Internal business communications

Collaborative pages (e.g., committees and group projects)

To share knowledge (e.g. Wikipedia and WikiHow)

How do you Wiki?

Host your own Wiki

MediaWiki.org; Twiki.org

Have another service host your Wiki

PBWiki.com; Wikispaces.com; DooWikis.com

The most famous Wiki? WIKIPEDIA

“The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”

“A wiki is a place to write in the same way that a party is a place to talk. There are thoughts all around you. Some are interesting, some less so. At a party or on a wiki, a word or two will be your trigger. Ideas start flowing. Talking or writing, you're among friends, the stage is set, you say your piece, it fits in, your words trigger the next thought: conversation.”

- Ward Cunningham, creator of the first Wiki Wikis for Dummies (forward)

The "Wiki Wiki" bus line in Hawaii, after which the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, was named.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WikiWiki.jpg