What is a Wiki?

The humble wiki has been getting a lot of hype lately. Derived from the Hawaiian word for ‘quick,’ a wiki (pronounced ‘wick-ey’) is a website or online resource that allows users to add and edit content collaboratively. The term wiki also refers to server software that allows users to write and edit website content using their web browser. As such, you may sometimes hear wikis described as online content management systems (CMS) or simplified databases.
Arguably, the defining characteristic of a wiki is its simplicity. Documents – which become web pages – are co-authored and co-edited by a community of users via a web browser. Thus wikis are distinct from blogs and forums which (typically) are authored by one person, with others commenting to create a dialogue around a particular topic or posting. Key characteristics of wikis are the use of simple text, hyperlinks and basic search functionality.
Wiki proponents subscribe to the idea that it’s easier to correct mistakes, remove content and repair vandalism than to be constantly creating content; therefore, wikis are amenable to changes by design. Because many are open to the public and require no user-login, modifications are generally accepted without review. These characteristics promote content composition by nontechnical users. In contrast, private wiki servers – which are growing in popularity among tech-savvy organizations as wiki solution providers like Socialtext hit the mainstream – frequently require user authentication. With the corporate world embracing wikis for collaborative project planning, it’s speculated that ‘private’ wikis may now outnumber public ones.
Wiki philosophy holds that collaboration accelerates projects, increases productivity and promotes creativity by tapping into the collective mindshare of groups of users, coworkers, etc. As such, wikis lend themselves to many interesting uses including private-and-public knowledge bases, collaborative online FAQ’s and help desks, directories, dictionaries and encyclopedia’s galore. The most successful wiki to date – Wikipedia – is a “free, democratic, reliable” encyclopedia with more than 715,000 articles in 200 languages making it the most comprehensive resource in existence (by way of comparison, encyclopedia Britannica contains about 85,000 articles). In January 2005, over 13 000 users made more than 5 edits each!
There are some downsides to the open-philosophy of wikis, such as the potential for content vandalism or “bad-faith editing”and a lack of quality control. Wikipedia notes that vandalism is a constant scourge for wikis; however, as previously mentioned, it’s quite easy for wiki moderators to remove inappropriate content, rolling back the wiki to its prior state. Setting the bar, Wikipedia claims the bulk of vandalism to their site is reverted in 5 minutes or less. Many wikis also track the IP addresses of authors and editors. While IP addresses associated with abuse can be blocked, such bans can be circumvented with relative ease. In extreme cases, Wiki administrators may choose to protect certain pages, making them read-only. These actions are not undertaken lightly, going against wiki convention and philosophy. While the blog dominated 2005, look for 2006 to be the year of the wiki as it grows to become a mainstream collaborative tool for content development.
To get you started:
InformationWeek article, “How to Use Wikis for Business”
www.informationweek.com/…167600331

Wikipedia
www.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia (list of Wikipedias in different languages)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias
Wikipedia sister sites
Wikiquote (quotation collection)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikitionary (dictionary and thesaurus)
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikibooks (textbooks and manuals)
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page