Wikis
: collaborative web publishing
Mary Bruce. September 2006
closely allied to phenomena of social networking on Internet
readable/writeable websites
"most minimal working database possible" - Cunningham
created in 1995 by Ward Cunningham to support the Portland Patterns Repository (http://c2.com/ppr/)
(see also Atom wiki http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/FrontPage)
def. "a freely expandable collection of interlinked webpages, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information - a database, where each page is easily editable by any user with a forms-capable web browser client" - Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham
"features that make wikis different : Minimalistic. Informal. Freeform content. Open source. Open editing. Plain text storage. Hyperlink aware and HTML rendering on the fly. Customization" - Leuf
"a set of webpages linked together with an Edit button, a Search button at the bottom of each page. Add a page by creating a hyperlink. Put the name of the desired new page inside brackets and Save to create a 'dangling link' "
encouraged not to delete wikipages but delete content leaving a note to explain why - Mattison
stored as either plain ASCII text files or in an external relational database such as MySQL, Oracle . . . rendered or displayed as html through templates by the wiki webserver - Mattison
no formal structure as with more traditional websites - can be disconcerting as one adapts
Corporate wikis
"potentially, the web can become a way to structure your workplace. If you have a server and a hypertext editor, you can use the web to write proposals, status reports . . . your colleagues can use the web to insert their own comments or questions . . . It can be used for collaborative authorship : several people can jointly write a paper or presentation" - Mattison
"some of the common wiki uses are as a hypertext database for research and writing, knowledge management, a team collaboration tool for creating and maintaining documents that need frequent updating such as policy and procedure manuals, content for academic instruction, and a more flexible kind of weblog - Mattison
"a wiki can be effective in rapidly generating information, capturing knowledge and fostering grass roots collaboration. You will need to move some documents generated through wiki collaboration to a more managed repository at the point when the document becomes stable. Applications that are ad-hoc, team-driven and short-lived play right into the strengths of wikis" - Farrell
"corporate wikis differ from public wikis in that they are more secure and have many more navigation, usage and help features. For security reasons, corporations usually buy wiki software rather than lease space on the Internet and set up the wiki behind the company's firewall as part of an intranet or as an extranet" - Hayes
How
"in most cases, a wiki is set up that anyone with access can edit or create new pages. To edit pages, you click a link on the page that reads "click here to edit this page". To create new pages, you usually create a WikiWord. After you save the edited page, you click the question mark next to the WikiWord you typed and the wiki forwards the browser to a web form for typing the new page contents" - Angeles
"from scratch : you install whatever wiki engine you choose. You control everything
hosted wiki : all the technical details have already been taken care of and you can focus on the social aspects of growing the wiki" - Wiki Science
Terms
"Backlinks (reverse links) - a link back to the page or one of the pages that currently link to the page you are using
RecentChanges - a wiki page that lists the most recent changes to every wiki page. A proposed wiki extension to the RSS protcol uses the RecentChanges page for syndication content
WikiWord - a text formatting rule from the original wiki Perl script that creates a new wiki page and, once saved, creates a hyperlink to the page. The WikiWord constitutes the file name which in turn forms part of the URL. Using a WikiWord again on any other page creates an automatic link to the page, otherwise an open link indicator signals that the page needs to be created" - Mattison
Considerations
may need programming skills to move from one wiki application to another
no standard way to mark up a wiki - Mattison
will need a wiki administrator
can lead to charges of defamation, justified or otherwise
Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/)
"any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state : for example it could be in the middle of a large edit or it could have been recently vandalized . . .
Many contributors do not cite their sources, something that makes it hard for the reader to judge the credibility of what is written
Wiki is an unusual form of media, and as such doesn't conform well to the usual book citation formats . . . you should not cite any particular author or authors for a Wikipedia article, in general. Wikipedia is collaboratively written
Many people believe that nobody should be denied write access who is granted read access or wikis lose their power, but there are times when administrators will want to restrict which users are allowed to access a wiki
Make sure you are saving your own backup copy" - Wiki Science
Examples
Recent visitors (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki)
Find Forward (http://www.findforward.com/
Web’s Biggest (http://www.websbiggest.com
Shop Wiki (http://www.shopwiki.com
Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org
wetpaint
(http://www.wetpaint.com
UK Dept of Environment (http://wiki.defra.gov.uk/WikiHome/EnvironmentContract
Sources
Blog off / Matthew Buckland
http://www.themedia.co.za/article.aspx?articleid=281458&area=/media_columnistsnet_savvy/
The Practical Application of Blog- and Wiki-Technology
in the South African Legal Information Community / Mary Bruce
http://www.lawsoc.co.za/members/infotech/blogs/saougosall/wikis.htm
Enter the World of the Wiki / Chris Hayes
http://www.llrx.com/features/wiki.htm
Wiki Science : how to start a wiki
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Science:How_to_start_a_Wiki#Why_start_a_Wiki
Wikis, blogs and other community tools in the
enterprise / Joel A Farrell
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-wikiapps.html
Using a wiki for documentation and
collaborative authoring / Michael Angeles
http://www.llrx.com/features/librarywikis.htm
Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone
Wars : Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool / David Mattison
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr03/mattison.shtml
UK
Dept of Environment
http://wiki.defra.gov.uk/WikiHome/EnvironmentContract
[see also
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=282958&area=/breaking_news/other_news/]
Web
content on trial : who gets sued / Neil Sutton
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/Home/News.asp?id=40467