It's an informal set of linked Web pages that can become a forum for the spontaneous exchange of ideas. By John Tibbetts and Barbara Bernstein ou've got your code archive, your design reviews, your internal Web site, and for sure you've got a torrent of E-mail.
Visitors can hit the edit button and add to, change, comment on, or even delete any of the content.
Best of all, Wiki enthusiasts say, users can insert a link at any point and create a new page to spin off a thread of their own. Wikis tend to be organic, anarchic, and a good gauge of where people's interests lie. Wikis are the brainchild of the indefatigably creative Ward Cunningham, one of the gurus of the Patterns movement, which identifies recurring software tasks and provides reusable approaches. The Wiki concept reflects Cunningham's interest in finding ways to capture and reapply accumulated wisdom. The insight that teams need tools for working collaboratively and sharing ideas has been successfully commercialized by Lotus Notes and other groupware products.