Wiki

A wiki is a type of website allowing anyone to create and change its pages.

Etymology

The word is sometimes used in Internet slang to mean Wikipedia.  Wiki is short for WikiWikiWeb.  Wikiwiki is a word from the Hawaiian language, meaning "fast" or "speed". Examples of wikis include Wikipedia, Everipedia, Citizendium, Scholarpedia, Conservapedia, Wiktionary and Wikibooks. 

Overview

Every wiki can be changed, or edited, by anyone who has an account on the wiki, or by everyone in the world if the wiki allows it. Some important pages can only be changed by certain users. Wikis are central places where everybody can share and add new information, and then people read them. Wikis allow information from all around the world to be collected.

History

Ward Cunningham started the first wiki in March 1995. Many people liked it, and wrote there, after which they started similar websites such as Wikipedia. MediaWiki is the most used software for wikis and is the software used for Wikipedia and many other Wikis. JSPWiki is one of many others. "Wiki" is also sometimes an abbreviation for Wikipedia.

Purposes

Wikis can be used for different things; not all wikis follow the same rules for using them. For instance, the purpose of Wikipedia is to write articles for an encyclopedia. That is why on Wikipedia, people do not want general discussion that does not help in writing articles.

Functions

On a wiki, people can write pages by collaboration and teamwork. Pages are watched closely to see whether changes are good or bad. If one person writes something wrong, another can correct it. Other users can also add something new to the page. Because of this, the page gets better when people change it. 

Administrators can block someone from editing if they vandalize, or for other reasons. Users can also discuss things on wikis. Discussion can help people understand things better and get a chance to tell their views. On Wikipedia, the Talk pages are for that, but in some wikis, the article and the discussion are in the same page.

Issues

Vandalism

Most wikis can be edited by anyone and everyone. Some wikis are even available to people without an account, so sometimes wikis will become a target for vandals to add unwelcome, disruptive or even misleading content. There are many ways to prevent this. Individual pages can be protected to allow only certain users, or only those with an account, to edit them. Administrators can also block users who make repeated vandal edits after a minimum of a single warning. Vandalism may not be stopped totally, but regular, careful checking can limit the amount of disruption.

Related pages

 Wikipedia
 English Wikipedia
 Simple English Wikipedia

References

Other websites




Category:Software
Category:Internet slang
Category:Information technology