6.5 WIKI

A Wiki is a website that has a collection of web pages which can be easily created, viewed and modified by anybody using a Web browser, over the internet. It encourages communication, sharing and collaboration on documents across internet. Wikis can be used for a large variety of tasks, from personal note-taking to collaborating online, creating corporate intranets, knowledge management systems, online community, and managing a traditional website.

A Wiki website can be created using wiki engine or wiki software on a web server. The wiki software stores the content including all the current and previous revisions in either data files (database system) or in flat files. There are many wiki software available; some like Confluence and Drupal Wiki are paid while other like TiddlyWiki and TWiki are free of charge.

The main features of Wiki are: 
  • Simplified creating and editing of web pages.
  • Documents can be written and worked upon by all in collaborative manner.
  • Pages are stored at a central shared location and document histories are recorded. 
  • Simplified formatting, use of simple markup and easy creation of links.
  • Organized web sites

6.5.1 Creating the Wiki

To learn create wiki pages, we can use existing hosted wiki software and start adding to it. We will use Wikispaces for our purpose.

1. Go to www.wikispaces.com
2. Click on „Wikis for individuals and groups‟.
3. Create login on the next page by providing username, password and email and click on „Join now‟ button.


4. You come to the Dashboard. Click on „Create a new Wiki‟. 
5. Give the Wiki Name, set the permissions and type. Click on „Create‟ button on the next screen. 
6. You can close the „Getting Started‟ help screen after reading it. The page that you see is you first Wiki page. 
7. Click „Edit‟ to make changes to this page.



8. After making changes, click „Save‟ button. You may preview the page before saving it. 
9. Since you have created this wiki space, you are its owner. You may invite other people to contribute to this wiki. 
10. Click on „Manage Wiki‟ in the left hand side menu. Choose „Invite People‟. Once the invited people join the wiki, they can add to the content of the wiki. You can also see recent changes to the wiki or the page.

Any number of people can share notes and ideas through wiki. They all can contribute towards building the wiki content.

6.5.2 Wikipedia 

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia in many languages that anyone can edit. It is a great example of a large wiki and is run on Media Wiki wiki engine.

Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles (except in certain cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism). Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or with their real identity, if they choose. 

Over the last few years, Wikipedia has become one of the largest reference websites worldwide attracting several million users each month.

To understand how Wikipedia is written and how one can make changes to it, do the following: 

1. Go to www.wikipedia.org 
2. Click in „Log in/ Create Account‟ on top right corner. Create you account. You reach the Wikipedia Introduction page.


3. Explore the different tabs. When you go to the „Tutorial‟ page, you will get a new set of tabs. Click on „Editing‟ tab. And then „try editing in the sandbox‟. You get the screen as in Figure 6.9


4. Click on Edit and start making changes to the page. Save your changes. 

This will give you a fair idea about how you can edit wiki content.