What is a wiki?

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A concise introduction to wikis (3:52) produced by Lee Lefever for The Common Craft Show

An introduction to using Wetpaint to create a wiki (2:34) produced by Lee Lefever for The Common Craft Show

What is a wiki?

Wikis belong to a group of internet tools refered to as web 2.0 tools. A wiki is a collaborative web site whose content can be edited by visitors to the site, allowing users to easily create and edit web sites collaboratively"¹. 

One of the features that makes wikis so accessible to teachers for use in the classroom is the simple software platform on which they run. When editing pages users use a rich text editor that allows them to type and edit much like in Microsoft Office programs, which most students and internet novices are familiar with. There is no need for any specialised internet or computer knowledge to be able to set up and run a wiki. Another feature that sets it apart from ordinary web sites is that the content can be edited and added to by visitors to the site rather than just an administrator. In education teachers are discovering that web 2.0 tools are a valuable part of a child's learning, reflecting and assessment capabilities to promote deeper learning.

By far the most well known and most edited wiki in the world is wikipedia which rates as one of the top 100 websites in the world. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopaedia that accepts all sorts of content without ridged rules about how the content should be organised (wikipedia).

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History

The first wiki software was developed by Ward Cunningham in 1994 for use on the site WikiWikiWeb.  It has been described as 'the simplest online database that has potential' (wikipedia). The term wiki comes from the Hawaiian phrase wiki-wiki, which means quick or fast, the rapid distribution and addtion of knowledge by all to all. A backronym for wiki has also been created what I know is.

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