The Wiki Concept

Abstract

Imagine you are surfing the Internet, and you stop at a site where you could and would like to add or modify something. For instance, you have a literary reference or link to add. Or you’ve noticed a typing error. Perhaps you even have a lengthy article that you’d like to display on a separate page. So, you just click on the “edit” button, change everything you wish, add a couple of ideas, confirm it, and the new page is online immediately! In a history, a listing of the saved, older versions of the page, you can view previous changes to the page as well as reverse your entries. If it all was a simple and transparent experience, you were dealing with a wiki. Wiki technology enables virtually anyone to completely edit pages without difficulty. Yet that’s not all – anyone can contribute significantly to the structure of the site, simply by creating new links and adding new pages. This openness is the innovative and amazing aspect of wikis. The title of a book on wikis by Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham puts it in a nutshell: The Wiki Way. Quick Collaboration on the Web.