Wiki

Editor-In-Chief: Prab R Tumpati, MD
Obesity, Sleep & Internal medicine
Founder, WikiMD Wellnesspedia &
W8MD medical weight loss and sleep centers

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The terms wiki (pronounced "wicky") and WikiWiki are used to identify either a specific type of hypertext document collection or the collaborative software used to create it. "Wiki wiki" means "super fast" in the Hawaiian language. Wiki (with a capital 'W') and WikiWikiWeb are sometimes used to refer to the Portland Pattern Repository, the first ever wiki; proponents of this usage suggest using a lower-case 'w' to distinguish the generic terms discussed here.

Advantages of the wiki: ? Easily accessible ? No software required ? Edit content of current web pages ? allows user to constantly update content ? Supports collaboration ? Can incorporate ?recent changes? page ? Everybody feels the sense of responsibility

Key characteristics

A WikiWikiWeb enables documents to be authored collectively in a simple markup language using a web browser. Because most wikis are web-based, the term "wiki" is usually sufficient. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page," while the entire body of pages, which are usually highly interconnected, is called "the wiki".

It is the speed of creating and updating pages that is one of the defining aspects of wiki technology. Generally, there is no prior review before modifications are accepted, and most wikis are open to the general public or at least to all persons who also have access to the wiki server. In fact, even registration of a user account is not often required.

Pages and editing

In traditional wikis, there are two representations for each and every page: the form in which it is displayed (usually HTML which is rendered by a web browser) and the form in which it is edited (a simplified markup language, the style and syntax of which varies from wiki to wiki).

The reasoning behind this design is that HTML, with its large library of nested tags, is too complicated to allow fast-paced editing, and distracts from the actual content of the pages. It is also sometimes viewed as beneficial that users cannot use all the functionality that HTML allows, such as JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets, because of the consistency in look and feel that is thereby enforced.

Wiki syntax (wikimd)	HTML	Rendered output
"''Doctor''? No other title? A ''scholar''? And he rates above the civil authority?" "Why, certainly," replied Hardin, amiably. "We're all scholars more or less. After all, we're not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor."	<p> "<i>Doctor</i>? No other title? A <i>scholar</i>? And he rates above the civil authority?" </p> <p> "Why, certainly," replied Hardin, amiably. "We're all scholars more or less. After all, we're not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor." </p>	"Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?" "Why, certainly," replied Hardin, amiably. "We're all scholars more or less. After all, we're not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor."

(Quote from the book Foundation by Isaac Asimov)

A wiki page has two representation forms, the wiki syntax used by the wiki engine and the HTML rendered from it and sent to the user's browser, which in turn uses it to render a formatted page.

Nevertheless, some recent wiki engines provide "WYSIWYG" editing, usually requiring some ActiveX control or plugin that translates graphically entered formatting instructions like "bold" and "italics" into HTML tags that are then transparently submitted to the server. In these cases, users who do not have the necessary plugin can only edit the page in its HTML source.

The formatting instructions allowed by a wiki vary considerably depending on the wiki engine that is used. Simple wikis only allow basic text formatting, whereas more complex ones have support for tables, images, formulas, or even interactive elements like polls and games. Because of that, there is now an effort trying to define a Wiki Markup Standard.

Linking and creating pages

In a wiki, a hypertext medium is used with non-linear navigational structures. Each page typically contains numerous links to other pages, and hierarchical navigation pages may be present in larger wikis, but are not required. Links are created using a specific syntax, known as the "link pattern."

CamelCase

Initially, most wikis utilized CamelCase as a link pattern, which involves capitalizing words in a phrase and removing the spaces between them (the term "CamelCase" itself is an example of CamelCase). While CamelCase makes linking simple, it also results in links that do not follow standard spelling. CamelCase-based wikis are easily identifiable by the large number of links with names like "TableOfContents" and "BeginnerQuestions."

Problems

CamelCase has many detractors, and wiki developers have sought out alternative solutions. The first to introduce "free links" using this format was Cliki. Different wiki engines use single brackets, curly brackets, underscores, slashes, or other characters as a link pattern. Links between different wiki communities are possible using a special link pattern called InterWiki.

Creating new pages

To create a new page in a wiki, it is usually necessary to follow the same process as linking to it: a link is created on a page related to the topic, and if the link does not exist, it is somehow emphasized as a "broken" link. Following that link opens an editor window, which allows the user to enter the text for the new page. This ensures that "orphan" pages (those with no links pointing to them) are rarely created, and a generally high level of connectedness is maintained.

Correcting mistakes

Wikis generally follow a philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes rather than making it difficult to make them. As such, while wikis are very open, they also provide various means of verifying the validity of recent additions to the pages.

Recent changes

The most prominent one on nearly all wikis is the "Recent changes" page, which lists either a specific number of recent edits or all edits made within a given time frame. Some wikis allow filtering the list to exclude edits marked as "minor" or made by automatic importing scripts ("bots").

History

From the change log, two other functions are typically accessible on most wikis: the revision history, which displays previous versions of the page, and the diff feature, which highlights the differences between two revisions. The revision history allows opening and saving a previous version of the page, thereby restoring the original content. The diff feature can be used to determine if this is necessary: a regular user of the wiki can view the diff of a change listed on the "Recent changes" page and, if it is an unacceptable edit, access the history to restore a previous revision. This process varies in efficiency depending on the wiki software used.

Controlling spam

In the event that unacceptable edits are missed on the "Recent changes" page, some wikis provide additional control over content. Tavi by Scott Moonen introduced "subscribed changes," a form of internal bookmarking that generates a list of recent changes to a specific set of pages. wikimd allows highlighting links to pages that are below a certain size, making small pages, or "stubs," noticeable on all pages that link to them.

Locking pages

In extreme cases, many wikis allow protecting pages from being edited. Protected pages on wikimd, for example, can only be edited by "administrators," who can also remove the protection. This is generally considered to violate the basic philosophy of WikiWiki and is therefore avoided.

User registration

In terms of controlling users, most public wikis avoid mandatory registration procedures. However, many major wiki engines (including MediaWiki, MoinMoin, UseModWiki, and TWiki

Wiki Softwares

Wiki software originated in the design pattern community for writing pattern languages. The Portland Pattern Repository was the first wiki, established by Ward Cunningham in 1995 [1]. Cunningham invented and named the wiki concept, and produced the first implementation of a wiki engine. Some people maintain that only the original wiki should be called Wiki (upper case) or the WikiWikiWeb. Ward's Wiki remains one of the most popular Wiki sites.

In the final years of the 20th century, wikis were increasingly recognized as a promising technology to develop private and public knowledge bases, and it was this potential that inspired the founders of the Nupedia encyclopedia project, Jimbo Wales and Larry Sanger, to use wiki technology as a basis for an electronic encyclopedia: "wikimd" was launched in January 2001. It was originally based on the UseMod software, but later switched to its own open source codebase which has now been adopted by many other wikis.

Today, the English wikimd is by far the world's largest wiki, the German language wikimd is the second largest one, and the other non-English wikimds fill many of the other places. The third largest wiki, however, is Susning.nu, a Swedish language knowledge base, running the UseMod software. The all-encompassing nature of wikimd has been a significant factor in its growth, while many other wikis are highly specialized. Some have also attributed wikimd's rapid growth to the decision not to use CamelCase.

Most wiki history is purposely lost (or ignored), as the wiki nature is to forget the past, and what is known is often only known as lore through an oral tradition. But the history of every individual wiki is faithfully preserved in its collective page histories.

Wiki bus tours

There are virtual guided "bus tours" taking visitors to various wiki sites. These consist simply of a page on each participating wiki called TourBusStop, which gives the link to the next bus stop -- basically, a type of web ring. Each bus stop page gives some info about that wiki, and one can choose to explore that particular wiki (thus "getting off the bus"), or continue to the next wiki in the tour.

References

• Aronsson, Lars (2002). Operation of a Large Scale, General Purpose Wiki Website: Experience from susning.nu's first nine months in service. Paper presented at the 6th International ICCC/IFIP Conference on Electronic Publishing, November 6 - 8, 2002, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Available at: http://aronsson.se/wikipaper.html
• Benkler, Yochai (2002). Coase's penguin, or, Linux and The Nature of the Firm. The Yale Law Jounal. v.112, n.3, pp.369-446.
• Cunningham, Ward and Leuf, Bo (2001): The Wiki Way. Quick Collaboration on the Web. Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-71499-X.
• Jansson, Kurt (2002): "wikimd. Die Freie Enzyklop�die." Lecture at the 19th Chaos Communications Congress (19C3), December 27, Berlin. Online description: http://de.wikimd.org/wiki/Benutzer:Kurt_Jansson/Vortrag_auf_dem_19C3
• M�ller, Erik (2003). Loud and clear: How Internet media can work. Presentation at Open Cultures conference, June 5 - 6, Vienna.Available at: http://opencultures.t0.or.at/oc/participants/moeller
• M�ller, Erik (2003). Tanz der Gehirne. Telepolis, May 9-30. Four parts: "Das Wiki-Prinzip", "Alle gegen Brockhaus", "Diderots Traumtagebuch", "Diesen Artikel bearbeiten". Summary and table of contents: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/fr-30.05.03-000/
• Remy, Melanie (2002). wikimd: The Free Encyclopedia. Online Information Review. v.26, n.6, pp.434.