What's a Wiki?
a Collaborative Tool for one or many
A wiki is a web-based tool that allows many people - from one person to millions of people -- to contribute to content.
Wikipedia.org is currently the best-known wiki, but it is certainly not the only one. There are thousands and thousands of wikis on the web, covering many different topics. People set up their own wikis for various reasons, for example:
- students set up wikis to collaborate on group projects.
- clubs and organizations set up wikis so their members can contribute stories and information.
- individuals set up wikis to collect and manage information
There are web sites that provide wiki space for free (pbwiki.com is a popular one). Most free wiki sites allow the person who set up the site (the administrator) to decide who can contribute. Some wikis are open for everyone to make changes. Some require users to log in, and others are completely private and closed to everyone but site administrators.
Wikipedia offers pages at all these levels. The majority of pages - or articles -- on wikipedia are open for anyone to edit. Some require users to set up an account and log in, and others are locked to everyone except trusted administrators.
Let's take a look.