What is a wiki? Skills: none Concepts: wiki examples and definition, operations, the wiki motto, wiki motivation and history, client-server applications This presentation begins with a short video overview of wikis and a look at Wikipedia, the best known wiki. Next we define wikis and the way they differ from regular Web sites. We mention five operations that are common to all wikis, and focus on the most important one, editing a page. We note that the goal of every edit is to improve the wiki. We see that a wiki is a client-server application, and conclude with a look at motivation for the invention of the wiki. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Where does this topic fit? Internet concepts Applications Technology Implications Internet skills Application development Content creation User skills This presentation introduces a new application, wikis.

Watch Wikis in Plain English (3m 40s) http://commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english This short video explains what a wiki is and shows how to use one. Watch it before proceeding.

Wikipedia.org Wikipedia is the best known wiki. It is an encyclopedia made up of many interlinked articles. There are millions of articles, each focused on a topic. The content is contributed and edited by volunteers. I want you to do one more thing before you go on. Visit Wikipedia and look up the article on a topic with which you are already familiar. It can be related to a hobby, political event, technical topic – whatever. How was the article? Did it have any errors? Was it complete? Could you correct the errors or add missing information? When you’ve read the article and thought about these questions, continue on with the presentation. Why is it .org? How do you use Wikipedia? Ever change it?

A wiki is a web site with a twist Any authorized user can view and edit it Here is a simple definition of a wiki -- is a Web site made up of one or more pages that any authorized user can view and edit. It might be the manual for a program, the plan for a project, a jointly authored article, a class roster, a collection of suggested exam questions, a collection of student notes for class lectures, and so forth. It could be Wikipedia! Note that educational examples like a class roster, class notes or suggested exam questions are often created by the students, not the professor.

How is a wiki different from a regular Web site? 2+2=4 Compared to a regular Web site, a wiki is ugly, quick and simple, and designed for collaboration. Wikis generally focus on content, not design. They’re plain looking with simple, unimaginative page layouts. Most wiki content is text and images, though you can incorporate or link to audio and video material. That’s the bad news. The good news is that creating or modifying a wiki page is way faster and easier than creating or modifying a standard Web page. You make changes without leaving your Web browser, without using a Web editor or file transfer program. You just make the changes and click save. Finally, wikis are designed to support collaboration. It may be a large, open-ended group of collaborators as is the case with Wikipedia or it may be a small, closed group who share a common interest like a project at work or school. Wikis come with built in collaboration tools for discussing page content, viewing the history of a changes to a page, and being notified if someone changes a page you’re interested in. ugly simple collaborative

A typical wiki screen layout There are many wiki services on the Internet – the one shown here is called Wikispaces.com. As you see, it allows us to create new pages, discuss pages, view the history of changes to a page, be notified when a page changes, and, of course edit pages. It doesn’t matter which wiki service you use – they will all have these basic capabilities. Page viewing and editing area

Simplified screen layout Select operation to perform Navigation pane Page viewing and editing area Here we see a simplified sketch of the Wikispaces.com screen design. It’s a so called “wire-frame” diagram. Wire-frame diagrams are useful when learning an application or when designing a new one.

Editing a page Edit The page you are editing Save The most common wiki operation is editing or changing a page. Editing is a simple, three step process. You click the Edit button on the page you wish to change. That loads the page into a stripped down word processor. You can change the wording and also select fonts, make lists, add links to other pages, and so forth. You can also preview the changes before saving them. When you have finished your changes, you click the Save button, and the document is updated online. Anyone viewing it after that will see the new version. Save

The wiki motto Improve the wiki with every edit. The wiki motto is that you should try to improve the wiki with every edit.

Ways to improve a wiki page Fix a typo or spelling error – get over “stage fright” Fix a grammatical error Fix a factual error Add a detail, reference, link or image Rewrite an awkward or ambiguous sentence Add a clarifying example Change the appearance or format of a page Revise a concept Draft a new sub topic Reorganize or rearrange the page There are many ways to improve a wiki – some small others large. It may be as simple as fixing a typo or spelling error or as complex as adding a new subtopic or a complete reorganization. If you make major changes, you should explain them on the discussion page. Don’t be shy – if you mess something up, you can easily undo the change. Every edit should improve a collaborative document.

Client and server Server Client Wikis are “client-server” applications. The computer you use to view and edit a wiki is the client. The server is a computer that runs wiki software, and also stores the data making up the wiki. The service it offers is storing and managing wikis. The client and server can communicate with each other because they are both connected to the Internet. The Internet is usually represented by a cloud in diagrams, and it is often referred to as “the cloud.” In this case, the client is running a Web browser and the server is running a wiki management program.

Ward Cunningham and the first wiki Here we see wiki inventor Ward Cunningham, his first wiki, and a wiki-wiki bus. Cunningham took the name wiki from the wiki-wiki shuttle busses at the Honolulu airport. Wiki-wiki means very quick in Hawaiian. He invented the wiki as a tool for himself and a group of colleagues who wanted to discuss programming technique. Many of the tools we use today were invented to solve a problem facing the inventor. Programmers call that “scratching your own itch” and when they use the tools they have developed they say they are “eating their own dog food.” Cunningham’s first wiki is still online.

Summary In summary, we’ve seen what a wiki is and how it differs from an ordinary Web site. The five operations common to all wikis are creating new pages, discussing them, viewing their change history, requesting notification when one is changed, and, of course, editing them. And we saw that every edit should improve the wiki. Wikis are client-server applications that were invented by Ward Cunningham to “scratch his own itch.”

Self-study questions We mentioned three differences between a wiki and a regular Web site – do you recall them? We covered five operations common to all wikis – do you recall them? What is the wiki motto? Why did Ward Cunningham invent the wiki? Can you find examples of useful wikis on the Web? What could you use a wiki for at school, work or home? Can you think of other examples of client-server programs? Make a wire frame diagram for the user interface of a program you commonly use.

Resources Wikis in Plain English (3m 40s) http://commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english How college students use Wikipedia: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2830/2476 Evaluation of Wikipedia: http://delicious.com/lpress/wikieval Wiki inventor Ward Cunningham: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham The first Wiki, invented to discuss programming technique: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki