Prof. Burks Oakley II Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Director, University of Illinois Online Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Illinois January 2006 The What, Why, and How of Wikis

What is a Wiki? Essentially a dynamic, collectively authored set of web pages. Invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham to facilitate online collaboration about programming and design best practices. Evolved by the early 2000’s into a way to facilitate all kinds of online collaboration.

Wiki – Wikipedia Definition A wiki (according to Ward Cunningham) is a type of website that allows users to add and edit content and is especially suited for constructive collaborative authoring. In essence, a wiki is a simplification of the process of creating HTML pages combined with a system that records each individual change that occurs over time, so that at any time, a page can be reverted to any of its previous states.

How the Wiki Got Its Name Wiki is the Hawaiian word meaning “quick”, “fast”, or “to hasten”. Wiki-Wiki is the name of the bus line in the Honolulu International Airport. Ward Cunningham ca. 2004

How the Wiki Got Its Name

“Wiki-wiki to the beach.” - Elvis Presley (as Chad Gates) in the movie Blue Hawaii (1961). The line was said with a snap of the fingers.

More about Wikis Wiki (according to UIC Prof. Steve Jones) –Web-based –Interactive –Kollaborative (collaborative) –Iterative Wiki is sometimes interpreted as the backronym for “What I Know Is”, which describes the knowledge contribution, storage and exchange function.

What Can You Do With a Wiki? Easily create and edit web pages, including styled text, hyperlinks, pictures, audio, video, etc. Easy for a group to collaborate on creating online documents

Obstacles to Adoption Wikis are usually open to anyone, and “if anyone can edit my text, anyone can ruin my text” (not so, since changes are logged, authors are notified, pages are easily restored – no challenge to hackers). Authority is unclear – who “owns” a collaborative document? Wiki openness is at odds with typical work habits

Wikipedia Wikipedia – “A multilingual, Web- based, free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers …(with) editions in over 180 languages. According to Hitwise, an online measurement company, Wikipedia is the most popular reference site on the Internet.” Wikipedia

Collaborative Authoring Esquire article about Wikipedia Written collaboratively using Wikipedia The article was edited 224 times in the first 24 hours after it was first posted, and another 149 times in the next 24 hours. The final draft, which was locked on Sept. 23 to protect it from further edits, reflects the efforts of the many users who worked on it.

Jon Udell Screencast Heavy Metal Umlaut in Wikipedia (ö, ü) Heavy Metal Umlaut “The 8.5-minute screencast turns the change history of this Wiki page into a movie, scrolls forward and backward along the timeline of the document, and follows the development of several motifs.”

Wikipedia vs. Britannica AP article on CNN website

Things You Can Do With RSS News syndication Search for information via RSS Aggregate your feeds Display news on your website Display news on your mobile device Collect all your in RSS Get RSS content through your Track Fedex packages discount air fares Bargains at Ebay Get stock updates Get the weather reports What people are saying about you, your company, your products What people are saying about you, your company, your products Music, radio shows, TV clips Stay updated on someone's schedule Get cinema schedule updates Read your favourite comics What other people are surfing Automatically backup your weblog posts Get software updates Get the latest bittorrent files and p*** Shopping deals at Amazon.com and others Shopping deals at Amazon.com and others What your friends and family would like for Christmas What your friends and family would like for Christmas Be notified of traffic conditions Be notified of updates in police and fire department logs Be notified of updates in police and fire department logs Web metrics Virus and security alerts Events and happenings in your city Gaming statistics Search for jobs Easing government bureaucracy Create your own news aggregator page Keep track of your notes Find recent photos taken near you Build maps Make Tag Clouds All those sites without RSS Become a comment blogger Patent Searching Keep your acquaintances updated with your latest contact details Keep your acquaintances updated with your latest contact details Ditch Your Girlfriend Print Your Feeds

More Uses for a Wiki Use a wiki for your family’s holiday lists “Instead of sending around 83,259,325 s to see what your family wants for Christmas, use a wiki instead. Everyone can put what they want and see what other people want. Set one up at (takes 10 seconds) and even Grandma will be able to use it. We promise.”

More Uses for a Wiki 100 things to do before you die The world’s largest “How-To” manual – wikiHow wikiHow Things to do in Seattle World-wide travel guide – wikitravel.orgwikitravel.org Everything you want to know about VoIP Everything you want to know about VoIP All about the flu – Flu WikiFlu Wiki

Business/Customers Apple iPod Nano

Business/Productivity Michelin China

Wikis – Great Resource Seven Things You Should Know About … Wikis – from EDUCAUSE Seven Things You Should Know About … Wikis –What is it? –Who is doing it? –How does it work? –Why is it significant? –What are the downsides? –Where is it going? –What are the implications for teaching and learning?

Wiki Adoption in Higher Education Why use wikis in higher education? –Participatory –Progressive knowledge building –Collaborative –Encourages student-faculty interaction –No hierarchy –Web-based – anytime, any place access –Software is incredibly easy to use –Follow the evolution of thoughts and ideas.

Higher Education Romantic Audience Project at Bowdoin College – Chronicle article Romantic Audience ProjectChronicle article

Higher Education Romantic Audience Project

Institutional Wikis

MIT IST – Use of a Wiki Track presentations and publications

UMBC – Biology Group Wiki Group wiki assignment

Examples of Wiki Usage Example uses in higher education

The Future of Wikis Working in teams is increasingly common in many fields Knowledge management is increasingly useful Education benefits from collaboration and interaction Wiki tools are being planned for word processors, and even for operating systems

Free Hosting of Wikis wikihost.org free-wiki-hosting.com wikicities.com educational.blogs.com duckcomputing.com pbwiki.com wikispaces.com

An (Optional) Assignment Create your own wiki –Sign-up for a free account at Edit the IEEE EdSoc demo wiki – –Add a new page in the wiki –Tell us about yourself –Add comments or questions about the IEEE Distinguished Lecture Series

Burks Oakley II web: The What, Why, and How of Wikis Submit questions to Rob Reilly: This work is licensed under a Creative CommonsCreative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 LicenseAttribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 License.