Wikis: Fast, effective and productive
Have you noticed? More often than not, when you look up a word in an Internet search engine, the first result that shows up is an article in Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia. What is the technology behind the website that makes this free, collaborative on-line project so successful?
In 2006, Time magazine recognized an unlikely candidate as its “Person of the Year:” You. The magazine’s editors thus acknowledged the amazing success of on-line collaboration and interaction by millions of users from around the world, and they cited Wikipedia as one of three examples of “Web 2.0” services, together with YouTube and MySpace. So, MediaWiki, the actual software running Wikipedia, is probably the most visible of a whole number of programmes designed to enable anyone to contribute articles or modify existing content using a simplified markup language rather than the more complicated HTML. The technology was developed in 1994 by Howard “Ward” Cunningham, an American computer programmer. He chose the name WikiWikiWeb after taking one of the Wiki Wiki shuttle busses that connect the three terminals of Honolulu International Airport – “wiki” simply means “quick” in Hawaiian, and the repetition signifies “very quick.” Indeed, once you get the hang of the simple markup technique, contributing becomes very straightforward. That’s probably the reason why, even before Wikipedia took off to its staggering success in 2001, the WikiWiki technology was – and still is – used widely in corporate intranets for knowledge sharing and collaborative writing. Wikis can also be useful tools for teachers. Andreas Heutschi, a Swiss secondary school teacher, recently told “Bildung Schweiz” magazine about his experience using wikis in the classroom. “I found them to be ideal instruments for teachers as well as pupils to gather and structure information, to alter content and work collaboratively on certain topics. A wiki is a tool that is relatively simple to operate and handle, and productivity and efficiency gains are accordingly very noticeable.” Using a wiki behind a firewall in the local school or union office computer network also solves a problem that larger, openly accessible wikis sometimes face: vandalism. Unfortunately, as the open philosophy behind the WikiWikiWeb allows anyone to edit content, this also means that users with malicious intent find it easy to do damage. Larger public wikis such as Wikipedia often use sophisticated methods to automatically identify and erase vandalism. On the other hand, a smaller, password-protected site where all users know each other personally will be relatively free from such excesses. So, how can you start to try wiki technology in your school or local union office? The MediaWiki software is open source and one of the most wide-spread, but it is fairly complicated to set up and requires a web server. Maybe you could start exploring the wiki universe by using Foswiki, which is also open source but does not require a database to run. It is readily available with a Windows installer to make deployment easy. Then again, why clog up your hard drive? There are a number of so-called Wiki Farms on the internet that allow you to sign up and start your own wiki without any further ado. There are many ways to start your expedition into the collaborative world of Web 2.0. And if you need more details and information, you can always turn to – what else? – Wikipedia! By Timo Linsenmaier.
