Thing #16: Learn about Wikis

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. With the benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what's been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.

Watch this short video:

Discovery exercise:

For this discovery exercise, you are required to take a look at some wikis and write a blog post about your findings. Here are some case studies and a few (diverse) wikis to get you started:

• PBWorks business case studies
• Social Marketing wiki
• Mad Men fan site wiki (only members can edit this page)
• Higher education wikis at Wetpaint.com

What did you find interesting? What types of applications do you think might work well with a wiki?