Learning Objectives
- Explain the concepts of wikis and their role in the Read/Write Web
- Explore some exemplary wiki spaces: Wikipedia, Wikia, Google Sites
- Participate in a Wiki
- Create Pages
- Control Formatting
- Place Images
- Explore the idea of the communities on the Web.
What is a Wiki?
Wiki is Hawaiian for “quick.” In this module, we will learn about one of the quickest and most open tools on the new Read/Write Web.
The definition today means “a website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.” You can find the interesting story of how the term came about here: http://c2.com/doc/etymology.html
The most important and different from other websites part of wikis is collaborative editing and collaborative creation of content by the users. It seems pretty simple concept at first glance, but upon further inspection you find them to be profoundly powerful in practice. It’s what both Wikipedia and Google Sites have in common.