Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
pros
.
Easy to expand.
.
Handy for large groups who need to put information together.
Can be set up so that it can be edited by anybody or just by a cer-
tain group.
.
People who visit it do not have to go through a bunch of archives to
zero in on just the information they need.
.
It only takes typing a word in a certain way to make a WikiWord,
giving it its own page in your wiki.
.
Information on topics is concentrated on singular pages, which might
make it easier to be found via search engines.
.
cons
.
Fairly new; it can take a little getting used to.
.
Openness of content editing can be a disaster unless carefully managed.
Not as easy to incorporate commentary; more for factual data.
(Because many people edit the same pages, if you incorporate com-
mentary, you might end up with a page full of lame wars.)
.
It's diicult to summarize in a newsletter, compared to summarizing
something more date-oriented, like a blog.
.
essentials
he best example of what a wiki is all about is probably Wikipedia (en.wiki-
pedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). his wiki is an attempt to build an encyclope-
dia that's fully open and fully editable. hat sounds like a recipe for disaster,
but somehow it's not. Let's look at a typical page (
Figure 14.8
).
Notice there are tabs across the top of the page that include Edit his Page,
which anyone can click and then edit the page they're looking at. here's
also a history page that shows the edits that have occurred in the past. Edits
can be as simple as correcting a spelling error to as complex as leshing out
an entire article.
Does this seem a bit overwhelming to you? A wiki that's also an encyclope-
dia? Okay, let's look at some smaller-scale stuf. To get an idea of how other
groups are using wikis, try the list at usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SiteList or
WikiIndex (wikiindex.com/Main_Page), an efort to list all available wikis.
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