WIDE OPEN By Brian Lamb SPACES TheWayItWasMeantToBe
Inventing the World Wide Web involved my growing realization that there was a power in ar- WIKIS ranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way. —Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web
Remember when the Internet was about opening up access to information and breaking down the barriers between con- tent creators and content consumers? Think back to when spam was just a meat- OR like substance. To those heady days when Timothy Leary was predicting that the PC READY would be the LSD of the nineties. Before the DMCA. Before eBay. Back when the Web was supposed to be a boundless Borgesian “Library of Babel” and not a global supermarket. Forget that the dot- com era ever happened—if you were an investor or working for stock options back then, maybe you already have. In 1999, the World Wide Web inven- tor Sir Tim Berners-Lee looked back on the previous decade and lamented: “I wanted the Web to be what I call an inter- active space where everybody can edit. And I started saying ‘interactive,’ and then I read in the media that the Web was great because it was ‘interactive,’ meaning NOT you could click. This was not what I meant by interactivity.” That vision of a genuinely interactive environment rather than “a glorified television channel”—one in which people not only would browse pages but also would edit them as part of the process—did not disappear with the rise of the read-only Web browser.1 It’s churning away more actively than ever, in a vivid and chaotic Web-within-the-Web, via an anarchic breed of pages known as “wikis.”
Brian Lamb is a project coordinator with the Office of Learning Technology at The Univer- sity of British Columbia, where he grooves on tools that are fast, cheap, and out of control.
36 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004 Illustration by Paul Watson, © 2004 © 2004 Brian Lamb TheStandardWikiOverview ■ Content is ego-less, time-less, and never fin- ished. Anonymity is not required but is Making the simple complicated is commonplace; common. With open editing, a page making the complicated simple, awesomely can have multiple contributors, and simple, that’s creativity. notions of page “authorship” and —Charles Mingus “ownership” can be radically altered. Content “cloning” across wikis— It’s risky to talk about wikis as if they’re all sometimes referred to in non-wiki cir- Wikis are quick because the same. In practice, the term wiki (de- cles as “plagiarism”—is often accept- rived from the Hawaiian word for “quick”) able. (This attitude toward authorship the processes of reading is applied to a diverse set of systems, fea- can make citations for articles such as tures, approaches, and projects. Even this one a tricky exercise.) Unlike and editing are combined. dedicated wikiheads engage in perpetual weblogs, wiki pages are rarely organ- arguments about what constitutes true ized by chronology; instead they are wikiness. But some fundamental princi- organized by context, by links in and ples (usually) apply.2 links out, and by whatever categories or concepts emerge in the authoring collaborative systems. Access restrictions, ■ Anyone can change anything. Wikis are process. And for the most part, wikis rigidly defined workflows, and structures quick because the processes of read- are in a constant state of flux. Entries are anathema to most wiki developers. ing and editing are combined. The sig- are often unpolished, and creators What’s unique about wikis is that users de- nature of a wiki is a link at the bottom may deliberately leave gaps open, fine for themselves how their processes of the page reading “Edit text of this hoping that somebody else will come and groups will develop, usually by mak- page” or something similar. Clicking along to fill them in. ing things up as they go along. that link produces the page’s hyper- Newcomers to the medium may find it text markup, allowing instant revi- There are plenty of exceptions to each easiest to start with simple tasks. Wikis sions. Authoring software, permis- of these principles. Wiki practices sit on a work great as shared online sketchpads or sions, or passwords are typically not continuum. At one end is the radical as spaces for brainstorming. They are per- required. openness and simplicity of the wiki in- fect for creating perpetually updated lists ■ Wikis use simplified hypertext markup. ventor Ward Cunningham’s first system: or collections of links, and most users can Wikis have their own markup lan- the WikiWikiWeb (http://c2.com/cgi- instantly grasp their utility as informal guage that essentially strips HTML bin/wiki), which was launched in 1995 bulletin boards. Because it takes only a down to its simplest elements. New and has remained remarkably true to its couple of seconds to set up a new page, no users need to learn a few formatting minimalist vision. But as wiki usage purpose is too trivial. tags, but only a few. Most wiki tags sig- grows in popularity with other online One common way to use wikis is to nificantly streamline and simplify cultures, even being touted in the busi- support meeting planning: a provisional their tasks. For instance, the minimum ness world as a knowledge management agenda is drawn up, and the URL is dis- HTML code needed to create a named solution, scores of emerging wiki systems tributed to the participants, who are then hyperlink to EDUCAUSE Review on- are adding functionalities such as re- free to comment or to add their own items. line, EDUCAUSE Review archical organization, WYSIWYG Web agenda serves as a note-taking template, , would be rendered in a wiki editing, and even integration with cen- and when the meeting is completed, the within square brackets. The result, tralized content management systems. notes are instantly available online, allow- [http://www.educause.edu/pub/ On this more structured and feature-rich ing the participants or anybody else to re- er/EDUCAUSE Review], saves a mini- end of the continuum, it can be difficult view and annotate the proceedings. mum of twelve keystrokes and is to decide whether these are really wiki With some planning, more complex significantly easier to remember. Raw systems at all or are simply browser-based processes can easily be supported. A URLs typically require no markup tags HTML authoring tools. number of varied applications have been at all to be rendered live on a wiki defined by heterogeneous groups from page. WhyWiki? within my home institution, The Univer- ■ WikiPageTitlesAreMashedTogether. Wiki sity of British Columbia.3 page titles often eschew spaces to A community is like a ship: everyone ought to be allow for quick page creation and au- prepared to take the helm. ■ The Faculty of Applied Science In- tomatic, markup-free links between —Henrik Ibsen structional Support links wikis into its pages within (and sometimes across) course management system authoring wiki systems. Linking to related pages In many respects, the wide-open ethic of environment so that design teams can is easy, which promotes promiscuous wikis contrasts vividly with the traditional quickly and collaboratively build ref- interlinking among wiki pages. approaches of standard groupware and erence lists and outlines, brainstorm
38 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004 “[The] wiki functioned in this context It’s possible that wikis might simply as an intellectually appropriate tech- represent the latest advance in online in- nology, aesthetically and politically in teraction—a cost-effective and readily keeping with the theme of the event, adopted knowledge management tool. which was the significance of ubiqui- But as wikis make their mark in higher tous media in everyday life and the education, the ultimate implications may ways in which accessible tools mediate prove to be far more profound than mere The structure of wikis is the construction of popular culture.”6 gains in efficiency. ■ Teresa Dobson, an assistant professor shaped from within—not of education, is using the wiki space in TheStandardObjection imposed from above. both her teaching and her research. Her graduate course on technologies Editing is the same as quarreling with writers— for writing employs the wiki as a sup- same thing exactly. port for collaborative experiments in —Harold Ross composition and “as a prompt for re- flection on the nature of online writ- There’s a very common reaction that instructional strategies, and capture ing and reading.”7 newcomers express when first intro- suggestions. Educational Technology duced to wikis: “That looks promising, Coordinator Jim Sibley reports: “The What is most remarkable about these but it can’t work for me.” Their objection ability to spawn whole sites or a series diverse outcomes is how they came to wikis is nearly universal: “If anybody of pages astonishes people when they about. In all instances, the users decided can edit my text, then anybody can ruin first see it. . . . You can quickly map out for themselves how the wiki would fulfill my text.” Human nature being what it is, pages to cover all aspects of complex their objectives. Technical support and to allow free access to hard-earned con- processes or projects.”4 training was minimal: at most, one hour tent is to indulge open-source utopi- ■ The Career Services unit uses wiki of instruction was needed, and in most anism beyond reason. pages to store and organize content for cases, orientation was handled by a sin- This concern is largely misplaced. a major new job posting and career de- gle e-mail. Even confirmed techno- Think of an open wiki space as a home velopment Web site that it is develop- phobes have grasped and mastered the that leaves its front door unlocked but ing. Discussion and prototyping can system quickly. The structure of wikis is doesn’t get robbed because the neighbors get under way immediately rather than shaped from within—not imposed from are all out on their front steps gossiping, waiting for the technical framework to above. Users do not have to adapt their keeping a friendly eye on the street, and be implemented. Online content cre- practice to the dictates of a system but never missing a thing. This ethic is at the ation is able to proceed rapidly, with can allow their practice to define the heart of “SoftSecurity,” which relies on the contributions from every member of structure. community, rather than technology, to en- the unit rather than a handful of Web And as open systems, wikis can extend force order. As described on the Meatball authors. Laural Raine, a Web devel- their reach far beyond departmental or or- Wiki: “SoftSecurity is like water. It bends oper, notes: “Using the wiki has al- ganizational limits, expressing the inter- under attack, only to rush in from all di- lowed us to share and collaborate on ests of virtually any community. For exam- rections to fill the gaps. It’s strong over the research that we would have other- ple, Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/) is time yet adaptable to any shape. It seeks to wise done individually. This allows for striving to develop a free worldwide travel influence and encourage, not control and easier information management dur- guide. TV Tropes (http://tvwiki.sytes.net/) enforce.”8 Whereas “hard security” func- ing the project, and will improve the bills itself as “a catalogue of the tricks of the tions by restricting access or hiding pages, quality of our finished product.”5 trade for writing television scripts”; it col- wikis save copies of successively edited ■ An academic research unit on campus lects frequently found plots and devices versions; thus, work that has been deleted used a wiki for planning a technocul- and helps its members to find “a cliché or defaced can be recovered with a couple ture conference—to collect supporting to subvert.” JuggleWiki (http://www clicks of the mouse. Changes are readily resources and to gather contributions .jugglingdb.com/jugglewiki/) offers tips detected (e-mail or RSS alerts can an- from invited participants. They used and animated tutorials, allows jugglers to nounce page edits), and deleting flames or the wiki during the conference, live, meet one another, and is home to just unconstructive contributions is usually with laptops and wireless access, to about anything else conceivably associ- easier than creating them. record group work. Following the con- ated with juggling. Rick Heller, an author, It’s undeniably true that determined ference, participants subsequently ed- has uploaded the manuscript of his novel vandals can make real pests of them- ited their collaborative authorings Smart Genes (http://www.opensourcenovel selves. But an open environment also en- from a wide variety of locations, result- .net/) and will incorporate the best edits courages participation and a strong sense ing in a “conference proceedings” of an and suggestions into the next draft of his of common purpose, so the proportion of altogether different sort. The organ- book. Readers can also save alternative fixers to breakers tends to be high, and a izer, Professor Mary Bryson, observes: chapters and related pages. wiki will generally have little difficulty
40 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004 remaining stable—assuming that people is the typical absence of an explicit organ- see value in its existence and have a gen- izing structure. When visiting a wiki for uine interest in keeping things tidy. As the first time, users accustomed to hierar- Clay Shirky observes: “A wiki in the hands chical organization and directed naviga- of a healthy community works. A wiki in tion might ask, “Where is everything?” the hands of an indifferent community Expecting to be told where to go, they feel fails. The software makes no attempt to lost, “as if falling through a wide expanse add ‘process’ in order to keep people A wiki will generally have of concepts and thoughts represented in from doing stupid things.”9 nodes of text,” as one page describing the The open-access encyclopedia little difficulty remaining principles of wiki navigation puts it.14 Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org) is, with- stable—assuming that This sense of disorientation is com- out question, the biggest and best-known mon, but once the initial wave of adverse wiki project on the Web. It has such a people see value in its symptoms passes, recovery is supported huge and active contributor community by a loose collection of contextual sign- (having created more than 290,000 en- existence. posts that can be remarkably descriptive. tries in English alone as of June 2004) that Logical context may be gleaned by check- a remarkably elaborate governance struc- ing the list of “recent changes” on the wiki ture and conflict-resolution process have system or by following links in and out of emerged to handle the often-contentious how the community responds to in- a page. The search box is invaluable. Al- construction of entries, particularly in stances of vandalism.12 though there is nothing to stop a wiki ad- the case of hot-button issues such as “SoftSecurity” is not the only way to ministrator from developing templates or “abortion” or “Iraq.” The Wikipedia Meta- protect contributions to a wiki space. prompts to provide scaffolding for new Wiki proudly describes the present There’s nothing about the software that users, most wikiheads suggest that the power structure as “a mix of anarchic, prevents it from being hosted behind a form works best when users can define despotic, democratic, republican, merito- firewall, for instance. Many wiki systems their own applications and approaches cratic, technocratic, and even plutocratic employ more structured architectures for working with the system. As Mayfield elements,” all in constant flux and in per- than Cunningham’s WikiWikiWeb and notes, “Except in rare instances where de- petual negotiation.10 feature password protection, private sign creates function, the more you de- In the case of Wikipedia, establishing spaces, IP banning, and other “hard secu- sign the more user functionality you sac- community policies is complicated by its rity” measures. Socialtext (http://www rifice. Wikis emphasize both reading and relatively high profile and the diversity of .socialtext.com/), an “enterprise social writing. Sure they could be a little more perspectives and motives. Most contribu- software” company based in Palo Alto, is readable, but that would come at a cost for tors sit somewhere on a range of “extreme pioneering efforts to integrate open- writing.”15 inclusionists” (who value every article space approaches within corporate IT en- Yes, even wiki enthusiasts acknowl- that isn’t obviously awful, in the interests vironments. Socialtext CEO Ross May- edge that the pages could be more read- of creating an evolving representation of field notes that Socialtext’s “Security and able—which brings us to yet another online culture) and “extreme deletion- Operations Policies and Procedures meet common objection. ists” (who value “proper” articles, in the the demands of most IT organizations.”13 interests of building an authoritative ref- It’s arguable whether such approaches WhyAreWikisSoUgly? erence work). This online Tower of Babel are true to the original vision of Cunning- resolves its many differences in varying ham’s WikiWikiWeb, but they do suggest The first question I ask myself when something ways across the system. In most cases, that moderated wiki practices can func- doesn’t seem to be beautiful is why do I think it’s “Darwikinism” holds sway—with sections tion effectively within corporate environ- not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that and sentences “subject to ruthless culling ments. Perhaps the most dramatic har- there is no reason. and replacement if they are not consid- binger of impending wider adoption in —John Cage ered ‘fit.’ ” In practice, however, “evolu- mainstream computing is the recent hir- tion toward stability occur[s] just as ing of none other than Ward Cunning- “It’s very very cool to be able to do ‘ridicu- much through cooperation as competi- ham himself by Microsoft. lously easy’ collaborative document tion.”11 This complex, fluid set of mores editing,” writes Elizabeth Lane Lawley. and norms marks Wikipedia of great in- WhereIsEverything? “But . . . let’s face it. They’re ugly.” She ar- terest to researchers at the IBM Collabo- gues that anybody can spot a wiki page rative User Experience Research Group, It isn’t that I don’t like sweet disorder, but it has to from “a mile away,” since they “all look ex- who have used Wikipedia’s authoring be judiciously arranged. actly like the pages” that her students processes as the raw material for their —Vita Sackville West used “to turn out in basic HTML classes work “visualizing dynamic, evolving doc- back in 1995. All they’re missing are the uments and the interactions of multiple Next to the lack of hard security and pri- rainbow-colored bars to replace the collaborating authors” and examining vacy, the most common objection to wikis ubiquitous horizontal rules.”16
42 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004 Lawley has a point. Not only does the announces that those who do not wish to wide-open, anything-goes spirit of wikis “edit, erase, enhance, beautify, dullify, nul- evoke the original spirit of the Internet, lify, derange, arrange, or simply change” but all too often the interface does as well. the wiki space should “then accept the Yet Cunningham sees the lack of aes- fact that [they] will always be complacent, thetic appeal in his WikiWikiWeb as a and easily controlled.”20 Then, presum- functional advantage. “People look at it ably, they should just go away. and say, ‘hmm, this looks boring,’ and go More scholarly in approach, the Ro- away. The quality is deep, not at the sur- mantic Audience Project at Bowdoin Col- face,” he says.17 lege (http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:8668/) is a It’s true that many wikis tend toward collaborative study collecting entries fo- plainness, but there’s no reason that more cusing on poems, poets, and topics related pleasing fonts, colors, and layouts can’t to Romantic literature. The students chose be accommodated through the judicious the wiki framework because “such collab- application of Cascading Style Sheets oration, [by] dynamically and unpre- (CSS). Matt Haughey, for one, has done an dictably highlighting certain terms as rep- exemplary job of demonstrating the resentative of communal interest, is of power of CSS to tailor the look-and-feel particular interest in a study of Romanti- of his wiki-driven site (http://haughey cism.”21 The “interesting ways in which the .com/matt/home). software itself provides order” from appar- ent disorder, via linking patterns and other WikisInTheAcademy contextualizing elements, prompted in- sight into the process of the research.22 For Why, I’m Posterity—and so are you. instance, “posting tendencies emerged —Lord Byron, “Don Juan” that were worthwhile pondering as a class and could be framed as the expression of Wikis are already making their mark in this group of students. This discussion at- higher education and are being applied tracted elaboration; this poem went un- to just about any task imaginable. They linked; this author attracted biographical are popping up like mushrooms, as wikis elaboration; this entry was cited often by will, at colleges and universities around other entries; etc.”23 the world, sometimes in impromptu ways Perhaps the most common pedagogi- and more often with thoughtful intent. cal application of wikis in education is to WikiFish at Auburn University (http:// support writing instruction. At Teaching www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?doc= Wiki (http://teachingwiki.org), Joe Mox- WikiFish&wikiid=1231) is a fine example ley, a professor of English at the Uni- of how a student-owned site can foster versity of South Florida, lists a number of frank communication among its partici- the medium’s strengths for the teaching pants. Its stated mission is “to protect the of writing skills: wikis invigorate writing delicate collaborative environment of (“fun” and “wiki” are often associated); Design+Construction School culture, and wikis provide a low-cost but effective to serve as a protocol and reference guide communication and collaboration tool to keep these balances in check.”18 Stu- (emphasizing text, not software); wikis dents critically examine the school’s promote the close reading, revision, and methods and its underlying ideologies, tracking of drafts; wikis discourage often by posing provocative queries such “product oriented writing” while facili- as “If Architecture School were an organ- tating “writing as a process”; and wikis ized religion, what would our core beliefs ease students into writing for public be? What would constitute a sin?” or “If consumption.24 you had to ‘get rid of dead weight’ in the In addition to fostering the develop- curriculum, with which courses would ment of writing skills as they are already you start?”19 They argue why students at understood, wikis may prove to be in- the school should be allowed to pursue valuable for teaching the rhetoric of their own research agendas, and they de- emergent technologies. Jill Walker, a hy- bate what constitutes a healthy educa- pertext theorist and prominent weblog- tional environment. Characteristic of the ger, suggests that whereas online tech- wiki’s irreverent attitude, the front page nologies are fine for teaching things that
44 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004 Romantic Audience Project asked partici- ticipants need to be in control of the con- pating students to avoid making changes tent—you have to give it over fully.”26 This to text written by others (poets or fellow process involves not just adjusting the students) and to limit themselves to the technical configuration and delivery; it addition of related links. Instructors may involves challenging the social norms choose to establish categories, topics, and and practices of the course as well. other prompts to direct student participa- This particular challenge bears resem- Perhaps the most common tion into more orderly channels. blance to the one posed by constructivist Indeed, an instructor could structure teaching philosophy. To truly empower pedagogical application of and regulate interaction to such an extent students within collaborative or co- wikis in education is to that the wiki is effectively transformed constructed activities requires the into a stripped-down course manage- teacher to relinquish some degree of con- support writing instruction. ment system. But doing so risks diluting trol over those activities. The instructor’s the special qualities that make wikis role shifts to that of establishing contexts worth using in the first place, with the re- or setting up problems to engage stu- sult being, in the words of Heather James, dents. In a wiki, the instructor may set the can also be done with a paper notebook, a “pumped-up PowerPoint.” James has de- stage or initiate interactions, but The more important ability “to teach our stu- scribed the experience of using wikis in medium works most effectively when stu- dents is network literacy: writing in a dis- her teaching as her “brilliant failure.” She dents can assert meaningful autonomy tributed, collaborative environment.” regrets that she “changed the tool, but did over the process. It’s not that authority Walker recognizes that bringing network not change the practice,” and failed to ac- can’t be imposed on a wiki, but doing so literacy to the classroom is no simple task, count for the “great potential in this tool undermines the effectiveness of the tool. that it “means jolting students out of the to be completely disruptive (in a good It’s a safe bet that wiki-like writing spaces conventional individualistic, closed writ- way) to the classroom setting.” With the will be featured in future course manage- ing of essays only ever seen by [their] pro- benefit of hindsight, she concludes that ment systems—along with other “social fessor.”25 As wikis enter the academy, stu- for wikis to fulfill their promise, “the par- software” tools and protocols such as dents may not be the only ones jolted out of conventional practices.
PedagogicalChallenges
I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me. —Bob Dylan
Moving instruction into the chaotic wiki medium presents challenges on a num- ber of fronts. Tracking work created in wiki spaces can become a logistical night- mare, and course management can spin out of control quickly if pages are allowed to spawn without some set of protocols to regulate or index them. Attribution of in- dividual work can be difficult, and an en- vironment in which students (or even nonstudents) are invited to rework con- tent further complicates matters. Seem- ingly minor contributions to a collabora- tive document may have major effects, effects that may be near impossible to as- sess fairly or even to detect. As with the security issue, most of the pedagogic dilemmas presented by wikis can be addressed by “traditional” manage- ment approaches. For instance, students may be required to sign or identify any work that they author. Bowdoin College’s
September/October 2004 EDUCAUSE review 45 weblogs and RSS—but if practices don’t CopyLeft.27 A CommunityCopyright pol- evolve, the effects on student learning icy allows individuals to assert rights over will be superficial at best. their work while allowing their contribu- tions to be modified within the wiki. (Of TheIntellectualPropertyImpossibility course, the copyright owner can subse- Theorem quently reverse those modifications.) A PublicDomain policy dictates that any The basic [idea] of the Web is that [of] an infor- The medium works most contributor to the wiki space surrenders mation space through which people can commu- all copyright. A modification of this ap- nicate, but communicate in a special way: com- effectively when students proach is PrimarilyPublicDomain, which municate by sharing their knowledge in a pool. can assert meaningful assumes a PublicDomain policy unless an The idea was not just that it should be a big individual specifies otherwise. CopyLeft browsing medium. The idea was that everybody autonomy over the process. allows anyone to use the content of the would be putting their ideas in, as well as taking wiki for any purpose and to make deriva- them out. tive works, under the condition that all —Tim Berners-Lee copies and derivative works are released are significantly complicated. The open- under the same license as the original. Another policy issue that threatens to editing function of wikis implies that a The contributor maintains copyright. complicate the widespread adoption of work may perpetually be in process, Any one of these policies is reasonably wikis in higher education is the specifica- inviting participation from anyone. But straightforward. But things can get nasty tion of intellectual property (IP) rights by what if the author of a page does not ac- in wiki communities in which different contributors to a wiki page. IP issues can cept the implications? users hold divergent visions of what con- be dauntingly complex under any cir- Three common IP schemes presently stitutes an appropriate policy. The result cumstance, but when contributors may in use by wiki communities—when they is an application of what the Community be anonymous, or where the origins of bother to define a policy at all—are Com- Wiki describes as the SecondCopyright texts are uncertain, copyright questions munityCopyright, PublicDomain, and ImpossibilityTheorem: “Every copyright policy will be incompatible with at least one other copyright policy in at least one direction. This will occur even where all parties concerned desire the copyright policies to be compatible.”28 There are no easy answers to the theo- rem—it is impossible, after all—though ill- feeling may be lessened by specifying one policy or another, preferably after con- sulting the user community. Hopefully, those who cannot accept the conditions will find some other place to post content.
TechnicalConsiderations (ButHopefullyNotForGeeksOnly)
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature can- not be fooled. —Richard P. Feynman
As users apply wikis more commonly in their practice, they increasingly come to depend on them. A gradual increase in user expectations has potentially serious consequences. For instance, a brief Inter- net server failure (it’s been known to hap- pen) may be catastrophic the night before an assignment deadline, or just before a conference presentation, if users have not been prompted to save backups on their
46 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004 personal hard drives. Similarly, project arises in your enterprise it means that IT 12. IBM Collaborative User Experience Research leaders may regret plunging ahead with isn’t fulfilling the needs of users.”31 The Group, “History Flow,”
48 EDUCAUSE review September/October 2004