23_58457x ch15.qxd 2/23/05 1:38 PM Page 258 258 Part V: Making the Most of Your Blog What’s a wiki? Wikis are collaboratively created Web sites that page — presumably to provide useful content — allow any user to add, edit, or delete content. They or even to delete one. Wiki software tracks and are an exercise in group content creation, with saves all additions and changes, allowing con- no software-imposed limitations on contributors tent to be rolled back or recovered if needed. or content. The concept and name originated Sometimes “contributors” provide wrong infor- with Ward Cunningham, who also created the mation (consciously or not) to a wiki. The whole first one — the Portland Pattern Repository — philosophy, however, assumes that wiki members in March 1995. Wiki is Hawaiian for “quick.” self-police, self-censor, and self-edit; inaccurate The most well-known example of a wiki is contributions are caught and removed quickly Wikipedia, which is shown in the following figure. and with little effort. Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) is a free Wikis are great for creative projects involving encyclopedia created by anyone who cares to large groups who bring lots of different expertise contribute, maintained and edited by anyone to the table. Use them for project management, who wishes to take that role. Some popular wiki planning, content, and more. They are better at engines are UseMod, TWiki, MoinMoin, PmWiki, collecting information that grows and keeps its and MediaWiki. value over time — a daily weather report isn’t a The rules governing how a wiki works are set good candidate for a wiki, but an earthquake- by the person who initially sets up the wiki, but monitoring and experience-collection wiki might generally wikis are open to the public. Any be quite interesting. visitor to the wiki can choose to add or edit a.