[Noun explanation] what is: WIKI

Most of the interest in wikis stems from the success of Wikipedia, an online free encyclopedia that relies on a number of contributors to add and modify its entries. Since its inception in 2001, the English version of Wikipedia has been expanded to include 480,000 entries and many other language versions.

Wikipedia may be the most famous wiki, but it's not the first. The first wiki in the world is a computer programming website called the Portland Mode Knowledge Base (Portland pattern Repository), created by Ward Cunningham (Ward Cunningham) in 1995.

What's the difference between wikis and blogs?

Wikis have links to "edit this page" that allow visitors to make changes to the page. The link exists where wikis differ from web logs and blogs, and the latter both allow readers to post pertinent comments to provide feedback, but nothing else can be modified except to edit what is published.

Blogs can be used to build communities of people with common interests. And wikis have taken a step forward on this basis, building consensus (consensus-building). Imagine a group of people sitting in front of a whiteboard, where anyone can add ideas, make changes, or even erase something, and you can make a general impression on the wiki.

Where is the advantage of wikis?

Taking today's fast-paced business work as an example, good communication and idea sharing (idea-sharing) between long-distance people will be the competitive advantage of the enterprise. The requirements for accessing wikis are only Internet connections and a Web browser that is easier to deploy and use than some other collaborative applications and components. By getting people to share information pages on a wiki, you can also reduce the load on your Inbox, reducing the number of e-mail messages that are sent between workers.

Why do companies value wikis?

As a result of Wikipedia's success, there has been a growing debate about wikis, and the collective potential of the media is far from being developed. There is no doubt that wikis can be used in both internal and external applications of the company. For companies that have problems with information updates within an enterprise's intranet, wikis enable employees and customers to make updates on their own. Wikis can also help tune in-house development projects, and wikis are already starting to make a difference in this area.

Wikis can also be used to build online customer communities to provide advice and support. Some companies may also feel a bit afraid of opening up the company's site to the public, but as customers ' loyalty and satisfaction rise, their trust in the company will grow in return.

Who controls the content of the wiki?

Theoretically, no one can control it, and everyone can control it. Each reader has the right to modify, add, and delete content on the wiki as long as he feels right. For some organizations, accepting this lack of centralized control requires a much more conceptual change. Wikis look like an invitation to enter the Anarchy world--they can modify or even delete something important to someone who is malicious on the web--but in reality this is almost never going to happen.

In the immediate case, it is necessary to set some basic rules for the use of wikis.

To prevent important information from being modified or deleted, system administrators can "protect" certain pages from modification. In fact, even if an important page has been deleted or modified, there is no need to worry. A wiki is an online information database, and each modification is recorded and recoverable.

How to start a wiki tour?

There are a number of open source packages that can be downloaded for free, including TWiki. Other host applications, such as Socialtext and JotSpot(both in the beta phase) can also be downloaded online.

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Translation finishing: passion1999

News Source: Computerworld.com