Wikis 101
...Or, how I learned to stop worrying and trust the Internet
Phoebe Ayers –
[email protected]
UC Davis
Overview:
A little history
What?
Why?
How?
Examples
Questions and brainstorming
What can you imagine using wikis for?
Now? Later?
Social definition:
A wiki is a tool for
collaboration,
information sharing
and knowledge/content
management
Technical definition:
A “wiki” is a type of software to run a website that
anyone can edit
“Wiki”: Hawaiian for
“any idiot can edit”
A little history
No, there will not be a quiz
later
In the beginning:
In 1995, Ward Cunningham invented a type of website software
That allowed anyone to modify the site’s content
So this “WikiWikiWeb” could grow naturally and efficiently
Ward gave this software a catchy name
…That I hear actually does have something to do with Hawaiian buses
In Which The Wiki Takes Off!
The wiki was invented “In order to make the exchange of ideas between programmers easier”*
… but was soon discovered as a way to easily share content as well as ideas
Different wiki engines were written…
[UseMod, PhpWiki, MoinMoin, Twiki]
And communities began to grow
We’ll get back to this
“In the late 1990s, wikis were increasingly recognized as a promising way to develop private- and public-knowledge bases, and this potential inspired the founders of the Nupedia encyclopedia project, Jimmy
Wales and Larry Sanger, to use wiki technology as a basis for an electronic
encyclopedia: Wikipedia was launched in January 2001”
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Today:
Dozens of wiki engines & wiki companies on the market, including:
“Enterprise wikis” – software for company intranets
(Socialtext, Confluence)
Free wiki hosting services –
Jotspot, Wikia, Wetpaint
Or, download & install your own:
Mediawiki, PhpWiki, Kwiki, etc. etc.
And dozens of communities….
Including Wikipedia – famous and enormous
A recap:
A Wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily edit and change some available content
Two parts:
“wiki engine” (software)
users – edit content and develop the wiki community
“Wiki” or “the wiki” often generically refers to both
Wikipedia is just one example, running on one type of wiki software (Mediawiki)
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Wiki features
How does it work?
A wiki page starts more or less empty
Wiki pages are connected by internal hyperlinks
Every page should be connected
No ownership of wiki content – anyone can work
6 magic features:
Most wikis have:
Edit this page - open editing of pages (sometimes with permission layers)
Distinct syntax – simple, non-html
Discussion – comment on a page or the site
Versioning or “diffs” – you can see every change that’s been made to a page
Recent changes - can (usually) see all changes made to the site
Revert – can always change a page back to what it was before
Edit this page!
What do you mean, “edit”?
All you need is a computer, internet access and a web browser
special markup language:
[[this is an internal link]]
[http:www.link.com this is an external link]
’’italics’’ or ’’’bold’’’
==Headline 1==
===Headline 2===
*Bulleted list
#Numbered list (item 1)
#Numbered list (item 2)
~~~~ - to sign and date your comments
• As opposed to the HTML we know
(
and don’t love):<a href=http://www.link.com> this is an external link</a>
<i>italic text</i>
<b>bold text</b>
<h1>headline</h1>
<li><ul>list element 1</ul></li>
Not to mention CSS <style type="text/css">
body {
background: #fff;
Etc.
MediaWiki:
==S.R. Ranganathan==
The ’’’Five Laws of Library Science’’’ are as follows:
# Books are for use.
# Every reader has his or her book.
# Every book has its reader.
# Save the time of the reader.
# The library is a growing organism.
* See also: [[Library]], [http://www.ala.org The ALA]
HTML:
<h1>S.R. Ranganathan</h1>
<p>The <b>Five Laws of Library Science</b> are as follows:
<ol><li> Wikis are for use</li>
<li> Every reader has his or her Wiki</li>
<li> Every Wiki has its reader</li>
<li> Save the time of the reader</li>
<li> The Wiki is a growing organism</li></ol>
<ul><li> See also: <a
href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library”> Library</a>,
<a href=“http://www.ala.org”> The ALA </a> </li></ul>
Either way:
S.R. Ranganathan
The Five Laws of Library Science are as follows:
1. Books are for use.
2. Every reader has his or her book.
3. Every book has its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. The library is a growing organism.
• See also: Library, The ALA
Page history
IP address of “anonymous edit”
Edit summary
How to read a Wikipedia (MediaWiki) article history
Minor edit
Links to user page, user talk page, and user contribution history
Date and time of edit
Reversion of most recent edits to old version (poss.
vandalism)
Compare to current version of articleOr most
recent preceding version
Click to compare two versions
The magic “diff”
Recent changes
Revert this page
Example wikis
Wikipedia
(in a nutshell)
What is it?
“The free encyclopedia”
But also:
Related to wiki-dictionaries, textbooks and citizen journalism
A place to find open-source media
A reference desk
A huge community
One of the world’s most popular websites
A site with a mission
Wikipedia basics
GNU/GFDL licensed content: free as in beer and free as in speech
Open to all and editable by anyone
Edit anonymously or with an account
Funded mostly (>80%) by individual donations
Small budget and 4 paid employees
Why is Wikipedia special?
Multilingualism/multiculturalism
People are using it
Astonishing size
It’s remarkably good
Fundamental change to information
production, dissemination, and authority:
You’ve never seen anything like this
before, ever
Wikis in Libraries
Wikis in libraries
Tool for the public:
subject guides, more
Staff intranets:
Reference sites
Documentation, committee work, travel reports
Conferences:
Participants
planners
Community documentation:
Library best practices
Why use a wiki?
Fast
Easy
Fun
Findable & searchable online
Can easily collaborate with all users
Best tool for the job….?
How?
How? Technically:
•
Hosting service (free or pay) vs installing your own wiki on your webserver
Other Criteria:
•
Ease of use
•
Customization
•
Cost
More:
What you’ll need:
What you’ll need to install your own:
Webserver access
Mediawiki install: need Apache, MySQL, PHP (and access to your MySQL db)
Other packages: varies
E.g., Kwiki: Apache & Perl
How? Socially:
Why does Wikipedia (or any wiki) work?
A large, enthusiastic, and unconstrained user base
Users write and determine policy as well as content on Wikipedia
This may depend on situation
Users must be:
Minimally trained
Motivated
What you’ll need:
Make the wiki inviting – pre-populate some pages
Provide training
Make it fun and rewarding to edit
Allow people to discover collaborative writing
Assume good faith
Remember:
You can’t break it
You can always go back
Security levels can be set and tweaked
Many people contributing a small amount can get
a lot done
Various configurations:
resources
Resources (see handout)
Comparing wiki Software:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software
• http://www.wikimatrix.org/
Choosing and installing a wiki in a library setting
• LIS753: A wiki about wikis (lots of helpful resources):
http://lis753wiki.pbwiki.com
• List of examples: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?
title=How_Libraries_Can_Use
• More, from the Virtual Reference SIG wiki: http://vrsig.pbwiki.com/Wikis
• Presentation by Meredith Farkas:
http://sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=66
“wiki wednesdays”
http://www.socialtext.net/wikiwed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:Meetup
Questions!?
And thoughts…
Phoebe Ayers
[email protected]
Slides available at: http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/psa/wiki.ppt
Handout available at: http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/psa/wikihandout.doc
