This document provides an overview of wikis. It defines wikis as websites that allow users to collaboratively create and edit interconnected web pages. The first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, was created in 1994 by Ward Cunningham as a subsection of another site that allowed direct browser editing. In 2001, Jimmy Wales launched Wikipedia, which grew rapidly due to being entirely user-driven. Wikis are characterized by users' ability to easily edit pages using simple markup languages. While open editing enables rapid growth, it can also lead to errors or vandalism that wikis address through history tracking and community self-correction.

1. A Wiki Presentation
By Michael Mitchell

2. Wiki: A Definition
 A wiki is a website that allows for the
creation and editing of a number of inter-
connected webpages.
 For the most part written and edited by users, a
wiki is a collaborative website that relies on
intercommunication and cooperation to grow.

3. History of the Wiki
 The wiki began as a concept in 1994, with the
creation of “WikiWikiWeb” by Ward Cunningham.
 Rather than being a standalone website,
“WikiWikiWeb” was a subsection of the main site,
c2.com, that allowed pages to be edited directly on
a browser and showed the pages’ editing history.
 The word “wiki” is a Hawaiian word meaning
“quick.”
•Source: “WikiWikiWeb History” by Ward Cunningham.

4.  In 2001, Nupedia creator Jimmy Wales launched
an online encyclopedia known as “Wikipedia.”
 Unlike Nupedia and other online encyclopedias,
Wikipedia did not rely on peer-review or qualified
•Image owned by
Wikimedia individuals to create and edit it’s articles. It was
Foundation.
entirely user-driven and user-created, which
allowed for Wikipedia to grow much faster than
standard encyclopedias.
 The popularity of Wikipedia began a boom of wikis
that lasts to this day.
•Source: Wikipedia “Wiki” article.

5. The Characteristics of
Wikis
 The defining characteristic of wikis is that any user
can make or edit pages.
 This is done by making use of simple markup
languages, sometimes called wikitext, rather than
more complex coding languages like HTML. This
ensures that all users can use the pages and that
all pages maintain the same style.
 By interconnecting the various webpages, wikis
also encourage further creation and editing on
multiple topics.

6.  An example of the
editing history for a
typical wiki page.
From Wikipedia’s
“Vitamin C” article.

7. Flaws with Wikis
 Because wikis are so open to editing, they are
vulnerable to malicious vandalism and false or
erroneous information.
 Though it is standard procedure to provide
citations for information added to a wiki, there is no
way of enforcing this, so false information can
easily be presented as fact.
 There is also the problem of “trolling,” users going
in and intentionally changing information to be
either false or unrelated to the topic at all.

8. Security
 Wikis focus on fixing rather than preventing
vandalism. By making the wiki easy to edit, they
ensure that errors are easier to correct.
 Wikis normally keep a history of edits made to a
page that allow the page to be reverted back to an
older version.
 By inspiring their users to be better informed, the
wiki’s user base become more apt at maintaining
accuracy when working on the wiki itself.

9. Sources and Credits
 All information was drawn from the Wikipedia
“Wiki” article, as well as the WikiWikiWeb History.
 Wikipedia’s Logo and Vitamin C mark up page
belong to the Wikimedia Foundation and are used
under Creative Commons.