The document outlines the key characteristics and historical development of wikis, emphasizing their collaborative nature and various uses across education, business, and personal applications. It discusses challenges in user engagement, content management, and editing practices, using examples like Wikipedia and other failed wiki projects. Additionally, it explores the evolution of wiki software and different models, including open and closed wikis, while highlighting case studies that demonstrate their effectiveness in fostering community and knowledge creation.

1. Ros Pan Head of E-Strategy and Innovation, UCD Library Web 2.0 & Social Media WIKIS

2. Coverage The key characteristics of a WIKI and making it work History of wikis Characteristic features of a WIKI Software options – hosted or stand alone What are they used for Examples Wikipedia and reference wikis A selection of other examples from medicine, education Concluding thoughts

3. Technology is just a tool.. There are numerous social media and Web 2.0 options for people to try – which ones they end up using regularly will vary from person to person There are 1000’s of dead or not very successful WIKIS about…. HOW CAN YOU GET PEOPLE TO WEAVE USE OF WIKIS INTO THEIR DAILY ACTIVITIES which is what need to achieve, use as freely as texting or e-mail?

4. Technology is just a tool.. Simon Revell, enterprise 2.0 manager at Pfizer pharmaceuticals: “ There have been so many instances where people have built great communities, but then without providing reasons to join, [the communities] fall flat on their face,…. From the beginning, we have taken great strides to think about a plan to garner usership and provide value.“ Ground it in the realities of the average user Do not offer a product, offer a solution to some real life challenge or problem Benefit from champions or WIKIHEADS in the larger organization to take the idea forward and encourage colleagues to participate

5. Wikipatterns (available online via library catalogue) By Stewart Mader, Copyright Wiley Publishing, Inc. © 2008, Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (US) STAGE DESCRIPTION Attraction The wiki needed to be “infectious”; it needed to support Google and other site ranking services to ensure that the wiki has prominence when relevant criteria are searched for. It needed to support short and human readable URLs to its pages unlike content management systems. Interest Once the site is reached, the “seeker” needed to be encouraged to stay and explore more. Desire The wiki needed to be engaging so the seeker explores more deeply into the structure of the site and develops a strong commitment to the idea that the wiki can provide meaningful solutions to the seeker’s needs. Action The wiki needed to encourage the seeker to engage, commit, and contribute to the content on the site. Retention The wiki needed to be “sticky.” It needed to provide real, social, and psychological benefits to return to the wiki often, to participate, contribute, and possible integrate into their day-to-day workflow. Expansion The wiki needed to be “infectious”; it needed to encourage and support the existing participants to bring in and engage other researchers and contributors who can enrich the project.

6. What do wiki owners want people to do? Reading the content YES but also….. Editing (with version histories) of pages Comments and threads Adding of sections, pages, resources, and attachments Provide links to other relevant websites, readings etc Taylor, Chris. “Why commercial wikis don’t work,” Business 2.0 (23 February 2007) http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/21/magazines/business2/walledgardens.biz2/index.htm Case study of various WIKI projects that failed and why – LA Times, Penguin, Amazon

7. WIKIS – weapons of mass collaboration

8. “ Will wikis overtake blogs in popularity or will everyone stay on their pedestals so they can live safely and unchallenged within the walls of their opinions?” WIKI Playbook, p. 42 Collaborative knowledge creation differentiates a WIKI from a blog

9. What is a WIKI? http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =ZmByB0sIPog

10. “ A wiki is simply a website in which users can create and collaboratively edit pages, and easily link them together.” From Mader, Wikipatterns, Chapter 1

12. Characteristics Type of website, can be made to look very like a standard website if spend time on that Can add sections, pages quite flexibly compared to blogs rigid and linear format – flexible architecture Collaborative working and editing is key, not restricted to just threads of comment as are on blogs with one main author – you can edit the main entries Easy editing tools included, web-based Instant updating to live site (sometimes…) Share with a group – range from closed approach with small team only to entire wiki available for all to both read and edit globally on the web Community is largely self organising and self-policing. Self-organizing group behaviour in action

13. Hard to define a wiki – concept has been developed in all sorts of directions Can get totally closed wikis which are just another way to manage a hosted website http:// editme.com Can get personal wikis for the individual desktop – WikidPad, TiddlyWIKI are examples Can get blend of wiki and blog, the BLIKI, coined 2003 http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliki Can get blend of wiki with structured database Twiki is outstanding example of that approach http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/StructuredWiki Enterprise wiki products extending to include all the main Web 2.0 tools and functions from the wiki centre Repackage for the mobile device – the MIKI or mobile wiki e.g. for your iPhone/iPod touch

14. Open or closed wikis Open wikis where all can read and edit Mixed wikis where all can read but only some can edit Closed wikis where only group can view or edit “ there may be greater use of wikis behind firewalls than on the public Internet”

15. Where is the software hosted? Wiki farms or hosted wikis – cluster of servers that host wikis, some free some pay for Pbworks, Wetpaint, Wikispaces Stand alone wikis - Wiki application running on your own servers Mediawiki (wikipedia) Confluence (Sun wiki) 30+ Solutions to Start Your Own Wiki http://mashable.com/2008/07/29/wiki-solutions/ by Sean P. Aune

16. Brief history

17. A. Invented by Ward Cunningham 1995 with wiki wiki web platform 2001 book on the topic

18. B. With launch of wikipedia in 2001 wiki idea is centre stage and use grows the concept of wikis became much more well known from 2001 wikipedia launch still had to have a web server up and running and load the WIKI application locally Beyond many people/organizations to do that Very popular in engineering, technology and software development companies from 2001 Need to set up servers and use a simple wiki mark-up language was no problem to these groups

19. Jimmy Wales (left) founder of WIKIPEDIA and Ward Cunningham, inventor of the WIKI Photo by Ross William Hamilton http:// www.wikiweb.com /

20. C. As Web 2.0 concept takes shape, WIKIS change nature and spread Web 2.0 term coined at O’Reilly conference in 2004 WIKI idea fits in well – now see a web-hosted option, social, collaboration and participation Server-based applications continue but see launch of easy to use web-hosted WIKIS – just register and go “Hosted wiki” or “wiki farm” Also see launch of WYSIWYG wiki editors so users do not need to learn WIKI mark-up language Explosion of awareness and use takes place 2006- March 2007 term WIKI entered the Online Oxford English Dictionary

21. What are WIKIS used for exactly?

22. So…what are they used for exactly? You can utilize wikis for nearly any purpose, ranging from writing a collective online encyclopedia to building personal Web pages. http:// Wikipatterns.com

23. So…what are they used for exactly? Social and personal individual usage Educational and research information resources | teaching and learning collaborative environment Business both as a marketing and team working tool

24. So…what are they used for exactly? WIKIs for Dummies categorisation: Content-focused wikis A subject or many subjects is these Process-focused wikis Write a book, manage a project Community wikis People with shared interest Ease-of-use wikis as a website solution A web site in an easy way for wide range of uses

25. So…what are they used for exactly? Intranets and/or extranets Research spaces Collaborative projects organized and managed Creating documentation, meeting notes, manuals Editing texts of all kinds together Gathering requirements and feedback Discussion and problem solving together Marketing and communicating initiatives Getting team members involved

26. Team builder Meeting and project management Document store Shared working on documents Live Library wiki for the Bibliometrics working group

27. “ As teachers, we can use wikis . . . for instructions, manuals, glossaries for a class or group project with a bibliographic format for a letter or statement presented on behalf of the class for a handbook or textbook to build a guide to correct punctuation for any project not requiring one responsible author to run a classroom, with students collaborating online to contribute to group projects with members from geographically diverse locations to collaborate on ideas and organize documents and resources from individuals and groups of students

28. “ As teachers, we can use wikis . . . as a presentation tool where those who attend a workshop can contribute to future versions of the workshop as a group research project for a specific idea to manage school and classroom documents as a collaborative handout for students for writing purposes, such as student-created books and journaling (i.e., Wikibooks [ http:// en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page ]) to create and maintain a classroom FAQ as a classroom discussion and debate area as a place to aggregate web resources “ [From Rita Zeinstejer The Wiki Revolution: A Challenge to Traditional Education http://tesl-ej.org/ej44/m1.html ]

29. A selection of example uses in more detail

30. Examples 1 – Wikipedia and other reference resources http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html 20 minute talk from July 2005 on wikipedia and how it was formed

31. Wikipedia – history & features Most famous wiki and currently on Alexa site Wikipedia is world no 6 web site in terms of traffic Sprawling online encyclopedia launched January 15 th 2001 Anyone could edit – and anonymously as well “soft security” with an audit trail BUT in 2009 have had to tighten up due to abuse – August tightened up on pages for living people Originally intended as a feed site to feed into Nupedia, a peer-reviewed online encyclopedia launched in 2000 with a 7-stage editing process, idea was these Wikipedia posts would be vetted and then included in Nupedia Nupedia folded in 2003 with just 24 articles in it, Wikipedia got 18,000 in first year and continued as a stand-alone product

32. Wikipedia – history & features Not for profit venture No advertising 8.2 million articles in 200+ languages, 3 million articles in English Over 1 million registered users and for many articles anyone can still edit anonymously just based on IP address Rejecting the traditional method of having each article written by an expert and subjected to review, fact-checking and editing, they took the opposite tack The “neutral point of view” (“NPOV,”in Wikipedia shorthand) is a touchstone of the Wikipedia community

34. Features of wikipedia to note Bring up an entry e.g. Lalibela Easy editing mode – I can do it as anonymous person Versioning – can work backwards Link to particular version Comparing versions to see where the changes have been done Article discussions The vandalism area where serious offenders listed Categorisation of quality of item from stub upwards

35. Wikipedia

36. Wikipedia – easy editing by anyone

37. Wikipedia – versioning available & ability to move to an older version and compare

38. Wikipedia – discussion on each article

39. Wikipedia – warning & vandalism area

40. Wikipedia – warning & vandalism area

41. Wikipedia – blocks on editing

42. Open editing issues 1. Mass deletion deletion of all contents on a page 2. Offensive copy: insertion of vulgarities or slurs. 3. Phony copy: insertion of text unrelated to the page topic.E.g. on the Chemistry page, a user inserted the full text from the “Windows 98 readme” file. 4. Phony redirection: Often pages contain only a redirect link to a more precise term (e.g. “IBM” redirects to “International Business Machines.”), but redirects can also be malicious. linking to an unrelated or offensive term. “Israel” was at one point redirected to “feces.” Note that a phony redirect implies familiarity with Wikipedia’s editing mechanisms 5. Idiosyncratic copy : adding text that is related to the topic of the page but which is clearly one-sided, not of general interest, or inflammatory; these may be long pieces of text. Examples range from “Islam” where a visitor pasted long prayer passages from the Koran, to “Cat” where a Reader posted a lengthy diatribe on the Unix cat command [ examples from http:// alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf ]

43. Cure or prevention Wikipedia is probably the most vandalised wiki on the planet Cure philosophy = “Change patrol” volunteers who check all recent edits and take suitable action to remove errors and vandalism, post warnings, arbitrate disputes and blacklist repeat offenders Many errors, vandalisms or attempts to spam by putting up adverts and links to irrelevant websites etc are picked up in a matter of minutes DARWIKINISM concept been coined for very rapid way that errors and vandalism get picked up and corrected or rolled back to earlier version

44. Any fully open WIKI is vulnerable – here the Atlassian WIKI for Confluence users has some inappropriate material added to the wiki

45. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair 's entry was edited to state that his middle name was "Whoop-de-do", while the article page of John Seigenthaler , a renowned American journalist, was edited to suggest that he had been involved in the assassination of US President John F Kennedy . And in 2007, Ryan Jordan , one of Wikipedia's most prolific editors who had amended more than 20,000 articles, was found to be a 24-year-old college dropout rather than the professor of theology he had claimed to be. Wikipedia has more than three million English language articles, covering everything from episode guides for the television series Lost to accounts of important historical events. It is one of the most popular websites on the internet, used by around 65 million people each month. Wikipedia had to tighten up in 2009

46. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0506/1224245992919.html

47. Wikipedia had to introduce a buffer for edits after a series of howlers in 2008/2009 of which the last straw was an indication that Ted Kennedy had died when he was taken ill at the inauguration of Obama…some pages get a check before edits go live…and plenty of warnings Read Aug 26 2009 news item http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/wikipedia-ends-unrestricted-editing-of-articles-1869528.html Not all pages now offering this edit choice

48. Britannica gone the other way and offering editing options – but checked first

49. Other serious reference WIKIS launched

50. Responses to Wikipedia Insist authors provide a real name and biography Only allow certain vetted registered users to edit Split into vertical subject areas with a lot more detail in them, rather than a general encyclopedia Add-ons to the software to make it more sophisticated and capable to display and edit specialized graphics and characters, pull in data from external database sources etc.

51. General titles

52. Citizendium http:// en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citizendium Started by wikipedia founder Larry Sanger who became disenchanted with it Here have to give real name and biography to edit entries but public can participate alongside experts Editor control on who participates and editors mark articles “approved” Slow growth 12,305 articles progressing toward editor approval or re-approval

53. Scholarpedia “the free peer reviewed encylopedia” http://www.scholarpedia.org/ Scholarpedia uses same software as Wikipedia, mediawiki, but differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways: Each article is written by an expert (elected by the public or invited by Scholarpedia editors). Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information. Each article has a curator -- typically its author -- who is responsible for its content. Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version.

54. Scholarpedia Addresses vandalism issue but ALSO the expertise issue in a more conservative model overall. Each article is written by an expert (invited or elected by the public). Currently restricted subject range Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information. Approved entries are archived in a journal that carries an ISSN and hence can be cited exactly as articles in other peer-reviewed journals can Each article has a curator - typically its author -- who is responsible for its content. Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version.

55. Vertical subject specialist titles

56. WikiPathways http://www.wikipathways.org/index.php/WikiPathways

57. In the wikipedia tradition but… Specialist and narrow subject area Introduced a custom graphical editing tool Use PathVisio which provides basic palette of objects and annotations needed to represent biological processes. Integrated various databases into the application key point is the level of sophistication that can be built into a wiki approach….

58. Wikitravel One of Time magazines top 50 websites in 2008 Same Mediawiki software as wikipedia and many other examples use Anybody can edit the entries Narrow focus on travel guides http:// wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

59. The closed community WIKI – for vets Yesterday saw the launch of the WikiVet project ( www.wikivet.net ) at an event in Newcastle University. This is a joint initiative between four UK veterinary schools with funding from the Higher Education Academy and JISC . It is based on the development of a veterinary version of Wikipedia. However it has a number of features which distinguish if from it's big brother: all the content has been written by veterinary students and graduates from the participating vet schools the content is peer reviewed by recent veterinary graduates and subject specialists in each vet school access to the wiki is restricted to registered users who are either students or recognised veterinary graduates

60. Examples 2 Medical and health care wikis

61. Example wiki – medicine GANFYD Get A Note From Your Doctor http:// www.ganfyd.org / Anyone can read Medical practitioners can edit Free medical knowledgebase

62. Example wiki – medicine Flu wiki http://www.fluwiki.info/ Anybody can edit Has separate discussion forum area Narrow focus on planning locally to cope with epidemics Taken on a new significance this year…

63. Medpedia http://www.medpedia.com/ Launched February 2009 Seeking individual and corporate involvement Aims to be the most comprehensive medical resource in the world Control on authorship

64. Examples 3 - Wikis in education

65. Wikis in education In teaching All levels As part of the course delivery at whatever level = a student participation and learning tool Teacher/Lecturer support – discussion, pooling workbooks, textbooks, classroom tools and ideas Part of general active learner philosophy In research Sharing of research results Building knowledge bases Part of Open Science movement in many cases where they are open wikis

66. Part of a view of learner-centred, participatory “light a fire” not “fill a pail” In a one teacher/many students situation, there is very little room for individual input and interaction—compare this against interactive online spaces, sites, and tools that are very attractive, energizing, and simply more engaging to students than humdrum drill/kill activities found in the typical classroom. [From Wikinomics Playbook, p. 32]

67. Wiki in education teaching examples Browse examples from http:// educationalwikis.wikispaces.com /

68. Examples 4 WIKIS and academic research “ Open science is a shorthand for technological tools, many of which are Web-based, that help scientists communicate about their findings. At its most radical, the ethos could be described as "no insider information." Information available to researchers, as far as possible, is made available to absolutely everyone.” “ The openness at the technological and cultural heart of the Internet is fast becoming an irreplaceable tool for many scientists, especially biologists, chemists and physicists — allowing them to forgo the long wait to publish in a print journal and instead to blog about early findings and even post their data and lab notes online. The result: Science is moving way faster and more people are part of the dialogue.” [ Blog entry accessed Sept 6 th http://www.livescience.com/culture/080902-open-science.html ]

69. WIKIS and academic research example WikiProteins

70. WIKIS and academic research example WikiProteins Over one million Knowlets of biomedical concepts are present, selected from authorities such as the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) , UniProtKB /Swiss-Prot , IntAct and the Gene Ontology (GO) . By adding information to concepts in WikiProfessional, scientists expand an evolving knowledge base with facts, relations, associations and conceptual information. http://proteins.wikiprofessional.org/

71. Open Notebooks – UsefulChem Project running at Drexel University http:// usefulchem.wikispaces.com /

72. Examples 5 - Wikis in business & enterprise

73. Wikis in business and enterprise 33% of enterprises already using wikis Jan 07 and another 32% plan to do so within 2 years Interesting to see if that has happened ( Economist Intelligence Unit survey, January 2007) 2 main uses in enterprise for wikis: internal team collaboration and information management tool to reach out to clients and gather feedback

74. The hidden WIKIS A lot of enterprise WIKIS are only for employee groups, most run on local servers not hosted systems, less examples to see “ While Wikipedia has garnered headlines and generated tremendous mainstream awareness of wiki technology, wikis may have their greatest impact within the enterprise. Unlike previous knowledge management and collaboration tools, wikis provide an easy-to-use, flexible tool that can enhance existing workflow and processes, rather than requiring re-engineering. As such, wikis present an opportunity to revolutionize collaboration within the enterprise much as email has revolutionized communications .” From pbwiki white paper http:// pbwiki.com/f/PBwikiCollaboration.pdf

75. The enterprise approach to wikis Can be a through the backdoor approach with individual groups using web-hosted tools and often starts like that Don’t want just a wiki as a “point product” Want COHERENCE in all these tools including wikis into a “Collaboration support market” Want persistence Want good security and authentication Want linkage to other corporate systems e.g. portal, document storage, e-mail, sign-on

76. Enterprise wiki applications Socialtext blueKiwi Jive Clearspace Customer Vision Mindtouch Deki Ramius TWiki

77. Enterprise products – wikis move on..

78. Wiki as part of enterprise package Wiki collaboration Blog publishing Integration with email, chat, presence and more Advanced search, tagging and organization Simple file management Personalized and customizable navigation Access control and administration Advanced features for flexible, remote access and IT integration integrate easily with existing IT infrastructure such as directory services and enterprise portals, like Microsoft SharePoint.

79. WIKI-centric Web 2.0 approach in enterprise From An Osterman Research Position Paper Published June 2007 Why Web 2.0 is Critical to Your Business

80. a. WIKIS in enterprise – B2C uses Enable voice-of-customer Assess trends and changes in customer needs Gain customer insight on how to improve and develop products and services Humanize your brand through direct interactions with your customers Empower customers to solve their own and each other's problems Identify and empower passionate customers as brand advocates Connect prospects to a supportive and engaged customer community

82. Business to Client wikis Advertising agencies. Web design companies Replace constant round of e-mails with attachments, phone calls, in-person meetings with WIKI to cover a lot of this “ First, using a wiki or workspace addresses the fact that people are tired of the ping-pong type of information exchanges they get from voicemail and email. Second, wikis address the need to accommodate people on the team who may not be technologically savvy and who wouldn’t participate if asked to use a tool that was complicated or intimidating.”

83. Business to client wikis Angel.com… is a leading provider of call center solutions and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. While wikis are used internally to improve team collaboration and the efficiency of employee communications, Angel.com launched a customer- and partner facing wiki in late 2006. Among other capabilities, this external wiki allows customers and partners to view and enhance the company’s technical documentation by providing use-case examples or post their own content on IVR best practices.

84. b. Internal enterprise wikis Read some of the case studies of enterprise usage in “Wikipatterns”, gives good feel for benefits found Team building Sharing knowledge and contributing Storing knowledge in a permanent base Improving buy-in and morale Overall efficiency gains in projects and deliverables

85. b. Internal enterprise wikis – Pfizer pharmaceuticals Use blogs to communicate across time zones Rely on RSS for news related to their jobs WIKI is used for Pfizerpedia element - workers post to private wiki Pfizerpedia, 10,000+ articles and how-to videos Initiated at grassroots level and spread virally Pfizerpedia is now an official part of the Pfizer IT landscape Started with small projects targeting narrow groups of employees to overcome resistance

86. http://www.slideshare.net/bengardner135/meet-jessica

87. b. Enterprise wikis - WACHOVIA Large US bank, 100,000 employees company’s wikis, blogs, instant messaging and other new collaboration tools are all anchored by Microsoft’s Sharepoint Server . The collaborative environment is seen as critical to attracting –and retaining—young employees who expect access to web 2.0 tools at work, says e-business director Peter Fields The bank's first effort was a wiki designed to capture and define the numerous three letter acronyms used throughout its operations, quickly reached 900 entries created a wiki dedicated to ideas to help it go paperless It's now piloting a full, encyclopedic wiki and also plans to roll out tools that will allow individual business units to quickly post wikis for individual projects.

88. Challenge – lack of fit with organizational culture “ Is a culture shift. One of main issues is in a traditional hierarchical set up where normally you talk to manager above you only and they do the same up to the top, in such a bureaucracy the wiki may be underused by employees who think they could get in trouble and feared by managers as undermining the whole managerial set up of the company and their own role.”

89. Challenge – flattening management structures Move from hierarchical forms of organizational management to flatter more equal and self-organising approaches in areas that are not mission-critical (not suitable for accounting, or security or overall IT infrastructure areas) is a threat [from WIKINOMICS, Chapter 9]

90. Finally… Finding wikis

91. Finding Aids – there are not that many compared to blogs http:// www.wiki.com / searches in wikis Search index of wikis at http:// wikiindex.org/WikiIndex or browse at http:// wikiindex.org/Category:Wiki_Topic http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis Just do a Google search and if you don’t want wikipedia exclude it thus: wiki* “swine flu” -wikipedia

93. Final thoughts

94. Consider the pros and cons • The cult of the amateu r • About sharing power, knowledge, responsibility and wealth • A Web 2.0 gimmick • A pool of tinkering genius amateurs • The future of enterprise collaboration • 1,000,000 monkeys with computers • A cornerstone of Enterprise 2.0 processes • A platform for employee empowerment for critical decision-making • The diffusion of decision-making to the point where no one is accountable • Cut’n’Paste research • A facilitator of teams with purpose • The liberator of talent • The avatar of mediocrity [From the Wikinomics Playbook, p.8]

95. “… people are increasingly seeing how the wiki combines simplicity and power in a radically different, paradigm shifting way. In fact, I might venture to say that the wiki is the most significant development on the Internet since the web browser. Where the web browser enabled people to access online information in a radically different and better way that sparked the widespread growth of the Internet, the wiki enables people to directly and easily edit information in a way that encourages increasing participation and exponentially faster growth of online information….we are moving from passive readers to active participants ” From Mader, Wikipatterns, Chapter 1 enterprise use of wikis