An introduction to the wonderful world of WikiWikiWebs and one research group's experiences edit
Or, a short Wiki case-study
See also: An associated article
Wiki - a powerful, community-based, collaborative editing environment edit
- enables documents to be authored collectively using a web browser
- e.g. Wikipedia
- the world's largest encyclopedia.
- Alexa traffic data for Wikipedia
- Freely editable.
- e.g. Tessella (company)
- Auditable history
- e.g. Page history
The McCammon group had an internal website edit
- awkward to maintain content.
- Hand-crafted HTML.
- Non-standard Apache configuration.
- "Secret" passwords.
- progressively more out-dated content.
The "McWiki" edit
- Implemented using Zwiki.
Many lessons edit
- Good...
- Easily maintained contact information
- Constantly maintained HOWTO and FAQ documents.
- A collaborative forum.
- Interactive documents.
- Auditable history.
- ...and bad (but not so many!)
- slight learning curve (more behavioural than technical)
- no formal editorial or peer-review process
- poor medium for discussions and debates
- addictive!