Wikis are websites that allow people to contribute or edit content on them. They are great for collaborative working, for instance creating a large document or project plan with a team in several offices. A wiki can be as private or as open as the people who create it want it to be.
The most famous wiki is of course Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia that was started in 2001. It now has over 2.5 million articles in English alone6 and over a million members. In 2005 the respected scientific journal Nature conducted a study7 into the reliability of the scientific entries in Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica. No one was surprised that Encyclopaedia Britannica was the more reliable of the two – what was remarkable was that it was only marginally more accurate. The Encyclopedia Britannica team issued a 20-page rebuttal of the study a few months later.
Others observed that while Encyclopaedia Britannica had no entries for wiki, Wikipedia has a 2,500 word article on Encyclopaedia Britannica, its history and methodology. But Wikipedia is more than a reference source. During a major breaking news story, especially one which affects large numbers of people directly, such a natural disaster or political crisis, Wikipedia acts as a collective reporting function.
Trying out wikis…
Everyone knows Wikipedia, here are some other examples of large wiki projects that you can take a look at and even participate in:
Wikia
A community of wikis on different subjects
wikiHow
A practical ‘how to’ manual for everything from making coffee to writing business plans
Wikinews
Wikipedia’s news project
You can start your own public wiki in the Wikia community, or look at the technology’s possibilities for team working by trying out the services from companies like JotSpot and Socialtext.
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