What is a wiki?

A wiki is a web site consisting of a collection of web pages to which anyone at all can contribute. That is:

• The wiki has a URL.
• You can go there.
• You can read the existing pages.
• You may add new pages, using the editing tools available on that wiki.
• If you want to make a change in an existing page, you can. (The same applies to your own pages--other people can change them.)

What can we do with a wiki?

Wikis are used for lots of purposes:

• A course at the university could have a wiki to provide a glossary for the course content.
• One of the most famous wikis is Wikipedia; you've probably heard of it.
• Almost any organization could have a wiki to provide answers to frequently-asked questions (FAQ).
• There are wikis to provide book reviews or movie reviews.

How do I set up a wiki?

Setting up a wiki involves obtaining a web site and the necessary software. There are lots of businesses out there which make this fairly easy. There may be a cost ($) involved. You should investigate the possibilities.

Once you have set up the wiki, you will want other people to know about it. How? Aside from word-of-mouth and e-mail, you could put up a link to your wiki on some other web site.

You probably don't want a wiki as your only web site.

Here are some links:

For general information about wikis, try Wiki Getting Started FAQ.

You may also want to look at

Personal Wiki, which has many links to wiki topics and sources,

or

Wikispaces, which has a free 30-day beginning package for creating your own wiki.

(There are plenty of other such offers.)