Engineering Computer Network

Wikis: What are they

and why we should use them.

ITaP Luncheon

November 4, 2003

presented by

Christopher N. Deckard

Lead Web Systems Developer

cnd@purdue.edu

A look from the top

What is a Wiki?

What can we get out of a Wiki?

Examples

Demonstration

Questions & open discussion

Types of forums

Email

Best suited for two people or a small group.

Mailing lists

Ability to keep an archive of the discussion.

Web Log (BLOG)

Normally, an easy way for a single author to publish content to the web.

Additions are typically made in chronological order, like a diary.

Thought Bucket

Collection of thoughts or ideas

Separate into categories

Not very organized

Not searchable

No discussions

Many tools, many concepts

None of these offer a collaborative approach for dealing with information or having discussions

in a single tool.

The other end of the spectrum

Groupware Products

IBM's Lotus Notes, for example.

Extremely complex.

Designed to act like a large corporation with work flow and lots of rules.

Do not reflect the way people work.

So, what's a Wiki?

“Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.” - www.wiki.org

Wiki is the Hawaiian word for fast.

I'm lost, please tell me more

Collaborative – contributions from many authors.

Simple text formatting rules – no need to know HTML or other complex markup languages.

Crosslinked pages – pages are easily linked to other pages within the Wiki.

Other Features:

Searchable

Subscribable – get notification of changes

Open and cooperative

A way to keep our ideas.

The structure is what we make of it.

It's a blank slate.

No default structure, the only limitation is us.

Possible Usage:

Common place to discuss ideas and projects.

If all of our thoughts were in a Wiki, we'd have a better idea of who we are and what we are doing.

So what do we get out of a Wiki?

How to get started

ECN has Wiki software for Zope (ZWiki)

Anyone can create their own Wiki

ECN has a Wiki for use by ECN staff

http://eng.purdue.edu/ECN/Wikis/

Wikis use StructuredText

Common rules no matter which Wiki software is used

Easy to learn and easy to read

A good example

wikipedia.org

Collaborative, community developed online encyclopedia

Free

Fast

Easy to use

Wiki software

ZWiki

Wikis for Zope

http://www.zwiki.org

Kwiki

Standalone software written in Perl

http://www.kwiki.org

Demonstration

Demo:

1) Wikis in use at ECN

2) How to create a personal Wiki

Questions/Discussion

Open for questions and discussion

Resources used in making presentation:

www.wiki.org

Cortese, Amy, “New Economy; Businesses are starting to toy with the wiki, an off-beat technology for fostering Web interaction,” The New York Times, 19 May, 2003

2003-09-24T15:15:24