Wikis 101

1. Wikis 101 ...Or, how I learned to stop worrying and trust the Internet Phoebe Ayers – psayers@ucdavis.edu UC Davis

2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/elkit/114382996/

3. Overview: • A little history • What? • Why? • How? • Examples • Questions and brainstorming • What can you imagine using wikis for? Now? Later?

4. Social definition:A wiki is a tool for collaboration,information sharingand knowledge/content management

5. Technical definition:A “wiki” is a type of software to run a website that anyone can edit

6. “Wiki”: Hawaiian for “any idiot can edit”

7. A little history No, there will not be a quiz later

8. In the beginning: • In 1995, Ward Cunningham invented a type of website software • That allowed anyone to modify the site’s content • So this “WikiWikiWeb” could grow naturally and efficiently • Ward gave this software a catchy name …That I hear actually does have something to do with Hawaiian buses

9. http://www.flickr.com/photos/grenade/177953735/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/19490596/

11. In Which The Wiki Takes Off! • The wiki was invented “In order to make the exchange of ideas between programmers easier”* • … but was soon discovered as a way to easily share content as well as ideas • Different wiki engines were written… [UseMod, PhpWiki, MoinMoin, Twiki] • And communities began to grow * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb

12. We’ll get back to this • “In the late 1990s, wikis were increasingly recognized as a promising way to develop private- and public-knowledge bases, and this potential inspired the founders of the Nupedia encyclopedia project, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, to use wiki technology as a basis for an electronic encyclopedia: Wikipedia was launched in January 2001” * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

13. Today: • Dozens of wiki engines & wiki companies on the market, including: • “Enterprise wikis” – software for company intranets • (Socialtext, Confluence) • Free wiki hosting services – • Jotspot, Wikia, Wetpaint • Or, download & install your own: • Mediawiki, PhpWiki, Kwiki, etc. etc. • And dozens of communities…. • Including Wikipedia – famous and enormous

15. A recap: • A Wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily edit and change some available content • Two parts: • “wiki engine” (software) • users – edit content and develop the wiki community • “Wiki” or “the wiki” often generically refers to both • Wikipedia is just one example, running on one type of wiki software (Mediawiki) * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

16. http://www.flickr.com/photos/psmith/110333255/

17. Wiki features

18. How does it work? • A wiki page starts more or less empty • Wiki pages are connected by internal hyperlinks • Every page should be connected • No ownership of wiki content – anyone can work on any piece

19. 6 magic features: • Most wikis have: • Edit this page - open editing of pages (sometimes with permission layers) • Distinct syntax – simple, non-html • Discussion – comment on a page or the site • Versioning or “diffs” – you can see every change that’s been made to a page • Recent changes - can (usually) see all changes made to the site • Revert – can always change a page back to what it was before

20. Edit this page!

21. What do you mean, “edit”? • All you need is a computer, internet access and a web browser • special markup language: [[this is an internal link]] [http:www.link.com this is an external link] ’’italics’’ or ’’’bold’’’ ==Headline 1== ===Headline 2=== *Bulleted list #Numbered list (item 1) #Numbered list (item 2) ~~~~ - to sign and date your comments

22. As opposed to the HTML we know (and don’t love): <a href=http://www.link.com> this is an external link</a> <i>italic text</i> <b>bold text</b> <h1>headline</h1> <li><ul>list element 1</ul></li> Not to mention CSS <style type="text/css"> body { background: #fff; Etc.

23. MediaWiki: ==S.R. Ranganathan== The ’’’Five Laws of Library Science’’’ are as follows: # Books are for use. # Every reader has his or her book. # Every book has its reader. # Save the time of the reader. # The library is a growing organism. * See also: [[Library]], [http://www.ala.org The ALA] HTML: <h1>S.R. Ranganathan</h1> <p>The <b>Five Laws of Library Science</b> are as follows: <ol><li> Wikis are for use</li> <li> Every reader has his or her Wiki</li> <li> Every Wiki has its reader</li> <li> Save the time of the reader</li> <li> The Wiki is a growing organism</li></ol> <ul><li> See also: <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library”> Library</a>, <a href=“http://www.ala.org”> The ALA </a> </li></ul>

24. Either way: S.R. Ranganathan The Five Laws of Library Science are as follows: 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader has his or her book. 3. Every book has its reader. 4. Save the time of the reader. 5. The library is a growing organism. • See also: Library, The ALA

26. Page history

27. How to read a Wikipedia (MediaWiki) article history Click to compare two versions Edit summary IP address of “anonymous edit” Reversion of most recent edits to old version (poss. vandalism) Date and time of edit Compare to current version of article Minor edit Or most recent preceding version Links to user page, user talk page, and user contribution history

28. The magic “diff”

29. Recent changes

30. Revert this page

31. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross/3789540/

32. Example wikis

42. Wikipedia (in a nutshell)

43. What is it? • “The free encyclopedia” But also: • Related to wiki-dictionaries, textbooks and citizen journalism • A place to find open-source media • A reference desk • A huge community • One of the world’s most popular websites • A site with a mission

44. Wikipedia basics • GNU/GFDL licensed content: free as in beer and free as in speech • Open to all and editable by anyone • Edit anonymously or with an account • Funded mostly (>80%) by individual donations • Small budget and 4 paid employees