A Wiki is a web-based writing space based on the original Wiki Wiki Web. It is typically collaborative, but doesn't have to be.
What are its defining characteristics (to me):
0. browser-based Web App, so anyone can author from anywhere
0. uses lite pseudo-markup (Smart Ascii), so easy to author, and easy to read in ASCII mode (I often copy stuff over into an Ms Outlook note to synch to my Pilot so I can edit offline).
0. Smashed Together Words method of Automatic Linking makes it easy to build up a bushy hypertext space (Intertwingular Ity).
A Wiki Word is a word with an initial cap and at least one other cap in the middle (aka Camel Case - there are various special cases here, but I'll ignore those for now). When the page is viewed, the wiki app checks every Wiki Word to see if there's a node in the Wiki Space with that name: if so, it automatically links to it (renders the HTML href); else, it generates a '?' as a suffix to the Wiki Word, which if clicked on takes you to an empty form so you can create that node. This provides a Shared Language and Accidental Linking.
almost every Wiki Engine has a Back Links feature, which is a way of providing the Two Way Links that Ted Nelson and other Hyper Text gurus have always wanted to be added to the World Wide Web.
0. In a Collaboration Ware Con Text (which is what it was originally designed for), the ability of anyone to edit any page (vs each page having a single 'owner') encourages involvement.
Some categories of wiki (which may overlap) (Wiki Types):
private Note Book
publicly-readable Wiki Log (maybe readers can append comments, but can't edit every page)
Team Wiki/Wiki For Collaboration Ware - see [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlGrcUMvlkA
|interview]]
wide-open Community Wiki: anyone can edit any page - this is the case that most people think of first, based on Wiki Wiki Web and Wiki Pedia
DegreesOfEditorialControl notes that not all users-with-edit-privileges have the same power
There's a fair amount of wiki-theory discussion at Meatball Wiki.
History
first WiKi-type app was written by Ward Cunningham in Hyper Card (so it was a single-machine writing space) at Tek Tronix in the 80s! WikiWikiWeb:WikiWikiHyperCard
the first web-based space was Wiki Wiki Web, launched in 1995. WikiWikiWeb:WikiHistory
There are Wiki Engines and Wiki Farms and Wikoid Spaces.
There is a Wiki Pedia project to build an encyclopedia on top of a wiki engine. It was noted in the end-2001 Ny Times "Year in Ideas" issue (the article was written by Steven Johnson).
I was thinking that Justin Hall's old stuff is like a manually coded WiKi.
Some wiki sites I want to visit: (TourBus)
Knowledge Management: http://www.voght.com/cgi-bin/pywiki?TourBusStop
Project Galactic Guide http://www.galactic-guide.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?RecentChanges
Chicago Humanist http://www.globalchicago.net/humanist/wiki/wiki.cgi?TourBusStop
Things I want to work on next (Jun2004)
Touch Graph applet view
Mind Mapping of individual pages
maybe Out Line view (collapsable)
meta: stick with ZWiki, or switch to something Zope-free?
Are wikis ugly? need CSS?
[z2003-04-28-Wiki Ugly], [z2003-05-18-Shirky Ugly Media]
WikisAreUgly includes some links to wikis people think are not ugly. I rather like the below. But, amusingly, one thing that seems to make pages more "attractive" is having some sidebar stuff, which ironically I find rather a distraction most of the time and something that gets in the way of having lots of pages open at the same time in smaller windows....
Nov'2009, during Clone Zwiki - do I want to look more like some other site/blog?
in general, I realize I don't care much, as long as things aren't too ugly
- should probably drop gray background, esp on single-node pageviews
maybe a super-light blue (or purple) on Front Page?
- with also-light similar color for sidebar-boxes?
rather like lots of Matt Haughey's site, though not having the 3rd column