Wikis
Presentation by Stephanie Guerdan, Jason
Mooney, Clair Hann, Clare McKendry, and Kaitlin
Healy
Introduction
• What is a Wiki? A wiki is a piece of server
software which allows a group of people
collaborate on a website. It uses a simple
markup language of only text and links.
• Wiki” is Hawaiian for the word “fast”
• It is also said to be an acronym for “What I
Know Is”
• Wiki content is written and edited by users
constantly
Background
• A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed
to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or
modify content, using a simplified markup language.
– Markup language is a type of code (like html, for example)
that gives instructions on how text should be displayed.
• The first wiki software was called WikiWikiWeb and
was created by Ward Cunningham and published in
1995.
• The best known Wiki is the encyclopedic wiki page
Wikipedia.org , but hundreds of wikis exist for
various subjects.
Pros
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They allow anyone to easily edit any page. No HTML knowledge is necessary to edit pages.
Any web browser can be used to edit a page.
Errors such as broken links, spelling errors and factual errors are quickly and easily corrected
by users. Insightful comments are also easily added to any page.
Community users can easily catch and correct malicious content.
Comments by users are integrated directly into the web page.
Key words are automatically highlighted by colored text and linked to another wiki page.
Wikis are free.
Cons
• Wikis are vulnerable. All the data on a wiki can be
destroyed by automated attacks.
• Pages are easily tampered with and vandalized.
• Pages and edits are not reviewed before they are posted.
• Wikis rely on readers to correct erroneous content which
may take a long time if the page is not popular. Therefore
less popular topics or pages on wikis are less reliable.
• It it difficult to ban single attackers from posting
maliciously. Malicious comments are corrected, not
prevented.
The Most Popular Criticisms of
Wikis
• Anyone can edit an entry
• This leads to:
• Wrong Information
• Sometimes articles are written by experts but sometimes
they are not
• Misinformation
• The deliberate placement of wrong information; may be
hard to spot
• Vandalism
Opinion
• Wiki’s provide an easy and fast source for
research and projects.
• Students working on research reports can
easily contribute their new found results.
• Unfortunately, the ease of altering doesn’t
always make Wiki’s reliable. Students can
create wiki’s on anything. If its doesn’t already
exist, one can be created to prove a point,
regardless of accuracy.
Credits
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Slide Show Organized by Stephanie Guerdan
Introduction presented by Clair Hann
Background presented by Stephanie Guerdan
Pros and Cons presented by Jason Mooney
Criticism presented by Kaitlin Healy
Opinion presented by Clare McKendry
Sources
• http://webtrends.about.com/od/wiki/a/wiki_downsi
de.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
• http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wiki.htm
• Leuf, Bo and Ward Cunningham. The Wiki Way: Quick
Collaboration on the Web. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson, 2001: 16.
• Brain, Marshall. "How Wikis Work." 13 July
2005. HowStuffWorks.com.
<http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wiki.htm> 30
November 2008.