Wiki

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This article is about the type of website. For other uses, see Wiki (disambiguation).
"WikiNode" redirects here. For WikiNode of Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:WikiNode. For the app for
the Apple iPad, see WikiNodes.

Interview with Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

A wiki (/ˈwɪki/ ( listen) WIK-ee) is a website on which users collaboratively modify content and
structure directly from the web browser. In a typical wiki, text is written using a simplified markup
language and often edited with the help of a rich-text editor.[1]
A wiki is run using wiki software, otherwise known as a wiki engine. A wiki engine is a type
of content management system, but it differs from most other such systems, including blog
software, in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little
implicit structure, allowing structure to emerge according to the needs of the users.[2] There are
dozens of different wiki engines in use, both standalone and part of other software, such as bug
tracking systems. Some wiki engines are open source, whereas others are proprietary. Some
permit control over different functions (levels of access); for example, editing rights may permit
changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access
control. Other rules may be imposed to organize content.
The online encyclopedia project Wikipedia is by far the most popular wiki-based website, and is
one of the most widely viewed sites of any kind in the world, having been ranked in the top ten
since 2007.[3] Wikipedia is not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of wikis, one for
each language. There are tens of thousands of other wikis in use, both public and private,
including wikis functioning as knowledge management resources, notetaking tools, community
websites and intranets. The English-language Wikipedia has the largest collection of articles; as
of September 2016, it had over five million articles. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first
wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could
possibly work".[4] "Wiki" (pronounced [ˈwiki][note 1]) is a Hawaiian word meaning "quick".[5][6][7]

Contents
[hide]

 1Characteristics
o 1.1Editing
o 1.2Navigation
o 1.3Linking and creating pages
 o 1.4Searching
 2History
 3Alternative definitions
 4Implementations
 5Trust and security
o 5.1Controlling changes
o 5.2Trustworthiness and reliability of content
o 5.3Security
 5.3.1Potential malware vector
 6Communities
o 6.1Applications
o 6.2City wikis
o 6.3WikiNodes
o 6.4Participants
o 6.5Growth factors
 7Conferences
 8Rules
 9Legal environment
 10See also
 11Notes
 12References
 13Further reading
 14External links

Characteristics
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Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

Ward Cunningham and co-author Bo Leuf, in their book The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on
the Web, described the essence of the Wiki concept as follows:[8]

 A wiki invites all users—not just experts—to edit any page or to create new pages within the
wiki Web site, using only a standard "plain-vanilla" Web browser without any extra add-ons.
 Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link
creation intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.
 A wiki is not a carefully crafted site created by experts and professional writers, and
designed for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the typical visitor/user in an ongoing
process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the website landscape.
A wiki enables communities of editors and contributors to write documents collaboratively. All
that people require to contribute is a computer, Internet access, a web browser and a basic
understanding of a simple markup language (e.g., HTML). A single page in a wiki website is
referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well-
interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing,
and searching through information. A wiki allows non-linear, evolving, complex and networked
text, while also allowing for editor argument, debate and interaction regarding the content and
formatting.[9] A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be
created and updated. Generally, there is no review by a moderator or gatekeeper before
modifications are accepted and thus lead to changes on the website. Many wikis are open to
alteration by the general public without requiring registration of user accounts. Many edits can be
made in real-time and appear almost instantly online. However, this feature facilitates abuse of
the system. Private wiki servers require user authentication to edit pages, and sometimes even
to read them. Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Cito Maramba and Steve Wheeler write that the open
wikis produce a process of Social Darwinism. "'Unfit' sentences and sections are ruthlessly
culled, edited and replaced if they are not considered 'fit', which hopefully results in the evolution
of a higher quality and more relevant page. While such openness may invite 'vandalism' and the
posting of untrue information, this same openness also makes it possible to rapidly correct or
restore a 'quality' wiki page."[10]
Editing
For the project page on editing Wikitext on Wikipedia, see Help:Wikitext.

Wikitext

 Cheatsheet

 All Wikitext

 Magic links

 Visual files

 Sound files

 Tables

 Using templates

 Using HTML codes within Wikitext

 v

 t

 e

Some wikis have an Edit button or link directly on the page being viewed, if the user has
permission to edit the page. This can lead to a text-based editing page where participants can
structure and format wiki pages with a simplified markup language, sometimes known
as Wikitext, Wiki markup or Wikicode (it can also lead to a WYSIWYG editing page; see the
paragraph after the table below). For example, starting lines of text with asterisks could create
a bulleted list. The style and syntax of wikitexts can vary greatly among wiki
implementations,[example needed] some of which also allow HTML tags.
Wikis have favoured plain-text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions than HTML, for
indicating style and structure. Although limiting access to HTML and Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS) of wikis limits user ability to alter the structure and formatting of wiki content, there
are some benefits. Limited access to CSS promotes consistency in the look and feel, and
having JavaScript disabled prevents a user from implementing code that may limit other users'
access.

MediaWiki syntax (the

Equivalent HTML (another type of Rendered output (seen
"behind the scenes" code
"behind the scenes" code used to add onscreen by a regular
used to add formatting to
formatting to text) web user)
text)

"Take some more tea,"

"Take some more <p>"Take some more <a the March Hare said to
[[tea]]," the March href="/wiki/Tea" Alice, very earnestly.
Hare said to Alice, title="Tea">tea</a>," the "I've had nothing yet,"
very earnestly. March Hare said to Alice, very Alice replied in an
earnestly.</p> offended tone, "so I can't
take more."
"I've had
"You mean you can't
'''nothing''' yet," <p>"I've had <b>nothing</b>
take less?" said the
Alice replied in an yet," Alice replied in an Hatter. "It's very easy to
offended tone, "so I offended tone, "so I can't take more than nothing."
can't take more." take more."</p>

"You mean you can't <p>"You mean you can't take

take ''less''?" said <i>less</i>?" said the Hatter.
the Hatter. "It's very "It's very easy to take
easy to take ''more'' <i>more</i> than nothing."</p>
than nothing."

Wikis can also make WYSIWYG editing available to users, usually by means of JavaScript
control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions into the corresponding HTML
tags or wikitext. In those implementations, the markup of a newly edited, marked-up version of
the page is generated and submitted to the server transparently, shielding the user from this
technical detail. An example of this is the VisualEditor on Wikipedia. However, WYSIWYG
controls do not always provide all of the features available in wikitext, and some users prefer not
to use a WYSIWYG editor. Hence, many of these sites offer some means to edit the wikitext
directly.
Some wikis keep a record of changes made to wiki pages; often, every version of the page is
stored. This means that authors can revert to an older version of the page should it be necessary
because a mistake has been made, such as the content accidentally being deleted or the page
has been vandalized to include offensive or malicious text or other inappropriate content.
Many wiki implementations, such as MediaWiki, allow users to supply an edit summary when
they edit a page. This is a short piece of text summarizing the changes they have made (e.g.,
"Corrected grammar," or "Fixed formatting in table."). It is not inserted into the article's main text,
but is stored along with that revision of the page, allowing users to explain what has been done
and why, similar to a log message when making changes in a revision-control system. This
enables other users to see which changes have been made by whom and why, often in a list of
summaries, dates and other short, relevant content, a list which is called a "log" or "history."
Navigation
Within the text of most pages, there are usually a large number of hypertext links to other pages
within the wiki. This form of non-linear navigation is more "native" to a wiki than
structured/formalized navigation schemes. Users can also create any number of index or table-
of-contents pages, with hierarchical categorization or whatever form of organization they like.
These may be challenging to maintain "by hand", as multiple authors and users may create and
delete pages in an ad hoc, unorganized manner. Wikis can provide one or more ways to
categorize or tag pages to support the maintenance of such index pages. Some wikis, including
the original, have a backlink feature, which displays all pages that link to a given page. It is also
typically possible in a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite others
to share what they know about a subject new to the wiki. Wiki users can typically "tag" pages
with categories or keywords, to make it easier for other users to find the article. For example, a
user creating a new article on cold weather cycling might "tag" this page under the categories of
commuting, winter sports and bicycling. This would make it easier for other users to find the
article.
Linking and creating pages
Links are created using a specific syntax, the so-called "link pattern". Originally, most wikis[citation
needed]
used CamelCase to name pages and create links. These are produced by capitalizing
words in a phrase and removing the spaces between them (the word "CamelCase" is itself an
example). While CamelCase makes linking easy, it also leads to links in a form that deviates
from the standard spelling. To link to a page with a single-word title, one must abnormally
capitalize one of the letters in the word (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). CamelCase-based wikis
are instantly recognizable because they have many links with names such as "TableOfContents"
and "BeginnerQuestions." It is possible for a wiki to render the visible anchor of such links
"pretty" by reinserting spaces, and possibly also reverting to lower case. However, this
reprocessing of the link to improve the readability of the anchor is limited by the loss of
capitalization information caused by CamelCase reversal. For example, "RichardWagner" should
be rendered as "Richard Wagner", whereas "PopularMusic" should be rendered as "popular
music". There is no easy way to determine which capital letters should remain capitalized. As a
result, many wikis now have "free linking" using brackets, and some disable CamelCase by
default.
Searching
Most wikis offer at least a title search, and sometimes a full-text search. The scalability of the
search depends on whether the wiki engine uses a database. Some wikis, such as PmWiki,
use flat files.[11] MediaWiki's first versions used flat files, but it was rewritten by Lee Daniel
Crocker in the early 2000s (decade) to be a database application. Indexed database access is
necessary for high speed searches on large wikis. Alternatively, external search engines such
as Google Search can sometimes be used on wikis with limited searching functions in order to
obtain more precise results.

History
Main article: History of wikis
Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport

WikiWikiWeb was the first wiki.[12] Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in
Portland, Oregon, in 1994, and installed it on the Internet domain c2.com on March 25, 1995. It
was named by Cunningham, who remembered a Honolulu International Airport counter
employee telling him to take the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" bus that runs between the airport's terminals.
According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby
avoided naming this stuff quick-web."[13][14]
Cunningham was, in part, inspired by Apple's HyperCard, which he had used. Hypercard,
however, was single-user.[15] Apple had designed a system allowing users to create virtual "card
stacks" supporting links among the various cards. Cunningham developed Vannevar Bush's
ideas by allowing users to "comment on and change one another's text."[1][16] Cunningham says
his goals were to link together people's experiences to create a new literature to document
programming patterns, and to harness people's natural desire to talk and tell stories with a
technology that would feel comfortable to those not used to "authoring".[15]
Wikipedia became the most famous wiki site, entering the top ten most popular websites in 2007.
In the early 2000s (decade), wikis were increasingly adopted in enterprise as collaborative
software. Common uses included project communication, intranets, and documentation, initially
for technical users. Some companies use wikis as their only collaborative software and as a
replacement for static intranets, and some schools and universities use wikis to enhance group
learning. There may be greater use of wikis behind firewalls than on the public Internet. On
March 15, 2007, the word wiki was listed in the online Oxford English Dictionary.[17]

Alternative definitions
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the word "wiki" was used to refer to both user-editable
websites and the software that powers them; the latter definition is still occasionally in use.[2]Wiki
inventor Ward Cunningham wrote in 2014[18] that the word "wiki" should not be used to refer to a
single website, but rather to a mass of user-editable pages and or sites, so that a single website
is not "a wiki" but "an instance of wiki". He wrote that the concept of wiki federation, in which the
same content can be hosted and edited in more than one location in a manner similar
to distributed version control, meant that the concept of a single discrete "wiki" no longer made
sense.[19]

Implementations
See also: List of wiki software
Wiki software is a type of collaborative software that runs a wiki system, allowing web pages to
be created and edited using a common web browser. It may be implemented as a series of
scripts behind an existing web server, or as a standalone application server that runs on one or
more web servers. The content is stored in a file system, and changes to the content are stored
in a relational database management system. A commonly implemented software package
is MediaWiki, which runs Wikipedia. Alternatively, personal wikis run as a standalone application
on a single computer. WikidPad is an example. One application, TiddlyWiki, simply makes use of
an even single local HTML file with JavaScript inside.
Wikis can also be created on a "wiki farm", where the server-side software is implemented by the
wiki farm owner. PBwiki, Socialtext, and Wikia are popular examples of such services. Some wiki
farms can also make private, password-protected wikis. Note that free wiki farms generally
contain advertising on every page. For more information, see Comparison of wiki farms.

Trust and security

Controlling changes
"Recent changes" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see Help:Recent changes. For the recent
changes page itself, see Special:RecentChanges

History comparison reports highlight the changes between two revisions of a page.

Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather
than making it difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very open, they provide a means to
verify the validity of recent additions to the body of pages. The most prominent, on almost every
wiki, is the "Recent Changes" page—a specific list numbering recent edits, or a list of edits made
within a given time frame.[20] Some wikis can filter the list to remove minor edits and edits made
by automatic importing scripts ("bots").[21] From the change log, other functions are accessible in
most wikis: the revision history shows previous page versions and the diff feature highlights the
changes between two revisions. Using the revision history, an editor can view and restore a
previous version of the article. The diff feature can be used to decide whether or not this is
necessary. A regular wiki user can view the diff of an edit listed on the "Recent Changes" page
and, if it is an unacceptable edit, consult the history, restoring a previous revision; this process is
more or less streamlined, depending on the wiki software used.[22]
In case unacceptable edits are missed on the "recent changes" page, some wiki engines provide
additional content control. It can be monitored to ensure that a page, or a set of pages, keeps its
quality. A person willing to maintain pages will be warned of modifications to the pages, allowing
him or her to verify the validity of new editions quickly.[23] A watchlist is a common implementation
of this. Some wikis also implement "patrolled revisions", in which editors with the requisite
credentials can mark some edits as not vandalism. A "flagged revisions" system can prevent
edits from going live until they have been reviewed.[24]
Trustworthiness and reliability of content
Critics of publicly editable wiki systems argue that these systems could be easily tampered with
by malicious individuals ("vandals") or even by well-meaning but unskilled users who introduce
errors into the content. While proponents argue that the community of users can catch malicious
content and correct it.[1] Lars Aronsson, a data systems specialist, summarizes the controversy
as follows: "Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a Web site
that can be edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds
like offering free spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be
ugly graffiti and simple tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to
work very well."[12] High editorial standards in medicine and health sciences articles, in which
users typically use peer-reviewed journals or university textbooks as sources, have led to the
idea of expert-moderated wikis.[25] Some wikis allow one to link to specific versions of articles,
which has been useful to the scientific community, in that expert peer reviewers could analyse
articles, improve them and provide links to the trusted version of that article.[26] Noveck points out
that "participants are accredited by members of the wiki community, who have a vested interest
in preserving the quality of the work product, on the basis of their ongoing participation." On
controversial topics that have been subject to disruptive editing, a wiki may restrict editing to
registered users.[27]
Security
"Edit war" redirects here. For Wikipedia's policy on edit warring, see Wikipedia:Edit warring.

The open philosophy of wiki – allowing anyone to edit content – does not ensure that every
editor's intentions are well-mannered. For example, vandalism (changing wiki content to
something offensive, adding nonsense or deliberately adding incorrect information, such
as hoax information) can be a major problem. On larger wiki sites, such as those run by
the Wikimedia Foundation, vandalism can go unnoticed for some period of time. Wikis, because
of their open nature, are susceptible to intentional disruption, known as "trolling". Wikis tend to
take a soft-security[28][unreliable source] approach to the problem of vandalism, making damage easy to
undo rather than attempting to prevent damage. Larger wikis often employ sophisticated
methods, such as bots that automatically identify and revert vandalism and JavaScript
enhancements that show characters that have been added in each edit. In this way vandalism
can be limited to just "minor vandalism" or "sneaky vandalism", where the characters
added/eliminated are so few that bots do not identify them and users do not pay much attention
to them.[29][unreliable source] An example of a bot that reverts vandalism on Wikipedia is ClueBot NG.
ClueBot NG can revert edits, often within minutes, if not seconds. The bot uses machine
learning in lieu of heuristics.[30]
The amount of vandalism a wiki receives depends on how open the wiki is. For instance, some
wikis allow unregistered users, identified by their IP addresses, to edit content, while others limit
this function to just registered users. Most wikis allow anonymous editing without an
account,[31] but give registered users additional editing functions; on most wikis, becoming a
registered user is a short and simple process. Some wikis require an additional waiting period
before gaining access to certain tools. For example, on the English Wikipedia, registered users
can rename pages only if their account is at least four days old and has made at least ten edits.
Other wikis such as the Portuguese Wikipedia use an editing requirement instead of a time
requirement, granting extra tools after the user has made a certain number of edits to prove their
trustworthiness and usefulness as an editor. Vandalism of Wikipedia is common (though policed
and usually reverted) because it is extremely open, allowing anyone with a computer and Internet
access to edit it, although this makes it grow rapidly. In contrast, Citizendium requires an editor's
real name and short autobiography, affecting the growth of the wiki but sometimes helping stop
vandalism.
Edit wars can also occur as users repetitively revert a page to the version they favor. In some
cases, editors with opposing views of which content should appear or what formatting style
should be used will change and re-change each other's edits. This results in the page being
"unstable" from a general users' perspective, because each time a general user comes to the
page, it may look different. Some wiki software allows an administrator to stop such edit wars by
locking a page from further editing until a decision has been made on what version of the page
would be most appropriate.[9] Some wikis are in a better position than others to control behavior
due to governance structures existing outside the wiki. For instance, a college teacher can create
incentives for students to behave themselves on a class wiki they administer by limiting editing to
logged-in users and pointing out that all contributions can be traced back to the contributors. Bad
behavior can then be dealt with in accordance with university policies.[11] The issue of wiki
vandalism is debated. In some cases, when an editor deletes an entire article and replaces it with
nonsense content, it may be a "test edit", made by the user as she or he is experimenting with
the wiki system. Some editors may not realize that they have damaged the page, or if they do
realize it, they may not know how to undo the mistake or restore the content.
Potential malware vector
Malware can also be a problem for wikis, as users can add links to sites hosting malicious code.
For example, a German Wikipedia article about the Blaster Worm was edited to include a
hyperlink to a malicious website. Users of vulnerable Microsoft Windows systems who followed
the link would be infected.[9] A countermeasure is the use of software that prevents users from
saving an edit that contains a link to a site listed on a blacklist of malware sites.[32]

Communities
Applications

The home page of the English Wikipedia

The English Wikipedia has the largest user base among wikis on the World Wide Web[33] and
ranks in the top 10 among all Web sites in terms of traffic.[34] Other large wikis include
the WikiWikiWeb, Memory Alpha, Wikivoyage and Susning.nu, a Swedish-language knowledge
base. Medical and health-related wiki examples include Ganfyd, an online collaborative medical
reference that is edited by medical professionals and invited non-medical experts.[10] Many
wiki communities are private, particularly within enterprises. They are often used as internal
documentation for in-house systems and applications. Some companies use wikis to allow
customers to help produce software documentation.[35] A study of corporate wiki users found that
they could be divided into "synthesizers" and "adders" of content. Synthesizers' frequency of
contribution was affected more by their impact on other wiki users, while adders' contribution
frequency was affected more by being able to accomplish their immediate work.[36] from a study
of 1000s of wiki deployments, Jonathan Grudin concluded careful stakeholder analysis and
education are crucial to successful wiki deployment.[37]
In 2005, the Gartner Group, noting the increasing popularity of wikis, estimated that they would
become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50% of companies by 2009.[38][needs update] Wikis
can be used for project management.[39][40][unreliable source] Wikis have also been used in the academic
community for sharing and dissemination of information across institutional and international
boundaries.[41] In those settings, they have been found useful for collaboration on grant
writing, strategic planning, departmental documentation, and committee work.[42] In the mid-2000s
(decade), the increasing trend among industries toward collaboration was placing a heavier
impetus upon educators to make students proficient in collaborative work, inspiring even greater
interest in wikis being used in the classroom.[9]
Wikis have found some use within the legal profession, and within government. Examples
include the Central Intelligence Agency's Intellipedia, designed to share and collect intelligence,
dKospedia, which was used by the American Civil Liberties Union to assist with review of
documents pertaining to internment of detainees in Guantánamo Bay;[43] and the wiki of
the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, used to post court rules and allow
practitioners to comment and ask questions. The United States Patent and Trademark
Office operates Peer-to-Patent, a wiki to allow the public to collaborate on finding prior
art relevant to examination of pending patent applications. Queens, New York has used a wiki to
allow citizens to collaborate on the design and planning of a local park. Cornell Law
School founded a wiki-based legal dictionary called Wex, whose growth has been hampered by
restrictions on who can edit.[27]
City wikis
A city wiki (or local wiki) is a wiki used as a knowledge base and social network for a
specific geographical locale.[44][45][46] The term 'city wiki' or its foreign language equivalent (e.g.
German 'Stadtwiki') is sometimes also used for wikis that cover not just a city, but a small town or
an entire region. A city wiki contains information about specific instances of things, ideas, people
and places. Much of this information might not be appropriate for encyclopedias such
as Wikipedia (e.g., articles on every retail outlet in a town), but might be appropriate for a wiki
with more localized content and viewers. A city wiki could also contain information about the
following subjects, that may or may not be appropriate for a general knowledge wiki, such as:

 Details of public establishments such as public houses, bars, accommodation or social

centers
 Owner name, opening hours and statistics for a specific shop
 Statistical information about a specific road in a city
 Flavors of ice cream served at a local ice cream parlor
 A biography of a local mayor and other persons
WikiNodes

Visualization of the collaborative work in the German wiki project Mathe für Nicht-Freaks

Not to be confused with WikiNodes (Apple).

WikiNodes are pages on wikis that describe related wikis. They are usually organized as
neighbors and delegates. A neighbor wiki is simply a wiki that may discuss similar content or may
otherwise be of interest. A delegate wiki is a wiki that agrees to have certain content delegated to
that wiki.[47] One way of finding a wiki on a specific subject is to follow the wiki-node network from
wiki to wiki; another is to take a Wiki "bus tour", for example: Wikipedia's Tour Bus Stop.
Participants
The four basic types of users who participate in wikis are reader, author, wiki administrator and
system administrator. The system administrator is responsible for installation and maintenance of
the wiki engine and the container web server. The wiki administrator maintains wiki content and
is provided additional functions pertaining to pages (e.g. page protection and deletion), and can
adjust users' access rights by, for instance, blocking them from editing.[48]
Growth factors
A study of several hundred wikis showed that a relatively high number of administrators for a
given content size is likely to reduce growth;[49] that access controls restricting editing to
registered users tends to reduce growth; that a lack of such access controls tends to fuel new
user registration; and that higher administration ratios (i.e. admins/user) have no significant effect
on content or population growth.[50]

Conferences
Active conferences and meetings about wiki-related topics include:

 Atlassian Summit, an annual conference for users of Atlassian software,

including Confluence[51]
 OpenSym (called WikiSym until 2014), an academic conference dedicated to research about
wikis and open collaboration
 SMWCon, a bi-annual conference for users and developers of Semantic MediaWiki.[52]
 TikiFest, a frequently held meeting for users and developers of Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.[53]
 Wikimania, an annual conference dedicated to the research and practice of Wikimedia
Foundation projects like Wikipedia.
Former wiki-related events include:

 RecentChangesCamp (2006-2012), an unconference on wiki-related topics

 RegioWikiCamp (2009-2013), a semi-annual unconference on "regiowikis", or wikis on cities
and other geographic areas.[54]

Rules
Wikis typically have a set of rules governing user behavior. Wikipedia, for instance, has a
labyrinthine set of policies and guidelines summed up in its five pillars: Wikipedia is an
encyclopedia; Wikipedia has a neutral point of view; Wikipedia is free content; Wikipedians
should interact in a respectful and civil manner; and Wikipedia does not have firm rules. Many
wikis have adopted a set of commandments. For instance, Conservapedia commands, among
other things, that its editors use "B.C." rather than "B.C.E." when referring to years prior to C.E. 1
and refrain from "unproductive activity."[55] One teacher instituted a commandment for a class
wiki, "Wiki unto others as you would have them wiki unto you."[11]

Legal environment
Joint authorship of articles, in which different users participate in correcting, editing, and
compiling the finished product, can also cause editors to become tenants in common of the
copyright, making it impossible to republish without permission of all co-owners, some of whose
identities may be unknown due to pseudonymous or anonymous editing.[9] However, where
persons contribute to a collective work such as an encyclopedia, there is no joint ownership if the
contributions are separate and distinguishable.[56] Despite most wikis' tracking of individual
contributions, the action of contributing to a wiki page is still arguably one of jointly correcting,
editing, or compiling, which would give rise to joint ownership. Some copyright issues can be
alleviated through the use of an open content license. Version 2 of the GNU Free Documentation
License includes a specific provision for wiki relicensing; Creative Commons licenses are also
popular. When no license is specified, an implied license to read and add content to a wiki may
be deemed to exist on the grounds of business necessity and the inherent nature of a wiki,
although the legal basis for such an implied license may not exist in all circumstances.[citation needed]
Wikis and their users can be held liable for certain activities that occur on the wiki. If a wiki owner
displays indifference and forgoes controls (such as banning copyright infringers) that he could
have exercised to stop copyright infringement, he may be deemed to have authorized
infringement, especially if the wiki is primarily used to infringe copyrights or obtains direct
financial benefit, such as advertising revenue, from infringing activities.[9] In the United States,
wikis may benefit from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects sites
that engage in "Good Samaritan" policing of harmful material, with no requirement on the quality
or quantity of such self-policing.[57] However, it has also been argued that a wiki's enforcement of
certain rules, such as anti-bias, verifiability, reliable sourcing, and no-original-research policies,
could pose legal risks.[58] When defamationoccurs on a wiki, theoretically all users of the wiki can
be held liable, because any of them had the ability to remove or amend the defamatory material
from the "publication." It remains to be seen whether wikis will be regarded as more akin to
an internet service provider, which is generally not held liable due to its lack of control over
publications' contents, than a publisher.[9] It has been recommended that trademark owners
monitor what information is presented about their trademarks on wikis, since courts may use
such content as evidence pertaining to public perceptions. Joshua Jarvis notes, "Once
misinformation is identified, the trade mark owner can simply edit the entry."[59]

See also
 Internet portal

 Comparison of wiki software

 Content management system
 CURIE
 Dispersed knowledge
 List of wikis
 Mass collaboration
 Universal Edit Button
 Wikis and education

Notes
1. Jump up^ The realization of the Hawaiian /w/ phoneme varies between [w] and [v], and the
realization of the /k/ phoneme varies between [k] and [t], among other realizations. Thus, the
pronunciation of the Hawaiian word wiki varies between ['wiki], ['witi], ['viki], and ['viti].
See Hawaiian phonology for more details.

References
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c "wiki", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1, London: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
2007, archived from the original on April 24, 2008, retrieved April 10, 2008
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Mitchell, Scott (July 2008), Easy Wiki Hosting, Scott Hanselman's blog, and
Snagging Screens, MSDN Magazine, archived from the original on March 16, 2010,
retrieved March 9, 2010
3. Jump up^ Alexa Top Sites, archived from the original on March 2, 2015, retrieved December
1,2016
4. Jump up^ Cunningham, Ward (June 27, 2002), What is a Wiki, WikiWikiWeb, archived from the
original on April 16, 2008, retrieved April 10, 2008
5. Jump up^ mauimapp.com. Hawaiian Words; Hawaiian to English [archived September 14, 2008;
Retrieved September 19, 2008].
6. Jump up^ Hasan, Heather (2012), Wikipedia, 3.5 million articles and counting,
p. 11, ISBN 9781448855575
7. Jump up^ Andrews, Lorrin (1865), A dictionary of the Hawaiian language to which is appended
an English-Hawaiian vocabulary and a chronological table of remarkable events, Henry M.
Whitney, p. 514
8. Jump up^ Leuf & Cunningham 2001. See Ward Cunningham's site "Archived
copy". Archivedfrom the original on April 30, 2002. Retrieved April 30, 2002.
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Wikis: The Challenge of User-generated and Peer-produced Knowledge, Content and
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16. Jump up^ Cunningham, Ward (July 26, 2007). "Wiki Wiki Hyper Card".
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Telecommunications and High Technology Law, 8
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science", Nature, 440 (7082):
278, Bibcode:2006Natur.440..278Y, doi:10.1038/440278a, PMID 16541049, archived from the
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Education", Journal of Legal Education, 57 (1), archived from the original on July 3,
2014(subscription required)
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the original on August 27, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
31. Jump up^ Ebersbach 2008, p. 108
32. Jump up^ Meta.wikimedia.org
33. Jump up^ "List of largest (Media)wikis". S23-Wiki. April 3, 2008. Archived from the original on
August 25, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
34. Jump up^ "Alexa Top 500 Global Sites". Alexa Internet. Archived from the original on March 2,
2015. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
35. Jump up^ Müller, C.; Birn, L. (September 6–8, 2006). "Wikis for Collaborative Software
Documentation" (PDF). Proceedings of I-KNOW '06. Archived from the original (PDF)on July 6,
2011.
36. Jump up^ Majchrzak, A.; Wagner, C.; Yates, D. (2006), "Corporate wiki users: results of a
survey", Proceedings of the 2006 international symposium on Wikis, Symposium on Wikis,
pp. 99–104, doi:10.1145/1149453.1149472, ISBN 1-59593-413-8, retrieved April 25, 2011
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sustainability of enterprise wikis – Microsoft Research". research.microsoft.com. Archived from the
original on September 4, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
38. Jump up^ Conlin, Michelle (November 28, 2005), "E-Mail Is So Five Minutes Ago", Bloomberg
BusinessWeek, archived from the original on October 17, 2012
39. Jump up^ HomePage [archived August 16, 2014; Retrieved May 8, 2012].
40. Jump up^ Ways to Wiki: Project Management; January 4, 2010 [archived May 8, 2012].
41. Jump up^ Wanderley, M. M.; Birnbaum, D.; Malloch, J. (2006). "SensorWiki.org: a collaborative
resource for researchers and interface designers". NIME '06 Proceedings of the 2006 conference
on New interfaces for musical expression. IRCAM – Centre Pompidou: 180–183. ISBN 2-84426-
314-3.
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Reference Services Quarterly. 27 (2): 129–145. doi:10.1080/02763860802114223. Archived
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Retrieved June 25, 2013.
 44. Jump up^ Andersen, Michael (November 6, 2009) "Welcome to Davis, Calif.: Six lessons from
the world’s best local wiki Archived August 8, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.." Niemen
Journalism Lab. Niemen Foundation/Harvard University
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city? Local Wiki will build software to make it simple Archived June 25, 2013, at the Wayback
Machine.." Niemen Journalism Lab. Niemen Foundation/Harvard University
46. Jump up^ Wired: Makice, Kevin (July 15, 2009). Hey, Kid: Support Your Local Wiki ArchivedApril
27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
47. Jump up^ "Frequently Asked Questions". WikiNodes. Archived from the original on August 10,
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48. Jump up^ Cubric, Marija (2007). "Analysis of the use of Wiki-based collaborations in enhancing
student learning". University of Hertfordshire. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011.
Retrieved April 25, 2011.
49. Jump up^ Roth, C.; Taraborelli, D.; Gilbert, N. (2008). "Measuring wiki viability. An empirical
assessment of the social dynamics of a large sample of wikis" (PDF). The Centre for Research in
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having a relatively high number of administrators for a given content size is likely to reduce
growth.
50. Jump up^ Roth, C.; Taraborelli, D.; Gilbert, N. (2008). "Measuring wiki viability. An empirical
assessment of the social dynamics of a large sample of wikis". The Centre for Research in Social
Simulation.[permanent dead link]
51. Jump up^ Summit.atlassian.com. Atlassian Summit homepage [archived June 13, 2011;
Retrieved June 20, 2011].
52. Jump up^ Semantic-mediawiki.org. SMWCon homepage [archived July 14, 2011; Retrieved June
20, 2011].
53. Jump up^ Tiki.org. TikiFest homepage [archived June 30, 2011; Retrieved June 20, 2011].
54. Jump up^ Wiki.regiowiki.eu. European RegioWikiSociety homepage; June 10, 2011 [Retrieved
June 20, 2011].
55. Jump up^ Conservapedia Commandments; May 15, 2010 [archived October 22, 2010; Retrieved
July 24, 2010].
56. Jump up^ Redwood Music Ltd v. B Feldman & Co Ltd, RPC 385, 1979 Missing or
empty |title=(help)
57. Jump up^ Walsh, Kathleen M.; Oh, Sarah (February 23, 2010). "Self-Regulation: How Wikipedia
Leverages User-Generated Quality Control Under Section 230". Archived from the original on
January 6, 2014.
58. Jump up^ Myers, Ken S. (2008), "Wikimmunity: Fitting the Communications Decency Act to
Wikipedia", Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, The Berkman Center for Internet and
Society, 20: 163, SSRN 916529 
59. Jump up^ Jarvis, Joshua (May 2008), "Police your marks in a wiki world", Managing Intellectual
Property (179), pp. 101–103, archived from the original on March 4, 2016

Further reading
 Ebersbach, Anja (2008), Wiki: Web Collaboration, Springer Science+Business Media, ISBN 3-540-
35150-7
 Leuf, Bo; Cunningham, Ward (April 13, 2001), The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the
Web, Addison–Wesley, ISBN 0-201-71499-X
 Mader, Stewart (December 10, 2007), Wikipatterns, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-470-22362-6
 Tapscott, Don (April 17, 2008), Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio
Hardcover, ISBN 1-59184-193-3

External links
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Find more aboutWikiat Wikipedia's sister projects

 Definitions from Wiktionary

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 Learning resources from Wikiversity

 Data from Wikidata

 Documentation from MediaWiki

 Wiki at Curlie (based on DMOZ)

 Exploring with Wiki, an interview with Ward Cunningham by Bill Verners
 WikiIndex and WikiApiary, directories of wikis
 WikiMatrix, a website for comparing wiki software and hosts
 WikiPapers, a wiki about publications about wikis
 WikiTeam, a volunteer group to preserve wikis
 Murphy, Paula (April 2006). Topsy-turvy World of Wiki. University of California.
 Ward Cunningham's correspondence with etymologists

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