This article is about the concept. For its use as a nickname, see Wikipedia.

For other uses, see Wiki

(disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Wiiki.

Editing display showing MediaWiki markup

language

A wiki (/ˈwɪki/ ⓘ WI-kee) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively
edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple
pages that can either be edited by the public or limited to use within an organization for maintaining its
internal knowledge base.

Wikis are powered by wiki software, also known as wiki engines. Being a form of content management
system, these differ from other web-based systems such as blog software or static site generators in that
the content is created without any defined owner or leader. Wikis have little inherent structure, allowing
one to emerge according to the needs of the users.[1] Wiki engines usually allow content to be written
using a lightweight markup language and sometimes edited with the help of a rich-text editor.[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 free and 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.
Further rules may be imposed to organize content. In addition to hosting user-authored content, wikis
allow those users to interact, hold discussions, and collaborate.[3]

There are hundreds of thousands of wikis in use, both public and private, including wikis functioning
as knowledge management resources, note-taking tools, community websites, and intranets. Ward
Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described wiki as "the
simplest online database that could possibly work".[4] "Wiki" (pronounced [wiki][note 1]) is a Hawaiian word
meaning "quick".[5][6][7]

The online encyclopedia project Wikipedia is the most popular wiki-based website, as well being one of
the internet's most popular websites, having been ranked consistently as such since at least
2007.[8] Wikipedia is not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of wikis, with each one
pertaining to a specific language. The English-language Wikipedia has the largest collection of articles,
standing at 6,889,376 as of September 2024.[9]
Characteristics

Ward Cunningham

In their 2001 book The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web, Cunningham and co-author Bo
Leuf described the essence of the wiki concept:[10][11]

• "A wiki invites all users—not just experts—to edit any page or to create new pages within the
wiki website, 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."

Editing

"Wikitext" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see Help:Wikitext.

Source editing

Some wikis will present users with an edit button or link directly on the page being viewed. This will
open an interface for writing, formatting, and structuring page content. The interface may be a source
editor, which is text-based and employs a lightweight markup language (also known as wikitext, wiki
markup, or wikicode), or a visual editor. For example, in a source editor, starting lines of text
with asterisks could create a bulleted list.

The syntax and features of wiki markup languages for denoting style and structure can vary greatly
among implementations. Some allow the use of HTMLTooltip Hypertext Markup
Language and CSSTooltip Cascading Style Sheets,[12] while others prevent the use of these to foster
uniformity in appearance.

Example of syntax

A short section of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland rendered in wiki markup:

Wiki markup Equivalent in HTML Output shown to readers

 "Take some more "Take some more <a href="/wiki/Tea"
[[tea]]," the March Hare title="Tea">tea</a>," the March Hare said "Take some more tea," the
said to Alice, very to Alice, very earnestly. March Hare said to Alice, very
earnestly. earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice

<p>"I've had <strong>nothing</strong>
replied in an offended tone,
"I've had '''nothing''' yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so
"so I can't take more."
yet," Alice replied in an I can't take more."
offended tone, "so I can't "You mean you can't
take more." take less," said the Hatter.
<p>"You mean you can't take "It's very easy to
<em>less</em>," said the Hatter. "It's take more than nothing."
"You mean you can't take very easy to take <em>more</em> than
''less''," said the Hatter. nothing."
"It's very easy to take
''more'' than nothing."

Visual editing

While wiki engines have traditionally offered source editing to users, in recent years some
implementations have added a rich text editing mode. This is usually implemented, using JavaScript, as
an interface which translates formatting instructions chosen from a toolbar into the corresponding wiki
markup or HTML. This is generated and submitted to the server transparently, shielding users from the
technical detail of markup editing and making it easier for them to change the content of pages. An
example of such an interface is the VisualEditor in MediaWiki, the wiki engine used by Wikipedia.
WYSIWYG editors may not provide all the features available in wiki markup, and some users prefer not to
use them, so a source editor will often be available simultaneously.

Version history

Some wiki implementations keep a record of changes made to wiki pages, and may store every version of
the page permanently. This allows authors to revert a page to an older version to rectify a mistake, or
counteract a malicious or inappropriate edit to its content.[13]

These stores are typically presented for each page in a list, called a "log" or "edit history", available from
the page via a link in the interface. The list displays metadata for each revision to the page, such as the
time and date of when it was stored, and the name of the person who created it, alongside a link to view
that specific revision. A diff (short for "difference") feature may be available, which highlights the
changes between any two revisions.

Edit summaries

"Edit summary" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see Help:Edit summary.

The edit history view in many wiki implementations will include edit summaries written by users when
submitting changes to a page. Similar to the function of a log message in a revision control system, an
edit summary is a short piece of text which summarizes and perhaps explains the change, for example
"Corrected grammar" or "Fixed table formatting to not extend past page width". It is not inserted into
the article's main text.

Navigation

Traditionally, wikis offer free navigation between their pages via hypertext links in page text, rather than
requiring users to follow a formal or structured navigation scheme. Users may also
create indexes or table of contents pages, hierarchical categorization via a taxonomy, or other forms
of ad hoc content organization. Wiki implementations can provide one or more ways to categorize
or tag pages to support the maintenance of such index pages, such as a backlink feature which displays
all pages that link to a given page. Adding categories or tags to a page makes it easier for other users to
find it.

Most wikis allow the titles of pages to be searched amongst, and some offer full text search of all stored
content.

Navigation between wikis

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

"WikiNode" redirects here. For the app for the Apple iPad, see WikiNodes.

Some wiki communities have established navigational networks between each other using a system
called WikiNodes. A WikiNode is a page on a wiki which describes and links to other, related wikis. Some
wikis operate a structure of neighbors and delegates, wherein a neighbor wiki is one which discusses
similar content or is otherwise of interest, and a delegate wiki is one which has agreed to have certain
content delegated to it.[14] WikiNode networks act as webrings which may be navigated from one node
to another to find a wiki which addresses a specific subject.

Linking to and naming pages

The syntax used to create internal hyperlinks varies between wiki implementations. Beginning with the
WikiWikiWeb in 1995, most wikis used camel case to name pages,[15] which is when words in a phrase
are capitalized and the spaces between them removed. In this system, the phrase "camel case" would be
rendered as "CamelCase". In early wiki engines, when a page was displayed, any instance of a camel case
phrase would be transformed into a link to another page named with the same phrase.

While this system made it easy to link to pages, it had the downside of requiring pages to be named in a
form deviating from standard spelling, and titles of a single word required abnormally capitalizing one of
the letters (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). Some wiki implementations attempt to improve the display of
camel case page titles and links by reinserting spaces and possibly also reverting to lower case, but this
simplistic method is not able to correctly present titles of mixed capitalization. For example, "Kingdom of
France" as a page title would be written as "KingdomOfFrance", and displayed as "Kingdom Of France".

To avoid this problem, the syntax of wiki markup gained free links, wherein a term in natural language
could be wrapped in special characters to turn it into a link without modifying it. The concept was given
the name in its first implementation, in UseModWiki in February 2001.[16] In that implementation, link
terms were wrapped in a double set of square brackets, for example [[Kingdom of France]]. This syntax
was adopted by a number of later wiki engines.
It is typically possible for users of a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite
the creation of those pages. Such links are usually differentiated visually in some fashion, such as being
colored red instead of the default blue, which was the case in the original WikiWikiWeb, or by appearing
as a question mark next to the linked words.

History

Main article: History of wikis

Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport

WikiWikiWeb was the first wiki.[17] Ward Cunningham started developing it in 1994, and installed it on
the Internet domain c2.com on March 25, 1995. Cunningham gave it the name after remembering
a Honolulu International Airport counter employee telling him to take the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" bus that
runs between the airport's terminals, later observing that "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute
for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web."[18][19]

Cunningham's system was inspired by his having used Apple's hypertext software HyperCard, which
allowed users to create interlinked "stacks" of virtual cards. [20] HyperCard, however, was single-user, and
Cunningham was inspired to build upon the ideas of Vannevar Bush, the inventor of hypertext, by
allowing users to "comment on and change one another's text."[2][21] 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".[20]

Wikipedia became the most famous wiki site, launched in January 2001 and entering the top ten most
popular websites in 2007. In the early 2000s, 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 collaborative software and as a
replacement for static intranets, and some schools and universities use wikis to enhance group learning.
On March 15, 2007, the word wiki was listed in the online Oxford English Dictionary.[22]