1. All About Wikis

2. What is a Wiki? A wiki is a tool for collaboration, information sharing and knowledge/content management

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

4. What is Wikipedia? A free content, multilingual encyclopedia written collaboratively by contributors around the world The site is a Wiki - anybody can edit and add to an article. Offers quick understanding on issues.

5. Why use a wiki? Fast Easy Fun Findable & searchable online Can easily collaborate with all users

6. 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

8. How and why it works Operates on an open society basis, where people trust each other! Written by 1000s of volunteers in all languages Run by a non profit organisation – Wikipedia Foundation Wikipedia will spend $2-3m in 2007 – all donations (mostly from the USA) Cost to run Wikipedia - $25-30,000 per month in bandwidth

9. Popularity 9 th most popular site on the internet; 6 th in Germany; 12 th in India, Japan and Iran 2.23% use cnn.com every day, 6.19% use Wikipedia every day 2005-6 there was a big jump in popularity

10. How good is Wikipedia? A study compared Wikipedia with Encyclopedia Britannica  Wikipedia had an average of 4 errors per article and Britannica 3

11. How should it be used by students? RESA Online discusses this www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learn/resaonli ne/?PATH=/Resources/LitReview/Method ology+in+the+social+sciences+and+huma nities/&default=Research+methodology+is sues/Wikipedia+as+a+research+tool.htm www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learn/resaonli ne/?PATH=/Resources/LitReview/Method ology+in+the+social+sciences+and+huma nities/&default=Research+methodology+is sues/Wikipedia+as+a+research+tool.htm Main point – articles are not refereed, so Wikipedia should be a starting point only

12. 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

13. How can you create a wiki? Use some free software and web space eg Wikispaces www.wikispaces.com/www.wikispaces.com/ ‘Create simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit together’ Pick a username Set your password Enter your email address

16. Edit this page!