The WikiWorld IMKE CSC 2006 Kaido Kikkas

Wiki-Wiki! 1987 - Howard 'Ward' Cunningham writes HyperCard 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee invents the Web 1994-95 – Cunningham studies various ways of presenting information, builds the first freely editable website, WikiWikiWeb (still online at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FrontPage) The name came from Honolulu airport shuttle bus “Quickly” in Hawaiian Pidgin English, doubled

The original Wiki-Wiki Chance RT-52

Main points Allow free flow of changes Make it easy to correct/restore (rather than control changes) Use simple entry and markup

Technical details A majority is server-side, but client-side Wikis also exist Various markup systems CamelCaps vs long_entry_names

Open vs closed Original WikiWikiWeb and next ones were totally open – everyone was able to enter and change the content It is possible to use a totally controlled Wiki – but in most cases, this makes little sense Due to the spam industry, most large Wikis nowadays tend to be half-open (usually registration is needed to edit)

Problems Vandalism – straight destruction or destructive changes to content Trolling – entering provocative content to cause uproar

From WikiWikiWeb to Wikipedia 1999 – Richard Stallman promotes the idea of free encyclopedia 2000 – Jimmy Wales starts Nupedia along with Larry Sanger and Bomis (http://www.bomis.com) January 2001 – a Californian programmer named Ben Kovitz introduces the WikiWikiWeb to Larry Sanger. He asks Wales to set up a Wiki as a side project to Nupedia

A failed attempt: Nupedia Started in March 2000 A free encyclopedia project, at first used its own license, later switched to GNU FDL Attempted to compete with commercial encyclo- pedias by using only qualified experts (Ph.D. was required!) and seven-step peer-review process In three years, 24 articles were completed and 74 more started In 2003 merged with Wikipedia

GNUpedia Started in 2001 following Stallman's earlier proposal FSF liked Nupedia's licensing but considered the review process too bureaucratic and 'unhackery' Later named GNE – 'GNE is Not an Encyclopedia' (similar naming to GNU), yet the switch stalled the project Gradually merged with Wikipedia, since FSF started to express its support to it

Wikipedia: a short history January 2000 – a complementary Wiki-based project to Nupedia February – 1000 articles, September – 10 000 March – first non-English version (German) 2003 – 100 000 articles in English version. Wikimedia Foundation, WikiQuote, WikiBooks March 2006 – 1 million is reached Currently: more than 1 428 000 articles in English, over 5 million in total

Wikipedia: main principles Free content - authors retain copyright but agree to publish under the FDL Neutral point of view No original research Multiple views rather than objectivity at all costs References should be used (increasingly stressed)

Conclusion An increasingly used way to cooperation and community-based creation Sometimes 'soft security' seems to work well A powerful propagation tool for content sharing mindset