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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
* Corporations have finally realized the value of collaboration tools for knowledge sharing and Wiki is the open source technology for creating collaborative Web sites, as either a public site on the Internet or on a private intranet site * Shows readers how to set up Wikis in a corporate setting or on a personal site so that users can retrieve information, post information, and edit the content * Covers everything from choosing a Wiki engine to administration and maintenance * Discusses the advantages of using Wiki in a corporate environment, which companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, Disney, and Motorola have already discovered
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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Wikis For Dummies
by Dan Woods and Peter Thoeny
Wikis For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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About the Authors
Dan Woods has a background in technology and journalism. He has a BA in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. He was CTO of both TheStreet.com and CapitalThinking, led development at Time Inc.’s Pathfinder, and created applications for NandO.net, one of the first newspaper Web sites. Dan has a MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He covered banking for three years at The Record of Hackensack; was Database Editor for three years at the Raleigh News & Observer; and has written more than ten books on various technology topics, in addition to numerous white papers and magazine articles. Dan Woods founded the Evolved Media Network to offer services in technology communications using the Communication by Design methodology.
Peter Thoeny is the founder of TWiki, the leading wiki for corporate collaboration and knowledge management. Managing the open source project for the last seven years, Peter invented the concept of structured wikis, where free-form wiki content can be structured with tailored wiki applications. He is a recognized thought-leader in wikis and social software, featured in numerous articles and technology conferences including LinuxWorld, Business Week,The Wall Street Journal, and more. A software developer with more than 20 years of experience, Peter specializes in software architecture, user interface design, and Web technology. He graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, lived in Japan for eight years working as an engineering manager for Denso building CASE tools, and managed the Knowledge Engineering group at Wind River for several years. With StructuredWikis.com and TWiki.net, Peter is now offering services, support, and training for enterprise wiki deployments.
Authors’ Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Ward Cunningham for inventing wikis and for his generosity in sharing the concept with the world. Ward helped us write the book by providing his thoughts in several interviews and writing a wonderful foreword. What the world needs now is not only more wikis, but more Wards as well.
This book was written using the Communication by Design methodology of Evolved Media Network in which a group of people, using a wiki of course, creates this book using a division of labor. Dan Woods and Peter Thoeny played the role of editor/analysts who designed the book, performed the research, and invented and captured the content. The writing team included Dan Woods, Peter Thoeny, Noah Robischon, Deb Cameron, Deb Gabriel, John Biggs, and Erin Schulte. We offer our sincere thanks to them all.
This book would never have happened without the support and For Dummies wisdom of Katie Feltman, Nicole Sholly, Teresa Artman (all of Wiley), and Keith Underdahl, who was brought in to help us. We authors bow and tip our hats to you.
Many people in the wiki world were interviewed for this book or contributed content in various ways, including interviews and e-mail. We thank them for their enthusiasm and positive attitude. This generous group of people includes: Jimmy Donal Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Adam Frey and James Beyers of WikiSpaces; Joe Kraus of Google/JotSpot; Ramit Sethi of PBwiki; Ken Tyler of seedwiki; Matt Wiseley of EditMe; Sam Obio of BluWiki; Steven Marder of Swicki; and several others who chose not to be named.
Many, many wikis are described in this book, but many great wikis are not. Given that hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of wikis thrive on the Web, covering them all would be impossible. We attempted to capture a representative sample, but no doubt we have failed. For example, because of the deadline for this book, we weren’t able to include screenshots from Google’s JotSpot, which will no doubt change the world of wikis when it officially launches as part of Google’s application toolset. We tried to include wikis in each of the broad categories we defined: content-focused, process-focused, community, and ease-of-use wikis. We are certain, though, that more categories will emerge, and perhaps the ones that we have defined will morph into new ones. If you know about good wikis that deserve attention or have comments on the book, we do want to keep the conversation that resulted in this book going in any way we can. Peter Thoeny would love to hear from you at www.structuredwikis.com and Twiki.net and would be overjoyed to help you build a wiki of your own. Dan Woods will be continuing research and reporting on wikis at www.evolvedtechnologist.com. Please visit us in either place to share your thoughts.
Dedication
The authors dedicate this book to Ward Cunningham, whose vision for what wikis could be and generous spirit in sharing his invention have made the world a better place to live.
Co-author Peter Thoeny is dedicating this book to all contributors of the open source TWiki over the past eight years who, with their hard work, helped propel wikis into the workplace.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
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Foreword by Ward Cunningham
You have a thought. You want to write it down. You’re thinking your computer might be pretty good for that, but, surprise — it’s not.
You need two things when you want to write. You need the words to say what you are thinking, and you need a place to put them.
Before wikis, computer writing was all about the words. The computer could help you type them, spell them, hyphenate them, size them, shape them, and align them. But when it came to developing your thought, well, you were on your own.
Now, with wikis, you have a place to write. A wiki is a place to write in the same way that a party is a place to talk. There are thoughts all around you. Some are interesting, some less so. At a party or on a wiki, a word or two will be your trigger. Ideas start flowing. Talking or writing, you’re among friends, the stage is set, you say your piece, it fits in, your words trigger the next thought: conversation.
A wiki is like a party that doesn’t have to stop. It’s a party that doesn’t get crowded because new rooms appear when needed. It’s a timeless party where you can try each conversation over and over until you get it right.
You might be wondering how a page becomes a party. Maybe you’ve typed pages and pages before, and it never seemed like fun. “Where do words go if not on the page?” you might be thinking.
That’s what this book explains. It shows you in plain English and with many examples just how powerful your computer becomes when you’re at a wiki. Dan and Peter show you big ones, little ones, noisy ones, and quiet ones. They show you wikis that are for work and wikis at play. You’re going to love this book. Party on.
Ward CunninghamPortland, Oregon2007
Contents
Title
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Conventions Used in This Book
What You Don’t Have to Read
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I : Introducing Wikis
Chapter 1: Understanding Wikis: From Ward’s Brain to Your Browser
Finding Your Way to Wikis
You, Too, Can Wiki
Putting Wikis to Work
The History and Future of Wikis
Chapter 2: Contributing Content to a Wiki
Basic Wiki Skills
Attaching Documents to Wiki Pages
Printing Wiki Pages
Tracking Versions and Changes
Chapter 3: The Thousand Problem-Solving Faces of Wikis
The Many Categories of Wikis
Content-Focused Wikis: The Goldmine of Shared Content
Process-Focused Wikis: A Shared Space for a Shared Mission
Community Wikis: Exploring Common Bonds
Ease-of-Use Wikis: Web Site Creation Made Easy
Hunting for More Wikis
Chapter 4: Using and Improving the 800-pound Gorilla of Wikis: Wikipedia
Understanding How Wikipedia Works
What Wikipedia Can Do For You
Part II : Making Your Own Wiki
Chapter 5: Finding a Hosted Home for Your Wiki
Choosing the Right Hosted Wiki
Creating a Hosted Wiki with WikiSpaces
Chapter 6: Creating Content for Your Wiki
Applying Markup as Content Makeup
Editing Pages with Wiki Markup
Controlling Layout and Formatting with HTML
Choosing Wiki Page Modes
Chapter 7: Linking, Categorizing, and Tagging Wiki Pages
Linking Wiki Pages
Linking Outside Your Wiki
Linking to Files, Images, and Multimedia
Categorizing and Tagging Pages
Chapter 8: The Four Dimensions of Wiki Design
Architecting the Information in Your Wiki
Plotting Navigational Paths through Your Wiki
Using Templates to Design Content Pages
Adding Visual Panache to Your Wiki
Part III : Promoting, Managing, and Improving Your Wiki
Chapter 9: Attracting Users to Your Wiki
Wiki Don’ts
Wiki Do’s
Starting a Community Wiki
Promoting Wikis in the Office
Living with Wiki Life Cycles
Chapter 10: Choosing an Installed Wiki Engine
Evaluating Basic Wiki Groups
Assessing Your Wiki Requirements
Comparing Wiki Engines
Going on a Wiki Walkabout
Chapter 11: Getting Your Wiki Engine Up and Running
Finding a Home for Your Wiki
Finding an Internet Mechanic
Starting Your Wiki Engine
Chapter 12: Managing Wikis
Wiki Maintenance: Pruning, Training, and Making Changes
Grinding through Routine Administrative Tasks
Chapter 13: Protecting Your Wiki
Evaluating Threats to Your Wiki
Running Your Own Change Patrol
Controlling Editing Access
Preparing for Disaster
Chapter 14: Creating Applications Using Structured Wikis
Reviewing Structured Wiki Basics
Searching Your Wiki
Templating Your Wiki
Adding Forms to Your Wiki
Adding Wiki Plug-Ins
Part IV : The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten Essential Wiki Attitudes
Shared Authorship
Easier Is Better
Throw It Up There
Unfinished Is Okay
Bold Is Beautiful
Set an Example
Let It Happen
Structure Can Wait
We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Rules
Follow the Community
Chapter 16: Ten Roles People Play When Using Wikis
Reader/Researcher
Contributor
Evangelist
Editorial Quality Maven
Administrator
Operations and Hosting Engineer
Wiki Engine Developer
Policy and Process Contributor
Critic
Champion/Founder
Chapter 17: Ten Ways How Wikis Work at the Office
Shared Repository
Reducing “To All” E-Mail
Simple Databases
Knowledge Management
Training
Intranet
Web Publishing
User Documentation
Shared Spreadsheets
Project Management
Chapter 18: Ten Innovative Wikis
TiddlyWiki
wetpaint
Central Desktop
StikiPad
wikiCalc
WikiTree
WikiTimeScale
Swicki
Kwiki
FlexWiki
Introduction
Wikis, born in 1995, had a quiet childhood. Now, as wikis approach their teens, they are having a heck of a coming-out party as they are used absolutely everywhere for everything imaginable. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia created by using a wiki, is one of the most-used reference works on the planet. United States (U.S.) federal intelligence agencies — the CIA, the NSA, the Defense Department, and others — use a wiki to help gather, share, and analyze information. Google, IBM, Motorola, SAP, Sun, Yahoo!, and tens of thousands of other companies run important parts of their businesses with wikis. Hundreds of thousands of families, clubs, schools, and scientists use wikis for every sort of task. We even wrote this book with the help of a wiki. All these examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to prominent use of wikis.
The number of ways how wikis are being offered and hosted is also exploding. In October 2006, Google (the famous search engine company) purchased JotSpot, a commercially developed wiki, which will be added to Google’s core offerings of mail, calendar, and shared documents sometime in 2007. WikiSpaces, wetpaint, Wikidot, Wikia, XWiki, BluWiki, seedwiki, PBwiki, Riters, StikiPad, Central Desktop, and others offer free, hosted wikis that are ready to use over the Internet. Companies such as Socialtext and Atlassian offer wikis that can either be installed or hosted. By far, the largest number of wiki sites are run by open source wiki engines, such as TWiki, MoinMoin, MediaWiki, and a number of others.
Boggles the mind a bit, doesn’t it? You’re probably looking at this book because you heard about wikis and wonder whether they can help you get where you want to go. They can help you, and the how is really quite easy. We wrote this book because wikis changed our lives and how we work. With just a bit of effort, we suspect that wikis will do the same for you, just like they have for millions of other people. So read on.
About This Book
In Wikis For Dummies, you will find a top-to-bottom guide to understanding what wikis are and how to use them. Unlike many other types of technology you might encounter, you need to realize that wikis aren’t a product or a brand or a company. Rather, wikis are collections of Web pages that anyone can edit — a style of Web site invented by Ward Cunningham. This book intro-duces you to the basics of the style and shows how they’re implemented with minor variations in specific products. The sorts of skills and knowledge that you can acquire with this book include how to
Edit wiki pages by using wiki markup or WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors.
Format the information on a wiki page.
Link wiki pages.
Organize the pages in your wiki so people can find them.
Choose the right home for your wiki.
Attract users to your wiki.
Manage your wiki.
Foolish Assumptions
In Wikis For Dummies, we don’t assume any prior knowledge of HTML (Web markup language), wiki markup, programming languages, or system administration skills. However, we do assume that you have surfed the Web. We also assume that you have a working knowledge of personal computers and have used browsers to go to Web sites. If you’ve used a Web mail system such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, or Hotmail, you’ll find that editing a wiki page is just about the same as writing and sending an e-mail.
Conventions Used in This Book
By conventions, we simply mean a set of rules that we employ in this book to present information to you consistently. When you see a term italicized, look for its definition, which is included so that you know what things mean in the context of wiki creation and maintenance. Web site addresses and e-mail addresses appear in monofont so that they stand out from regular text. Wiki markup and HTML appear in a separate font, set off from the rest of the text, like this:
---+ My First Wiki Page
What You Don’t Have to Read
We structured this book modularly — that is, it’s designed so that you can easily find just the information you need — so you don’t have to read whatever doesn’t pertain to your task at hand. We include sidebars here and there throughout the book that contain interesting information that isn’t necessarily integral to the discussion at hand; feel free to skip over these. You also don’t have to read the paragraphs marked with Technical Stuff icons, which parse out uber-techy tidbits (which might not be your cup of tea).
How This Book Is Organized
Wikis For Dummies is split into four parts. You don’t have to read it sequentially, you don’t have to look at every part, you don’t have to review each chapter, and you don’t even have to read all the sections in any particular chapter. (Of course, you can if you want to; it’s a good read.) And the Table of Contents and the index can help you quickly find whatever information you need. In this section, we briefly describe what each part contains.
Part I: Introducing Wikis
Part I shows you what wikis are and what they are not. You can read the history of how Ward Cunningham created the idea of wikis and how wikis slowly propagated from engineering departments to the mainstream. You get your feet wet by seeing the basics of creating and adding content to a page. We then take you on a tour through examples of what wikis are used for and show you the most famous wiki of all — Wikipedia.
Part II: Making Your Own Wiki
Part II assumes that you’ve gotten the bug and are ready to dive into the detailed mechanics of designing and creating wiki pages. No matter which choice you make for creating your wiki, by putting content on a wiki, you enter a new world. It all begins with your first page. Usually, people get started by going to one of the many hosted wikis described in this part. Read along there to follow the instructions on setting up your new wiki — there it is! A blank wiki page! In this part, we also give you the details of formatting wiki pages, linking them, and the principles of wiki design.
Part III: Promoting, Managing, and Improving Your Wiki
Part III focuses on meeting the challenges of promoting a wiki as well as choosing and installing your own wiki engine if that’s what makes sense for you. You can read how to manage and protect your wiki as well as the possibilities for adding advanced functionality by using the structured wikis concept. (Structured wikis add advanced features to make wikis work like spreadsheets, databases, or automated tools for managing complex step-by-step processes.)
Part IV: The Part of Tens
The Part of Tens covers wiki attitudes and roles as well as ways how wikis are used at the office. This part also provides a list of innovative and exotic wikis that are worth a look.
Icons Used in This Book
For Dummies books are known for those helpful icons that point you in the direction of really great information. This section briefly describes each icon used in this book.
Tip icons point out helpful information or key techniques that save you time and effort.
Remember icons are used to note particularly important things in the text to greatly help you understand the technology.
The Warning icon is synonymous with, “Hey, you! Be careful!” When you see this icon, pay attention and proceed with caution.
This icon denotes that techie stuff lurks nearby. If you’re not feeling very techie, you can skip this info.
Where to Go from Here
If you’re new to wikis, read Chapter 1 to get your bearings and Chapters 3 and 4 to get an idea of what can be done with wikis. If you want to get your feet wet right away, go to Chapter 2, which gets you started creating wiki pages.
If you’re pretty familiar with wikis and want to deepen your skills, start with the chapters in Part II. If you’re running a wiki and want more advanced advice, Part III will be the best first stop, and you can reach back to the other chapters as needed.
Part I
Introducing Wikis
In this part . . .
In this part, we show you the world of wikis in all its beauty and complexity. In Chapter 1, we explain that wikis are not just one product but a style of product that has many exemplars. You can see how and why Ward Cunningham invented wikis. And you can read how wikis are not blogs, forums, or other styles of Web sites.
Chapter 2 is where newbies can get their hands wet and type an initial wiki page. Chapter 3 shows how wikis are used for all sorts of reasons. Chapter 4 surveys Wikipedia, the most famous wiki in the world. We wish you good wiki-ing.
Chapter 1
Understanding Wikis: From Ward’s Brain to Your Browser
In This Chapter
Finding your way to wikis
Understanding what makes a wiki a wiki
Comparing wikis with blogs and other Web sites
Examining the history and future of wikis
How to start using wikis
When Ward Cunningham started programming the first wiki engine in 1994 and then released it on the Internet in 1995, he set forth a simple set of rules for creating Web sites that pushed all the technical gobbledygook into the background and made creating and sharing content as easy as possible.
Ward’s vision was simple: Create the simplest possible online database that could work. And his attitude was generous; he put the idea out there to let the world run with it. The results were incredible. Ward’s inventiveness and leadership had been long established by the role he played in senior engineering jobs, promoting design patterns, and helping develop the concept of Extreme Programming. That a novel idea like the wiki flowed from his mind onto the Internet was no surprise to those who knew him.
The wiki concept turned out to have amazing properties. When content is in a shared space and is easy to create and connect, it can be collectively owned. The community of owners can range from just a few people up into the thousands, as in the case of the online wiki encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
This chapter introduces you to the wonderful world of wikis by showing you what a wiki is (or can be), how to find and use wikis for fun and profit, and how to get started with a wiki of your own. We even take a brief look at some possible futures for wikis.
Finding Your Way to Wikis
How does one usually enter the wiki world? So much is made of the community-enabling aspects of wikis that the everyday value of wikis can get lost. You don’t have to be on a mission to create the best encyclopedia in the world, build a winning startup, or organize the ideas of thousands of people for wikis to be useful. Wikis are amazingly helpful for simple tasks. Say you want to set up a carpool schedule for your hockey team, or arrange a food chain for a sick friend, or share ideas about the latest fashions in opening moves from members of your chess club. For all these scenarios, wikis are frequently the fastest way to do it. Part II of this book focuses on the mechanics of getting a wiki up and running, creating and linking pages, and organizing information — all the techniques and skills to serve the needs of individuals.
And you can’t predict what happens when a wiki hits a group of people. Whatever happens, though, those groups are generally never the same again because wikis rarely start as a top-down decision. Wikis succeed because someone found his way to a wiki, created some pages, and let the world know. A few people get the idea and start changing and adding pages. Usually, many others use the information on the wiki. For every one person who writes content on a wiki, tens or even hundreds read it. For large public wikis, that ratio might be more like 1:100,000.
Wikis invade organizations when one team starts using them and then other teams find out about it and learn how to solve their problems with wikis. Pretty soon, the whole company is using wikis. Part III of this book focuses on the special challenges encountered when using wikis in businesses and other large organizations, or when a wiki created for any purpose becomes popular and used by thousands of people.
No matter who you are, finding your way to wikis and figuring out how they can help you doesn’t come by overanalyzing the subject. To get value from wikis, you must start putting up pages with information you want to share with others. Relax; making a wiki successful is not a problem that you must solve by yourself. Everyone you invite to use your wiki will help you get it right.
What makes a wiki a wiki
Perhaps the simplest definition of a wiki that accurately captures its essence is the following:
A wiki is a collection of Web pages that anyone can edit.
Several questions then follow naturally: What’s on those pages? Who is included in the community of anyone? What will those folks be doing when they edit the pages? Are there any rules for how the ownership of the content is shared?
And those very questions lead to the definition of a specific wiki. A precise general definition of a wiki is hard to come by for two reasons:
When Ward Cunningham developed the wiki concept, he set down the basic ideas and let the world run with it. The world then ran in many directions, so each wiki engine (the program that runs a wiki; see Chapter 10 for more on wiki engines) works a little differently. There is no wiki academy that decides whether a wiki engine or a wiki is worthy to carry the name.
The mechanisms of wikis are so simple that they make people wonder how such a basic set of workings can be such a big deal. The hidden factor is that much of the value of wikis derives not from the mechanisms but instead from the culture that seems to naturally form around a wiki in the people who use it.
Ward Cunningham was interested in solving problems and sharing his ideas, so he didn’t rush to the patent office. Rather, he put his ideas on the Portland Pattern Repository (http://c2.com/ppr) for others to find and even improve. (c2 stands for Cunningham and Cunningham, Inc., which is Ward’s company.) The brilliance (not to mention generosity) of this approach is that it allowed scores of wiki engines to bloom. Almost all are open source (software distributed for free, along with guaranteed access to the source code), and others are commercial software. From Ward’s basic foundation, the idea of wikis quickly evolved, largely because of the culture of cooperative innovation.
To clarify just what wikis are, we reach into our vast metaphorical toolbox for the best image to help you understand the mechanisms that have created so much excitement. Hmm, what might work? A note pad? No, that’s not general enough. The HyperCard program? (See “The History and Future of Wikis” later in this chapter for more on HyperCard.) Close, but too complicated. PostIt notes? Nah, too sticky and too small. A pack of index cards? That’s it! To get going with wikis, imagine that a wiki is just a container that can hold a pack of index cards.
What can you do with an index card container? You can
Add new cards.
Write information on the cards.
Link one card to another.
Sort the cards and search through them.
Copy the cards.
Keep track of the changes that you make to them.
The information on each card can be plain text or text with formatting (such as bold, underlining, italics, or headings). You can put bullet points on cards as well as tables of information.
The pages of a wiki are like the index cards in our container. Instead of physical objects, they’re electronic virtual objects created by the wiki engine. Figure 1-1 shows a wiki page that we used to keep track of this book while it was being written.
Figure 1-1: This wiki page was used while writing Wikis For Dummies.
One of the most important aspects of wiki index cards is that they can be linked. One card (or page, or whatever you want to call it) can easily refer to another. To jump to a linked card, you simply click a link, just like you move through any other Web site. Cards can even be linked to other cards that don’t yet exist. When you click a link to a card that doesn’t exist, the wiki engine creates it; then, you can add whatever you like and save it.
The ability to handle partially completed content by putting in links to topics (covered later) is one of the most powerful aspects of wikis. It allows your thoughts to flow and to easily keep placeholders for issues to which you want to return.
If you think of all these cards in a central place where anyone can go and look at them and (this is the important part!) change them to add their two cents, then you are on to the secret sauce of wikis and are ready to begin using and contributing to wikis yourself. A whole new culture is created as people work together to build and improve a wiki. This value of shared content ownership is quite powerful. It allows people to use their special knowledge to correct each other and to complete thoughts and ideas started by others.
But wait, you must be thinking, there must be more to it. A simple little Microsoft Access or MySQL database can do all those index card things. Yes, there is more to it — or actually, less to it. The reason why wikis are as popular as they are is that creating and editing content on a wiki is easy, easy, easy. That’s why wikis have succeeded. The idea of a shared online database is not unique, but the quest for an easy-to-use computer program is rarely realized. An easy-to-edit, shared online database of pages that really works? That’s a wiki.
Comparing wikis and other communication tools
One of the fastest ways to improve your understanding of wikis is to see how wikis are different from many other tools for Internet-based communication such as e-mail, blogs, bulletin boards, forums, content management systems, and Web publishing systems.
Wikis are toolkits for creating pages. The pages created can work in many different ways. This is key to understanding the differences between a wiki and other forms of Web sites and tools for collaboration.
Wikis are not e-mail. Individual e-mails share some wiki properties — they are easy to create, they can be quickly formatted, and almost anyone can create an e-mail. And, e-mail can also be used for one-to-one or many-to-many communication by sending mail to many people or by using mailing lists. However, e-mail lacks a central place where everyone can work at once. And e-mail also doesn’t allow many authors to work on the same page or for pages to be linked. E-mails are also usually short whereas wiki pages can be as long as needed.
Wikis are not blogs. A blog is a set of pages on which short entries are posted, usually appearing in a list with the most recent entries on top. Comments can appear attached to each posting. RSS (really simple syndication, a format for live online data feeds) feeds allow people to be notified when new blog content appears. (Note that RSS feeds can apply to any sort of content, but they seem to be wildly popular with blogs.)
Wiki pages can be made to look like blog pages, but they don’t come out of the box with all the pages needed to automatically write and publish blog entries. Blogs are usually focused on one-to-many communication, but wikis are more oriented to many-to-many communication about shared content.
Wikis are not bulletin boards or forums.Bulletin boards (sometimes called forums) are Web pages where you can ask a question, make a comment, or put forth a proposition to which others can respond. The list of comments about a topic appears in a long list of entries, which sometimes branches into subtopics.
Bulletin boards are more focused on many-to-many communication than blogs but in a way that is more structured than wikis. Wiki pages can be used like bulletin boards in a style called thread mode, in which new comments are added to the bottom of a wiki page, but this is a style (not a structure) that is enforced by the wiki. In bulletin boards, the structure of the pages and the communication are always the same and cannot be changed by the people using the board.
Wikis are not content management or Web publishing systems. Content management and Web publishing systems are general purpose engines for creating all sorts of Web sites. Like wikis, content management systems are toolkits; unlike wikis, though, they aren’t governed by the rules that Ward Cunningham set down for what wikis are.
Almost any kind of Web site, blog, bulletin board system, and wiki can be built by a content management system. Many content management systems have extensions to allow wikis to be included in the Web sites that are built. Usually, content management systems can only be used by expert programmers, but wikis can be used right away by almost anyone.
The (almost) formal definition of a wiki
In the preceding section, we determine that wikis aren’t e-mail, blogs, bulletin boards, or Web publishing systems. So what are wikis, exactly?
One of the reasons why wiki engines went off in many different directions is that Ward Cunningham didn’t define wikis too tightly, and he set nothing in stone. However, the first wiki that he created at the Portland Pattern Repository had a bunch of features that have become so widely imitated that they became the de facto definition of wiki. In our opinion, for a wiki to be a wiki, it must have the following characteristics:
The pages must be stored in a central, shared repository. The wiki should be located in one place to make it easy to share.
Anyone should be able to edit pages. Wikis are flexible, which means the organization of the information on each page can be changed as needed and not just by an expert or an administrator.
Editing should be easy and accessible and not require special tools. The wiki should be simple, making getting started easy. Wikis are easy to master, which allows other people to join in and create pages.
Formatting information pages should be much simpler than using HTML. Table 1-1 shows how much simpler it is to create links (see the following bullet) and bullets in a typical wiki than in HTML, the language used to program most Web pages.
Linking one page to another should use WikiWords or use a technique that is just as easy. See Chapter 7 for more on WikiWords and creating links in wikis.
A list of recently changed pages should be available.
No formal standard for wikis exists like the standards that are used for HTML. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is controlled by an official standards body that changes the standards for HTML according to a public, collaborative process that is governed by a set of rules. Lots of people have said that creating a standard for wikis would be a good idea, and many proposals have been made for standardizing various aspects of wikis, but none have taken hold. Given the fact that the idea of wikis is not controlled by anyone, a standard is not likely to emerge any time soon. The definition of wikis used in this chapter represents the true spirit of wikis, although like with any community in which a thousand anythings have bloomed, some people are sure to disagree. No doubt they will say so on their wiki — or more likely, on their blog.
Having no set standards for wikis doesn’t mean that wikis haven’t evolved. Several innovations created since the first days of wikis have become part of almost every wiki engine:
Versioning: Saving a version of each wiki page so that previous versions can be referred to or restored
Attaching files: Allowing files to be attached to wiki pages
Backlinks: Allowing easy browsing of all pages that link to a certain page
Notification of changes: Alerts sent when a page has been changed
Searching: Offering some way to enter words to search for in wiki pages
Printable pages: Creating a printable version of a page that takes out the navigation
It is only fair to point out that printable pages were not invented by wiki developers. This innovation occurred in many different types of sites, but it is now a standard feature of almost every wiki engine.
You, Too, Can Wiki
So, you must be thinking, “Let me have at a wiki! I want to see what it’s all about. How can I get started?” But another part of you must be thinking, “If wikis are so great, why don’t more people know about them? Why aren’t more people using wikis?” It turns out that understanding the second question is key to making progress with the first.
Starting your wiki engines
The growth of wikis was severely limited up until 2006. Before then, the only way you could use a wiki was to first set up a wiki engine on a server. This meant that to use a wiki, you had to have access to a server that was available through the Internet as well as the skills to set up and run a wiki engine.
For most people, these barriers were insurmountable. And even if someone had the skills, he had to have access to a server connected to the Internet. In engineering organizations, this is almost always no problem. Servers and skills to set them up abound. That is one reason why wikis have been so popular in engineering organizations and generally scarce everywhere else.
But from 2004 to 2006, something dramatic changed. Entrepreneurs noticed the market opportunity for providing hosted wikis (also known as wiki farms) that allowed people to create wikis without needing their own server or special skills. With a hosted wiki, anyone can get started right away. All you need to know is how to create and edit wiki pages, which is much easer than setting up a wiki engine.
JotSpot, WikiSpaces, Wikia, PBwiki, XWiki, BluWiki, and Fluxent (to name just a few) all offer hosted wikis, mostly based on open source software. Google’s entry into the field with its purchase of JotSpot will dramatically widen the awareness of wikis.
The great thing about hosted wikis is that you just have to sign up to start working. What sometimes bothers people about hosted wikis is that you have to sign up for an account, which means keeping track of yet another login and password. To make money, hosted wikis usually either have on-page advertising, or they have some sort of per-user charge that hides advertising and/or gives access to premium services.
Creating your first wiki page
The best way to start wiki-ing is to find an existing wiki (that is, a hosted wiki) and start adding to it. To start creating your first wiki page, you can go to any of the wikis in this list:
http://wikisfordummies.pbwiki.com
http://wikisfordummies.wikispaces.com
http://wikisfordummies.xwiki.com
http://wikisfordummies.wetpaint.com
http://wikis-for-dummies-swicki.eurekster.com
Each of these wikis was set up at a different hosted wiki provider to allow readers of this book quick access to page creation. Go to any of these Web sites, and you will see a prominent link to a sandbox page of the sort shown in Figure 1-2, which shows the page on http://wikisfordummies.pbwiki.com. A sandbox is a practice page on a wiki where you can go to play around and become familiar with the ways of the wiki. Click the Sandbox link to go to a page that looks something like Figure 1-3.
Figure 1-2: This is the Wikis for Dummies home page on PBwiki.
Figure 1-3: Here’s the Sandbox page on the Wikis for Dummies web on PBwiki.
A generic sandbox page allows you to create your first wiki page. To create a page at PBwiki, follow these steps:
1.Click the Edit Page button.
2.Enter the PBwiki password, which is wikis4dummies.
After you enter the password, you see a page that looks like Figure 1-4. If it doesn’t look like Figure 1-4, click the Switch to Classic Mode link in the upper right of the window.
3.At the end of the list, enter a name for your reader page in camel case, something like TestPage.
Camel case is a way to capitalize words, using capital letters in the middle of a word, to indicate that the word is a link to a page. MyTestPage, ThisTestPage, and a TestPage are all camel case and would be recognized as links by most wikis. For more on using camel case, see Chapter 7.
Figure 1-4: Editing the Sandbox page.
4.Click Save.
You see a link that reads TestPage. The name is underlined with red dashes to indicate that it has not yet been created. When you click TestPage, a page appears asking whether you want to apply a template or change the name of your page. Don’t change its name. (And for now, skip the template — come back later and be adventurous.)
5.Click Create New Page.
You see a new page into which you can enter text. This is your first wiki page. Play around, have fun. Don’t worry. You can’t break anything.
In other wikis, pages that are inserted as links but have not yet been created are indicated in other ways. One common method places a question mark at the end of the name of the page like this: TestPage?
If you feel ready, you can create an account on any of the hosted wikis listed here and start creating your wiki right away. Chapter 5 explains how to find a home for your wiki. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 cover how to create content, link pages, and design your wiki.
Wabi-sabi: The beauty of unfinished content
Wabi-sabi is one of the most important attitudes to embrace as you start entering the world of wikis. Most of us are nervous about putting incomplete work in a public place. For wikis to work, though, this has to happen. One of the cultural aspects that wikis embrace is the value of unfinished or half-finished content. One of the reasons why ideas can flow so quickly when creating content in a wiki is that links to wiki pages can serve as placeholders for later thinking. When you move through capturing an idea, you can write about the idea you have; when a complex problem comes up, you can just put a link to a wiki page that you plan on creating and continue with the flow of your thoughts. Then, you or someone you’re working with can then use that link to the new page as a way to build on the initial ideas. In wikis, the idea of one author is shattered. Because of this, unfinished content ends up being encouraged because it provides the opportunity for other authors to come in and help finish the job.
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese expression that roughly translates to the “beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.” It is the beauty of things modest and humble. It is the beauty of things unconventional. Observe a ceramic cup for a tea ceremony, for example. It might have rough edges, an irregular shape, and glazing that covers only half of the cup. This cup represents the content you initially put on a page, in rough shape, without finishing touches. Unlike a tea cup though, a wiki page may and will change over time. Share content often and early, and people will participate and help improve the content.
Putting Wikis to Work
After you have a home for your wiki, the fun begins. Wikis reward action and participation. Here’s the wrong approach: Spend huge amounts of time planning what will be on your wiki and deciding how people will use it. The right approach: Get content up on the wiki and show people how they can change and improve it. Hand them this book, for example. What happens then is that the nerds come out. You will know them by their sense of excitement and by how much they write on the wiki.
Of course, certain patterns and structures work really well on wikis. And wikis can and should be designed for certain purposes. Content-focused wikis are all about a subject or many subjects. For example, Wikipedia is a content-focused wiki. Process-focused wikis are wikis that are focused on getting something done, like managing a project or writing a book. Community wikis bring a group of people together based on a shared interest. And ease-of-use wikis are for people who just want to put up a Web site the easy way: for example, to share family photos or create a quick brochure. In Chapter 3, we cover all these types of wikis. The type of wiki should influence the wiki’s design. We cover many different design ideas in Chapter 8. The most important thing is to get people on the wiki. We explain the tricks and techniques for that in Chapter 9.
Who are wiki people?
To make wikis successful, you need to understand the conditions under which wikis thrive and the sorts of people who use them.
It is no accident that wikis had early success among engineers, and then next among the sort of writers/editors who make Wikipedia happen. Wikis are about sharing knowledge; to do so, you have to have enough passion to actually sit down and communicate your ideas. Writing is one barrier, and putting your ideas out there for others to see can also be scary. Who does this sort of thing?
Knowledge nerds, that’s who — nerds whose passion for knowledge overcomes most everything else (like taste in clothes, for example). There are engineering nerds and word nerds, law nerds and math nerds, medical nerds and music nerds. You get the idea. Nerds know things and want to spread the message. So, a wiki won’t work unless you have passionate nerds somewhere in your organization who want to get their knowledge out.
For those who think we’re kidding or that we’re a few cards short of a full deck, we’re not. In most wiki environments, the key thing that happens is that someone really wants to share information or get everyone on the same page — and that they are willing to spend time to make it happen. That person is the wiki champion, and he or she eventually becomes the wiki coach. (See Chapter 16 for descriptions of the various roles people play in wikis.) After that person makes a stand and gets a wiki engine going, a committed group of others needs to join in and start creating and sharing knowledge, or else the wiki withers and dies. The reason why wikis are such a big deal is that they uncover the nerds in an organization who want to make a difference; by sharing knowledge, they can make that difference.
Everyone need not be a nerd for wikis to succeed. There just needs to be enough nerds to make the wiki useful. For every nerd, 20, 40, or perhaps 60 other people benefit from the information just by clicking through the wiki and seeing what’s there.
The first things to ask yourself when you set out to introduce a wiki into an environment are: Who will join me in sharing knowledge on the wiki? Who has the passion? Do we really have enough wiki people to make this work?
