Wiki

Wikis have become important information-gathering and collaboration-building tools. Coined in the mid-1990s by Ward Cunningham, the term wiki means an Internet composition system or database space designed to function as a repository of written information that can be viewed and edited by anyone who has access. The term was inspired by the Hawaiian word for “quick.” Wikis have been described as Web pages with an edit button.

The idea of the wiki developed from FLOSS (Free, Libre, and open source software programs) that enable the modification and redistribution of source code. Some wiki templates or software programs are completely open on the Internet and available for customization, and others are housed in school or business content management systems or in-house spaces used for human resources management, such as group discussion and collaboration in the workplace. Some wikis take the form of encyclopedia Web “documents,” while others work more as social experiments. Many wikis can be designed using “open source” software that is easily made available and customized through a WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) interface to display content under construction so users can visualize the display after editing is complete. Most wiki content is considered to be “user-generated content,” which means that anyone with access to the content management type container can generate materials for the wiki.

The Internet has dethroned the traditional publishing paradigm of content in a wide variety of media, and wikis play a significant role in this media revolution. They allow citizen journalists and activists to create alternative histories to a variety of world experiences and to update and/or correct knowledge. A variety of gender-based wikis have been produced, including Wikigender. The collaborative and fluid nature wiki content means that inaccuracies and misrepresentations can be posted but then altered by an ever-growing stream of new content creators and re-creators.

Wiki pioneers have called on women to make more online contributions to current popular wiki media and also to create new spaces for collaboration. Users come to the wiki environment with their own languages, cultures, politics, perceptions of gender, and social norms. The wiki framework allows users to cross boundaries of time and place to create a collective intelligence, negotiate discourse and meaning, take action on issues, reflect experience, and organize and develop as a group. The most important aspect of a wiki is the content that is housed on the wiki “site.” Promising learning opportunities can be opened through online learning communities fostered by wikis. The tool can provide contributors with diverse resources, information, and social and emotional support. Collaborators can learn about important and complex scenarios and experiences through the new networked mind-set, fostering fundamental shifts in the way people think, form groups, and work collaboratively. This in turn allows users to do new things with old content and build completely new approaches to solving problems. The users' ability to quantify contributions to a project and share work and learning builds potentially strong teams.

Like other kinds of Internet media, wikis are almost always unmoderated. Some wikis have disclaimers, some allow anyone to write something, and some reserve the right to remove, change, or further develop content. Wikis keep a record of changes, and previous content can be easily reintroduced to the wiki without any review of content. The use of nonsexist and inclusive language in educational and informational wikis is often discussed and always encouraged. Almost all wikis allow anyone with access the chance to modify content quickly and easily. Increased access and user friendliness promise increased participation and new forms of discussion, collaboration, and networking.

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