Reaserch paper

Interview with Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

A wiki (/ˈwɪki/ ( listen) WIK-ee) is a knowledge base website on which users collaboratively modify
content and structure directly from the web browser. In a typical wiki, text is written using a
simplified markup language and often edited with the help of a rich-text editor.[1]
A wiki is run using wiki software, otherwise known as a wiki engine. A wiki engine is a type of content
management system, but it differs from most other such systems, including blog software, in that the
content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little inherent structure,
allowing structure to emerge according to the needs of the users.[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 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. Other rules may be imposed to
organize content.
The online encyclopedia project Wikipedia is the most popular wiki-based website, and is one of the
most widely viewed sites in the world, having been ranked in the top ten since 2007.[3] Wikipedia is
not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of wikis, with each one pertaining to a specific
language. In addition to Wikipedia, there are tens of thousands of other wikis in use, both public and
private, including wikis functioning as knowledge
management resources, notetaking tools, community websites, and intranets. The English-language
Wikipedia has the largest collection of articles; as of September 2016, it had over five million
articles. 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 [ˈwiki][note 1]) is a Hawaiian word meaning "quick".[5][6][7]
Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

Ward Cunningham and co-author Bo Leuf, in their book The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the
Web, described the essence of the Wiki concept as follows:[8]

 A wiki invites all users—not just experts—to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki
Web site, 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.
A wiki enables communities of editors and contributors to write documents collaboratively. All that
people require to contribute is a computer, Internet access, a web browser, and a basic
understanding of a simple markup language(e.g., HTML). A single page in a wiki website is referred
to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well-interconnected
by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing, and searching
through information. A wiki allows non-linear, evolving, complex, and networked text, while also
allowing for editor argument, debate, and interaction regarding the content and formatting.[9] A
defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated.
Generally, there is no review by a moderator or gatekeeper before modifications are accepted and
thus lead to changes on the website. Many wikis are open to alteration by the general public without
requiring registration of user accounts. Many edits can be made in real-time and appear almost
instantly online, but this feature facilitates abuse of the system. Private wiki servers require user
authentication to edit pages, and sometimes even to read them. Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Cito
Maramba, and Steve Wheeler write that the open wikis produce a process of Social
Darwinism. "'Unfit' sentences and sections are ruthlessly culled, edited, and replaced if they are not
considered 'fit', which hopefully results in the evolution of a higher quality and more relevant page.
While such openness may invite 'vandalism' and the posting of untrue information, this same
openness also makes it possible to rapidly correct or restore a 'quality' wiki page."[10]

Editing
For the project page on editing Wikitext on Wikipedia, see Help:Wikitext.

Wikitext

 Cheatsheet

 All Wikitext

 Magic links

 Visual files

 Sound files

 Tables

 Using templates

 Using HTML codes within Wikitext

 v
  t

 e

Some wikis have an Edit button or link directly on the page being viewed, if the user has permission
to edit the page. This can lead to a text-based editing page where participants can structure and
format wiki pages with a simplified markup language, sometimes known as Wikitext, Wiki
markup or Wikicode (it can also lead to a WYSIWYG editing page; see the paragraph after the
table below). For example, starting lines of text with asterisks could create a bulleted list. The style
and syntax of wikitexts can vary greatly among wiki implementations,[example needed] some of which also
allow HTML tags.
Wikis have favoured plain-text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions than HTML, for indicating
style and structure. Although limiting access to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of wikis
limits user ability to alter the structure and formatting of wiki content, there are some benefits.
Limited access to CSS promotes consistency in the look and feel, and having JavaScript disabled
prevents a user from implementing code that may limit other users' access.

MediaWiki syntax (the

Equivalent HTML (another type of Rendered output (seen
"behind the scenes" code
"behind the scenes" code used to onscreen by a regular
used to add formatting to
add formatting to text) web user)
text)

"Take some more tea,"

"Take some more <p>"Take some more <a the March Hare said to
Alice, very earnestly.
[[tea]]," the March href="/wiki/Tea"
Hare said to Alice, title="Tea">tea</a>," the March "I've had nothing yet,"
Alice replied in an
very earnestly. Hare said to Alice, very offended tone, "so I can't
earnestly.</p> take more."
"I've had '''nothing''' "You mean you can't
yet," Alice replied in <p>"I've had <b>nothing</b> take less?" said the
an offended tone, "so I yet," Alice replied in an Hatter. "It's very easy to
take morethan nothing."
can't take more." offended tone, "so I can't take
more."</p>
"You mean you can't
take ''less''?" said <p>"You mean you can't take
the Hatter. "It's very <i>less</i>?" said the Hatter.
easy to take ''more'' "It's very easy to take
than nothing." <i>more</i> than nothing."</p>

Wikis can also make WYSIWYG editing available to users, usually by means of JavaScript control
that translates graphically entered formatting instructions into the corresponding HTML tags or
wikitext. In those implementations, the markup of a newly edited, marked-up version of the page is
generated and submitted to the server transparently, shielding the user from this technical detail. An
example of this is the VisualEditor on Wikipedia. WYSIWYG controls do not, however, always
provide all of the features available in wikitext, and some users prefer not to use a WYSIWYG editor.
Hence, many of these sites offer some means to edit the wikitext directly.
Some wikis keep a record of changes made to wiki pages; often, every version of the page is stored.
This means that authors can revert to an older version of the page should it be necessary because a
mistake has been made, such as the content accidentally being deleted or the page has been
vandalized to include offensive or malicious text or other inappropriate content.
Many wiki implementations, such as MediaWiki, allow users to supply an edit summary when they
edit a page. This is a short piece of text summarizing the changes they have made (e.g., "Corrected
grammar," or "Fixed formatting in table."). It is not inserted into the article's main text, but is stored
along with that revision of the page, allowing users to explain what has been done and why, similar
to a log message when making changes in a revision-control system. This enables other users to
see which changes have been made by whom and why, often in a list of summaries, dates and other
short, relevant content, a list which is called a "log" or "history."

Navigation
Within the text of most pages, there are usually a large number of hypertext links to other pages
within the wiki. This form of non-linear navigation is more "native" to a wiki than structured/formalized
navigation schemes. Users can also create any number of index or table-of-contents pages, with
hierarchical categorization or whatever form of organization they like. These may be challenging to
maintain "by hand", as multiple authors and users may create and delete pages in an ad hoc,
unorganized manner. Wikis can provide one or more ways to categorize or tag pages to support the
maintenance of such index pages. Some wikis, including the original, have a backlink feature, which
displays all pages that link to a given page. It is also typically possible in a wiki to create links to
pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite others to share what they know about a subject new to
the wiki. Wiki users can typically "tag" pages with categories or keywords, to make it easier for other
users to find the article. For example, a user creating a new article on cold weather cycling might
"tag" this page under the categories of commuting, winter sports and bicycling. This would make it
easier for other users to find the article.

Linking and creating pages

Links are created using a specific syntax, the so-called "link pattern". Originally, most wikis[citation
needed]
used CamelCase to name pages and create links. These are produced by capitalizing words in
a phrase and removing the spaces between them (the word "CamelCase" is itself an example).
While CamelCase makes linking easy, it also leads to links in a form that deviates from the standard
spelling. To link to a page with a single-word title, one must abnormally capitalize one of the letters in
the word (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). CamelCase-based wikis are instantly recognizable because
they have many links with names such as "TableOfContents" and "BeginnerQuestions." It is possible
for a wiki to render the visible anchor of such links "pretty" by reinserting spaces, and possibly also
reverting to lower case. This reprocessing of the link to improve the readability of the anchor is,
however, limited by the loss of capitalization information caused by CamelCase reversal. For
example, "RichardWagner" should be rendered as "Richard Wagner", whereas "PopularMusic"
should be rendered as "popular music". There is no easy way to determine which capital
letters should remain capitalized. As a result, many wikis now have "free linking" using brackets, and
some disable CamelCase by default.

Searching
Most wikis offer at least a title search, and sometimes a full-text search. The scalability of the search
depends on whether the wiki engine uses a database. Some wikis, such as PmWiki, use flat
files.[11] MediaWiki's first versions used flat files, but it was rewritten by Lee Daniel Crocker in the
early 2000s (decade) to be a database application. Indexed database access is necessary for high
speed searches on large wikis. Alternatively, external search engines such as Google Search can
sometimes be used on wikis with limited searching functions in order to obtain more precise results.
History
Main article: History of wikis

Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport

WikiWikiWeb was the first wiki.[12] Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in Portland,
Oregon, in 1994, and installed it on the Internet domain c2.com on March 25, 1995. It was named by
Cunningham, who remembered a Honolulu International Airport counter employee telling him to take
the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" bus that runs between the airport's terminals. According to Cunningham, "I
chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-
web."[13][14]
Cunningham was, in part, inspired by Apple Inc.'s HyperCard, which he had used. HyperCard,
however, was single-user.[15] Apple had designed a system allowing users to create virtual "card
stacks" supporting links among the various cards. Cunningham developed Vannevar Bush's ideas by
allowing users to "comment on and change one another's text."[1][16] 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".[15]
Wikipedia became the most famous wiki site, entering the top ten most popular websites in 2007. In
the early 2000s (decade), 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 only collaborative software and as a replacement for
static intranets, and some schools and universities use wikis to enhance group learning. There may
be greater use of wikis behind firewalls than on the public Internet. On March 15, 2007, the
word wiki was listed in the online Oxford English Dictionary.[17]

Alternative definitions
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the word "wiki" was used to refer to both user-editable websites
and the software that powers them; the latter definition is still occasionally in use.[2] Wiki inventor
Ward Cunningham wrote in 2014[18] that the word "wiki" should not be used to refer to a single
website, but rather to a mass of user-editable pages and or sites, so that a single website is not "a
wiki" but "an instance of wiki". He wrote that the concept of wiki federation, in which the same
content can be hosted and edited in more than one location in a manner similar to distributed version
control, meant that the concept of a single discrete "wiki" no longer made sense.[19]

Implementations
See also: List of wiki software
Wiki software is a type of collaborative software that runs a wiki system, allowing web pages to be
created and edited using a common web browser. It may be implemented as a series of scripts
behind an existing web server, or as a standalone application server that runs on one or more web
servers. The content is stored in a file system, and changes to the content are stored in a relational
database management system. A commonly implemented software package is MediaWiki, which
runs Wikipedia. Alternatively, personal wikis run as a standalone application on a single
computer. WikidPad is an example. One application, TiddlyWiki, simply makes use of an even single
local HTML file with JavaScript inside.
Wikis can also be created on a "wiki farm", where the server-side software is implemented by the
wiki farm owner. PBwiki, Socialtext, and Wikia are popular examples of such services. Some wiki
farms can also make private, password-protected wikis. Note that free wiki farms generally contain
advertising on every page. For more information, see Comparison of wiki farms.

Trust and security

Controlling changes
"Recent changes" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page, see Help:Recent changes. For the
recent changes page itself, see Special:RecentChanges

History comparison reports highlight the changes between two revisions of a page.

Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than
making it difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very open, they provide a means to verify the
validity of recent additions to the body of pages. The most prominent, on almost every wiki, is the
"Recent Changes" page—a specific list numbering recent edits, or a list of edits made within a given
time frame.[20] Some wikis can filter the list to remove minor edits and edits made by automatic
importing scripts ("bots").[21] From the change log, other functions are accessible in most wikis:
the revision history shows previous page versions and the diff feature highlights the changes
between two revisions. Using the revision history, an editor can view and restore a previous version
of the article. This gives great power to the author to eliminate edits. The diff feature can be used to
decide whether or not this is necessary. A regular wiki user can view the diff of an edit listed on the
"Recent Changes" page and, if it is an unacceptable edit, consult the history, restoring a previous
revision; this process is more or less streamlined, depending on the wiki software used.[22]
In case unacceptable edits are missed on the "recent changes" page, some wiki engines provide
additional content control. It can be monitored to ensure that a page, or a set of pages, keeps its
quality. A person willing to maintain pages will be warned of modifications to the pages, allowing him
or her to verify the validity of new editions quickly. This can be seen as a very pro-author and anti-
editor feature.[23] A watchlist is a common implementation of this. Some wikis also implement
"patrolled revisions", in which editors with the requisite credentials can mark some edits as not
vandalism. A "flagged revisions" system can prevent edits from going live until they have been
reviewed.[24]

Trustworthiness and reliability of content

Quality dimensions of the wiki and other sources: Wikipedia use case[25]

Critics of publicly editable wiki systems argue that these systems could be easily tampered with by
malicious individuals ("vandals") or even by well-meaning but unskilled users who introduce errors
into the content. While proponents argue that the community of users can catch malicious content
and correct it.[1] Lars Aronsson, a data systems specialist, summarizes the controversy as follows:
"Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a Web site that can be
edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds like offering free
spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be ugly graffitiand simple
tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very well."[12] High
editorial standards in medicine and health sciences articles, in which users typically use peer-
reviewed journals or university textbooks as sources, have led to the idea of expert-moderated
wikis.[26] Some wikis allow one to link to specific versions of articles, which has been useful to the
scientific community, in that expert peer reviewers could analyse articles, improve them and provide
links to the trusted version of that article.[27] Noveck points out that "participants are accredited by
members of the wiki community, who have a vested interest in preserving the quality of the work
product, on the basis of their ongoing participation." On controversial topics that have been subject
to disruptive editing, a wiki author may restrict editing to registered users.[28]

Security
"Edit war" redirects here. For Wikipedia's policy on edit warring, see Wikipedia:Edit warring.
"Edit war" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Edit conflict.
The open philosophy of wiki – allowing anyone to edit content – does not ensure that every editor's
intentions are well-mannered. For example, vandalism (changing wiki content to something
offensive, adding nonsense, or deliberately adding incorrect information, such as hoax information)
can be a major problem. On larger wiki sites, such as those run by the Wikimedia
Foundation, vandalism can go unnoticed for some period of time. Wikis, because of their open
nature, are susceptible to intentional disruption, known as "trolling". Wikis tend to take a soft-
security approach to the problem of vandalism, making damage easy to undo rather than attempting
to prevent damage. Larger wikis often employ sophisticated methods, such as bots that
automatically identify and revert vandalism and JavaScript enhancements that show characters that
have been added in each edit. In this way, vandalism can be limited to just "minor vandalism" or
"sneaky vandalism", where the characters added/eliminated are so few that bots do not identify them
and users do not pay much attention to them.[29][unreliable source] An example of a bot that reverts vandalism
on Wikipedia is ClueBot NG. ClueBot NG can revert edits, often within minutes, if not seconds. The
bot uses machine learning in lieu of heuristics.[30]
The amount of vandalism a wiki receives depends on how open the wiki is. For instance, some wikis
allow unregistered users, identified by their IP addresses, to edit content, while others limit this
function to just registered users. Most wikis allow anonymous editing without an account,[31] but give
registered users additional editing functions; on most wikis, becoming a registered user is a short
and simple process. Some wikis require an additional waiting period before gaining access to certain
tools. For example, on the English Wikipedia, registered users can rename pages only if their
account is at least four days old and has made at least ten edits. Other wikis such as the Portuguese
Wikipedia use an editing requirement instead of a time requirement, granting extra tools after the
user has made a certain number of edits to prove their trustworthiness and usefulness as an
editor. Vandalism of Wikipedia is common (though policed and usually reverted) because it is
extremely open, allowing anyone with a computer and Internet access to edit it, although this makes
it grow rapidly. In contrast, Citizendium requires an editor's real name and short autobiography,
affecting the growth of the wiki but sometimes helping stop vandalism.
Edit wars can also occur as users repetitively revert a page to the version they favor. In some cases,
editors with opposing views of which content should appear or what formatting style should be used
will change and re-change each other's edits. This results in the page being "unstable" from a
general users' perspective, because each time a general user comes to the page, it may look
different. Some wiki software allows an administrator to stop such edit wars by locking a page from
further editing until a decision has been made on what version of the page would be most
appropriate.[9] Some wikis are in a better position than others to control behavior due to governance
structures existing outside the wiki. For instance, a college teacher can create incentives for
students to behave themselves on a class wiki they administer by limiting editing to logged-in users
and pointing out that all contributions can be traced back to the contributors. Bad behavior can then
be dealt with in accordance with university policies.[11] The issue of wiki vandalism is debated. In
some cases, when an editor deletes an entire article and replaces it with nonsense content, it may
be a "test edit", made by the user as she or he is experimenting with the wiki system. Some editors
may not realize that they have damaged the page, or if they do realize it, they may not know how to
undo the mistake or restore the content.