Most of the following notes are taken from (the assigned reading) “Teaching and Learning Online with Wikis” by Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman, and Wanlei Zhou, at this URL:
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html
Wiki is a collaborative web-site tool for use on the web. It was invented by Ward Cunningham for use on the internet in 1994 (back before there was a World Wide Web or web browsers). The word is Hawaiian and it means “quick.”
Wikis are fully editable websites. That is, they have a system of open editing: Users can visit, read, re-organize and update the structure and content (text and pictures) of a wiki as they see fit.
Wikis have two different writing modes:
Document mode: When used in document mode contributors create collaborative documents written in the third person. Authors leave their additions to the wiki document unsigned. As time passes, multiple authors edit and update the content of the document and gradually the content becomes a representation of the shared knowledge or beliefs of the contributors .
Thread mode: Contributors carry out discussions in the wiki environment by posting signed messages. Others respond by leaving the original messages intact and eventually a group of threaded messages evolves.
Wikis can be seen in two different states:
Read state (default): The wiki page looks just like a normal webpage.
Edit state: When the user wants to edit the wiki page, they must access the wiki’s edit state.
To edit a wiki, a user points their web browser to a wiki URL and clicks an edit button or link featured on each wiki page. Whatever changes are made are recorded on the “history” page. The user can also compose and preserve comments about the editing process, on the “talk” page. All these pages are accessible to all wiki users.
Other people may edit the page the user edits. Some of them (editors or administrators) have the power to undo what the user has done, though they almost always provide explanation when they take such action.
Such collaboration is at the heart of the wiki experience. It is also what makes wikis, such as Wikipedia, controversial. Works that can be edited by anyone, at anytime, lack authority. Adding to the problem is the fact that quite a few people have agendas while they edit and may introduce unsubstantiated and false statements. That is why college professors (like this one) discourage students from citing Wikipedia in papers.
That said, wiki administrators tend to be quite zealous in their oversight of their wikis. According to some, this is particularly true of Wikipedia.
Wiki sites are called wiki clones. They can be written in a variety of programming languages. Some require knowledge of syntax; some are WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”—that is, the wiki editing program does the coding and syntax for you).
Consider the following:
- not all wikis support uploading images
- most wikis support tracking of wiki edits or updates (time and author stamps)
- most wikis have user profile pages
- most wikis have either a login or signature function to authenticate entries
- everything you do on the wiki can be tracked back to you
The authors of the article listed above suggest that every wiki has its own set of rules, or what they call “commandments.” Their commandments might apply to our work with wikis:
1. Post frequently, post well, post haste.
2. Be nice [or "Don't be evil"? This is the motto of Google.]
3. Wiki unto others as you would have them wiki unto you (treat your collaborators as you would like them to treat you) .
4. Remember that you contribution is critical to the success of the group.
Like most of the digital applications we have used in this class, wikis were initially used for non-fiction purposes (such as Wikipedia, whose function is mostly educational). But now they have been adapted by creative writers and programmers. We might call creative or fictional wikis “fwikis” or “wiction” (or something else).
The genre of wiki fiction has a number of subordinate genres (subgenres), such as:
- collaborative hypertext
- collaborative interactive fiction
- serialized fiction
- world building (constructed world)
- constructed language
- faux encyclopedia
This week we will look at some examples of these subgenres.
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