wikis 101...or, how i learned to stop worrying and trust the internet phoebe ayers –...

Wikis 101...Or, how I learned to stop worrying and trust the Internet

Phoebe Ayers – psayers@ucdavis.eduUC Davis

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elkit/114382996/

Overview: A little history What? Why? How?

Examples Questions and brainstorming

What can you imagine using wikis for?

Now? Later?

Social definition:

A wiki is a tool for

collaboration, information sharing

and knowledge/content management

Technical definition:

A “wiki” is a type of software to run a website that

anyone can edit

“Wiki”: Hawaiian for “any idiot can edit”

A little history

No, there will not be a quiz later

In the beginning: In 1995, Ward Cunningham invented a type of

website software That allowed anyone to modify the site’s content So this “WikiWikiWeb” could grow naturally and

efficiently Ward gave this software a catchy

name

…That I hear actually does have

something to do with Hawaiian

buses

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grenade/177953735/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/19490596/

In Which The Wiki Takes Off! The wiki was invented “In order to make the exchange of

ideas between programmers easier”*

… but was soon discovered as a way to easily share content as well as ideas

Different wiki engines were written… [UseMod, PhpWiki, MoinMoin, Twiki]

And communities began to grow

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb

We’ll get back to this “In the late 1990s, wikis were increasingly

recognized as a promising way to develop private- and public-knowledge bases, and this potential inspired the founders of the Nupedia encyclopedia project, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, to use wiki technology as a basis for an electronic encyclopedia: Wikipedia was launched in January 2001”

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Today: Dozens of wiki engines & wiki companies on the

market, including: “Enterprise wikis” – software for company intranets

(Socialtext, Confluence)

Free wiki hosting services – Jotspot, Wikia, Wetpaint

Or, download & install your own: Mediawiki, PhpWiki, Kwiki, etc. etc.

And dozens of communities…. Including Wikipedia – famous and enormous

A recap: A Wiki is a type of website that allows users to

easily edit and change some available content Two parts:

“wiki engine” (software) users – edit content and develop the wiki

community “Wiki” or “the wiki” often generically refers to both Wikipedia is just one example, running on one

type of wiki software (Mediawiki)

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

http://www.flickr.com/photos/psmith/110333255/

Wiki features

How does it work? A wiki page starts more or less empty Wiki pages are connected by internal hyperlinks Every page should be connected

No ownership of wiki content – anyone can work on any piece

6 magic features: Most wikis have:

Edit this page - open editing of pages (sometimes with permission layers)

Distinct syntax – simple, non-html Discussion – comment on a page or the site Versioning or “diffs” – you can see every

change that’s been made to a pageRecent changes - can (usually) see all changes

made to the siteRevert – can always change a page back to what

it was before

Edit this page!

What do you mean, “edit”? All you need is a computer, internet access and a

web browser special markup language:

[[this is an internal link]][http:www.link.com this is an external link]’’italics’’ or ’’’bold’’’ ==Headline 1=====Headline 2===*Bulleted list#Numbered list (item 1)#Numbered list (item 2) ~~~~ - to sign and date your comments

• As opposed to the HTML we know (and don’t love):

<a href=http://www.link.com> this is an external link</a>

<i>italic text</i><b>bold text</b><h1>headline</h1> <li><ul>list element 1</ul></li>

Not to mention CSS <style type="text/css"> body { background: #fff;

Etc.

MediaWiki: ==S.R. Ranganathan==The ’’’Five Laws of Library Science’’’ are as follows: # Books are for use. # Every reader has his or her book.# Every book has its reader. # Save the time of the reader. # The library is a growing organism. * See also: [[Library]], [http://www.ala.org The ALA]

HTML: <h1>S.R. Ranganathan</h1><p>The <b>Five Laws of Library Science</b> are as follows:<ol><li> Wikis are for use</li><li> Every reader has his or her Wiki</li><li> Every Wiki has its reader</li><li> Save the time of the reader</li><li> The Wiki is a growing organism</li></ol><ul><li> See also: <a

href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library”> Library</a>, <a href=“http://www.ala.org”> The ALA </a> </li></ul>

Either way:

S.R. RanganathanThe Five Laws of Library Science are as

follows: 1. Books are for use. 2. Every reader has his or her book.3. Every book has its reader. 4. Save the time of the reader. 5. The library is a growing organism. • See also: Library, The ALA

Page history

IP address of “anonymous edit”

Edit summary

How to read a Wikipedia (MediaWiki) article

history

Minor edit

Links to user page, user talk page, and

user contribution history

Date and time of edit

Reversion of most

recent edits to old

version (poss.

vandalism)

Compare to

current

version of

articleOr most

recent

preceding

version

Click to compare two versions

The magic “diff”

Recent changes

Revert this page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ross/3789540/

Example wikis

Wikipedia

(in a nutshell)

What is it? “The free encyclopedia”But also: Related to wiki-dictionaries, textbooks and

citizen journalism A place to find open-source media A reference desk A huge community One of the world’s most popular websites A site with a mission

Wikipedia basics

GNU/GFDL licensed content: free as in beer and free as in speech

Open to all and editable by anyone Edit anonymously or with an account Funded mostly (>80%) by

individual donationsSmall budget and 4 paid employees

Why is Wikipedia special?

Multilingualism/multiculturalism People are using it Astonishing size

It’s remarkably good Fundamental change to information

production, dissemination, and authority:

You’ve never seen anything like this before, ever

Wikis in Libraries

Wikis in libraries Tool for the public:

subject guides, more

Staff intranets: Reference sites Documentation, committee work, travel reports

Conferences: Participants planners

Community documentation: Library best practices

Why use a wiki?

Fast Easy Fun Findable & searchable online Can easily collaborate with all users Best tool for the job….?

Our motto: "WWW" (When Wondering? Wiki)

How?

How? Technically:

• Hosting service (free or pay) vs installing your own wiki on your webserver

Other Criteria: • Ease of use • Customization• Cost

More: http://lis753wiki.pbwiki.com/Do It Yourself

What you’ll need:

What you’ll need to install your own:

Webserver access Mediawiki install: need Apache, MySQL,

PHP (and access to your MySQL db) Other packages: varies

E.g., Kwiki: Apache & Perl

How? Socially:

Why does Wikipedia (or any wiki) work? A large, enthusiastic, and unconstrained user

base Users write and determine policy as well as

content on WikipediaThis may depend on situation Users must be:

Minimally trained Motivated Encouraged

What you’ll need:

Make the wiki inviting – pre-populate some pages

Provide training Make it fun and rewarding to edit Allow people to discover collaborative

writing Assume good faith

Remember:

You can’t break it You can always go back Security levels can be set and tweaked Many people contributing

a small amount can get

a lot done

Various configurations:

resources

Resources (see handout)Comparing wiki Software: • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software• http://www.wikimatrix.org/

Choosing and installing a wiki in a library setting • LIS753: A wiki about wikis (lots of helpful resources):

http://lis753wiki.pbwiki.com

• List of examples: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=How_Libraries_Can_Use

• More, from the Virtual Reference SIG wiki: http://vrsig.pbwiki.com/Wikis

• Presentation by Meredith Farkas: http://sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=66

“wiki wednesdays”

http://www.socialtext.net/wikiwed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:Meetup

And online communication: blogs, forums, IRC, wiki help pages… and meetups

Questions!?

And thoughts…

Phoebe Ayers

psayers@ucdavis.edu

This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License :

Cc-by-sa; reuse permissible with attribution; distribute derivative works only under an identical license

Slides available at: http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/psa/wiki.ppt

Handout available at: http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/psa/wikihandout.doc