I knew very little about wikis before this chapter so the fact that wiki stands for “fast” or “quick” in Hawaiian was important for me to define. It alludes to the pace at which wiki content can be created. Wikis are web sites that allow people to collect and edit their intelligence in one place at any time. A wiki is a browser-based web platform that lets volunteers contribute information based on their expertise and knowledge and permits them to edit content within articles on specific subjects. Businesses can incorporate wiki by creating a company wiki, many firms can gather the collective knowledge of their employees on subjects such as policies and procedures.
Wiki is as simple as edit, write, and save. It has become an extremely valuable, easy-to use free resource tool. Although Wikipedia provides easily generate pages there are some security issues because wikis are very open set of documents and accessible to the public.
With this we have to mention the most popular wiki, Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for the world’s largest online user-generated content encyclopedia, containing 15 million articles. Despite the criticism concerning Wikipedia’s potential bias and factual inaccuracies, many of the site’s critics have agreed that the information contained is actually quite accurate
Going through school a negative outlook has always been attached to Wikipedia, but what I’m sure teachers and professors already know, is it is students main resource for basic information. I don’t know what happen in the French-Indian War? I google-search it and a Wikipedia link is the first thing that pops up. While yes, there is a lot of inaccurate information on Wikipedia, I think it is up to the Internet consumer to be smart enough to be able to decipher the right information from the bias. The secret to using Wikipedia is to use it as the starting ground to acquire the basic knowledge on a subject and nothing more. Because of the acquiring of just the basic knowledge I rarely site it as a source for it is other online journals and sources where I gain the more detailed information that I derive quotes and paraphrases from. It took me almost a full four years of college to fully understand the purpose of Wikipedia and to realize its power in creation. Wikis are great ways to collect the wisdom of the masses while creating your own information management system.
Yes, that's exactly how I use Wikipedia. As a starting point. I agree with the text that wikis can be useful as a collaboration tool, but they are difficult to set up (based on my last experience). The programs aren't very simple or intuitive, and I think that's a barrier to people using them more. This situation with WikiLeaks has really raised people's awareness about the power of wikis. It will be interesting to see if outside of Wikipedia, if their use continues.
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