Wiki: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Type of website edited collaboratively}}

{{About|the concept|its use as a nickname|Wikipedia|other uses}}

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[[File:Wikitext-wiki markup-wikipedia.png|upright=1.5|thumb|Editing display showing [[MediaWiki markup language]]|alt=refer to caption]]

[[File:MediaWiki homepage (oct 2024).png|thumb|right|A photo of the [[MediaWiki]] homepage, a wiki software]]

A '''wiki''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-wiki.ogg|ˈ|w|ɪ|k|i}} {{respell|WIK|ee}}) is a form of [[hypertext]] publication on the [[internet]] which is [[Collaborative editing|collaboratively edited]] and managed by its audience directly through a [[web browser]]. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or limited to use within an organization for maintaining its internal [[knowledge base]]. The name derives from the first user-editable website called ''[[WikiWikiWeb]]'' – {{wikt-lang|haw|wiki}} being a [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] word meaning {{gloss|quick}} (pronounced {{IPA|haw|ˈviti|}}).{{refn|group=note|The realization of the Hawaiian {{IPA|/w/|lang=haw}} [[phoneme]] varies between {{IPA|[w]|lang=haw}} and {{IPA|[v]|lang=haw}}, and the realization of the {{IPA|/k/|lang=haw}} phoneme varies between {{IPA|[k]|lang=haw}} and {{IPA|[t]|lang=haw}}, among other realizations. Thus, the pronunciation of the Hawaiian word {{lang|haw|wiki}} varies between {{IPA|[ˈwiki]|lang=haw}}, {{IPA|[ˈwiti]|lang=haw}}, {{IPA|[ˈviki]|lang=haw}}, and {{IPA|[ˈviti]|lang=haw}}. See [[Hawaiian phonology]] for more details.}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Hawaiian Words; Hawaiian to English |url=https://www.mauimapp.com/moolelo/hwnwdshw.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914154748/https://www.mauimapp.com/moolelo/hwnwdshw.htm |archive-date=September 14, 2008 |access-date=September 19, 2008 |publisher=mauimapp.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Wiki {{!}} Definition & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/wiki |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en |archive-date=May 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510030752/https://www.britannica.com/topic/wiki |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Hasan |first=Heather |title=Wikipedia, 3.5 million articles and counting |url=https://archive.org/details/wikipedia35milli0000hasa/page/11 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wikipedia35milli0000hasa/page/11 11] |year=2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026122531/https://archive.org/details/wikipedia35milli0000hasa/page/11 |location=New York |publisher=Rosen Central |isbn=9781448855575 |access-date=August 6, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Andrews |first=Lorrin |title=A dictionary of the Hawaiian language to which is appended an English-Hawaiian vocabulary and a chronological table of remarkable events |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofhawa00andrrich/ |page=514 |year=1865 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815064248/https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofhawa00andrrich/ |publisher=Henry M. Whitney |access-date=June 1, 2014 |archive-date=August 15, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Wikis are powered by [[wiki software]], also known as wiki engines. Being a form of [[content management system]], these differ from other [[web application|web-based]] systems such as [[blog software]] or [[static site generator]]s in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader. Wikis have little inherent structure, allowing one to emerge according to the needs of the users.<ref name="Easy Wiki Hosting "/> Wiki engines usually allow content to be written using a [[lightweight markup language]] and sometimes edited with the help of a [[Online rich-text editor|rich-text editor]].<ref name="Britannica">{{citation|title=wiki|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|volume=1|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]]|year=2007|location=London|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192819/wiki|access-date=April 10, 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424074513/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192819/wiki|archive-date=April 24, 2008}}</ref> There are dozens of different wiki engines in use, both standalone and part of other software, such as [[bug tracking system]]s. Some wiki engines are [[free and open-source]], whereas others are [[proprietary software|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. Further rules may be imposed to organize content. In addition to hosting user-authored content, wikis allow those users to interact, hold discussions, and collaborate.<ref name="Legal">{{citation|title=Legal Issues for Wikis: The Challenge of User-generated and Peer-produced Knowledge, Content and Culture|last1=Black|first1=Peter|last2=Delaney|first2=Hayden|last3=Fitzgerald|first3=Brian|volume=14|publisher=eLaw J.|year=2007|url=https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/archives/issues/2007/1/eLaw_legal%20issues%20for%20wikis.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222125337/https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/archives/issues/2007/1/eLaw_legal%20issues%20for%20wikis.pdf|archive-date=December 22, 2012}}</ref>

There are hundreds of thousands of [[List of wikis|wikis in use]], both public and private, including wikis functioning as [[knowledge management]] resources, [[notetaking software|note-taking]] tools, [[Web community|community websites]], and [[intranet]]s. [[Ward Cunningham]], the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described wiki as "the simplest online database that could possibly work".<ref>{{cite web |last=Cunningham |first=Ward |author-link=Ward Cunningham |date=June 27, 2002 |title=What is a Wiki |url=https://www.wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416212802/https://www.wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki |archive-date=April 16, 2008 |access-date=April 10, 2008 |publisher=WikiWikiWeb}}</ref>  

The [[online encyclopedia]] project [[Wikipedia]] is the most popular wiki-based website, as well being [[List of most-visited websites|one of the internet's most popular websites]], having been ranked consistently as such since at least 2007.<ref name="Alexa Top Sites">{{cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/topsites|title=Alexa Top Sites|access-date=December 1, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150302173920/https://www.alexa.com/topsites|archive-date=March 2, 2015}}</ref> Wikipedia is not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of wikis, with each one pertaining to a specific language, making it the largest reference work of all time.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher|title=Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=2021-01-09|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2026-0223-1931-51/https://web.archive.org:443/web/20210107165356/https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher|archive-date=2021-01-07}}</ref> The [[English-language Wikipedia]] has the largest collection of articles, standing at {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} as of {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}.<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia|access-date=January 14, 2024|publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|website=[[Wikipedia]]|archive-date=July 31, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731205707/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia|url-status=live}}</ref>

 

In their 2001 book ''[[The Wiki Way|The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web]]'', [[Ward Cunningham]] and co-author [[Bo Leuf]] described the essence of the wiki concept:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Leuf |first1=Bo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JmvbAAAAMAAJ |title=The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web |last2=Cunningham |first2=Ward |date=2001 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-71499-9 |page=16 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples |title= Wiki Design Principles |access-date=2002-04-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020430181259/https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples |archive-date=April 30, 2002}}</ref>

 

* "A wiki invites all users—not just experts—to edit any [[Web page|page]] or to create new pages within the wiki website, using only a standard [[vanilla software|'plain-vanilla']] Web browser without any extra [[browser extension|add-ons]]."

* "A wiki is {{em|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."

Some wikis present users with an edit button or link on the page being viewed. This will open an [[user interface|interface]] for writing, formatting, and structuring page content. The interface may be a [[source editor]], which is text-based and employs a [[lightweight markup language]] (known as '''wikitext''', '''wiki markup''', or '''wikicode'''), or a [[#Visual editing|visual editor]]. For example, in a source editor, starting lines of text with [[asterisk]]s could create a [[Bullet (typography)|bulleted list]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}}

 

The [[syntax (programming languages)|syntax]] and features of wiki markup languages for denoting style and structure can vary greatly among [[List of wiki software|implementations]]. Some allow the use of {{abbrlink|HTML|Hypertext Markup Language}} and {{abbrlink|CSS|Cascading Style Sheets}},<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dohrn |first1=Hannes |last2=Riehle |first2=Dirk |chapter=Design and implementation of the Sweble Wikitext parser: Unlocking the structured data of Wikipedia |date=2011 |title=Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2038558.2038571 |language=en |publisher=ACM |pages=72–81 |doi=10.1145/2038558.2038571 |isbn=978-1-4503-0909-7}}</ref> while others disallow them to foster uniformity in appearance.

==== Example of syntax ====

A short section of the 1865 novel ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' rendered in wiki markup:

! style="width:33.3%;"|Wiki markup

! style="width:33.3%;"|Equivalent in HTML

! style="width:33.3%;"|Output shown to readers

|<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

|{{spacer|1em}}"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

==== <span class="anchor" id="visual"></span><span class="anchor" id="wysiwyg"></span><span class="anchor" id="WYSIWYG"></span>Visual editing ====

While wiki engines have traditionally offered source editing to users, in recent years{{When|date=March 2026}} some implementations have added a [[Online rich-text editor|rich text editing]] mode. This is usually implemented, using [[JavaScript]], as an interface which translates formatting instructions chosen from a [[toolbar]] into the corresponding wiki markup or HTML. This is generated and submitted to the server [[Transparency (human–computer interaction)|transparently]], shielding users from the technical detail of markup editing and making it easier for them to change the content of pages. An example of such an interface is the [[VisualEditor]] in [[MediaWiki]], the wiki engine used by Wikipedia. [[WYSIWYG]] editors may not provide all the features available in wiki markup, and some users prefer not to use them, so a source editor will often be available simultaneously.

Some wiki implementations keep a record of changes made to wiki pages, and may store every version of the page permanently. This allows authors to revert a page to an older version to rectify a mistake, or counteract a malicious or inappropriate edit to its content.<ref name="auto">{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=178}}</ref>

 

These stores are typically presented for each page in a list, called a "log" or "edit history", available from the page via a link in the interface. The list displays [[metadata]] for each revision to the page, such as the time and date of when it was stored, and the name of the person who created it, alongside a link to view that specific revision. A [[diff]] (short for "difference") feature may be available, which highlights the changes between any two revisions.

 

 

The edit history view in many wiki implementations will include '''edit summaries''' written by users when submitting changes to a page. Similar to the function of a [[Logging (computing)|log message]] in a [[revision control]] system, an edit summary is a short piece of text which summarizes and perhaps explains the change, for example "Corrected grammar" or "Fixed table formatting to not extend past page width". It is not inserted into the article's main text.

 

Traditionally, wikis offer free navigation between their pages via [[hypertext]] links in page text, rather than requiring users to follow a formal or structured navigation scheme. Users may also create [[index (publishing)|index]]es or [[table of contents]] pages, hierarchical categorization via a [[taxonomy]], or other forms of [[ad hoc]] content organization. Wiki implementations can provide one or more ways to categorize or [[tag (metadata)|tag]] pages to support the maintenance of such index pages, such as a [[backlink]] feature which displays all pages that link to a given page. Adding categories or tags to a page makes it easier for other users to find it.

 

Most wikis allow the titles of pages to be searched amongst, and some offer [[full text search]] of all stored content.

 

[[File:Development of "Mathe für Nicht-Freaks" from Sep 2009 to June 2016.webm|thumb|Visualization of the collaborative work in the German wiki project [[b:de:Mathe für Nicht-Freaks|Mathe für Nicht-Freaks]]]]

 

Some wiki communities have established navigational networks between each other using a system called '''WikiNodes'''. A WikiNode is a page on a wiki which describes and links to other, related wikis. Some wikis operate a structure of neighbors and delegates, where a neighbor wiki is one which discusses similar content or is otherwise of interest, and a delegate wiki is one which has agreed to have certain content delegated to it.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=WikiNodes |title=Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://wikinodes.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.fcg/FrequentlyAskedQuestions |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810213702/https://wikinodes.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.fcg/FrequentlyAskedQuestions |archive-date=August 10, 2007}}</ref> WikiNode networks act as [[webring]]s which may be navigated from one node to another to find a wiki which addresses a specific subject.

=== Linking to and naming pages ===

{{Redirect|wikilink|the Wikipedia linking how-to guide|Help:Link}}

The syntax used to create internal hyperlinks varies between wiki implementations. Beginning with [[WikiWikiWeb]] in 1995, most wikis used [[camel case]] to name pages,<ref>Bäckström, A., & Wändin, L. (2005). Spatial Hypertext Editing Tools for Wiki Web Systems.</ref> which is when words in a phrase are [[capital letter|capitalized]] and the spaces between them removed. In this system, the phrase "camel case" would be rendered as "CamelCase". In early wiki engines, when a page was displayed, any instance of a camel case phrase would be transformed into a link to another page named with the same phrase.

While this system made it easy to link to pages, it had the downside of requiring pages to be named in a form deviating from standard spelling, and titles of a single word required abnormally capitalizing one of the letters (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). Some wiki implementations attempt to improve the display of camel case page titles and links by reinserting spaces and possibly also reverting to lower case, but this simplistic method is not able to correctly present titles of mixed capitalization. For example, "[[Kingdom of France]]" as a page title would be written as "KingdomOfFrance", and displayed as "Kingdom Of France".

To avoid this problem, the syntax of wiki markup gained free links (called '''wikilinks'''), wherein a term in natural language could be wrapped in special characters to turn it into a link without modifying it. The concept was given the name in its first implementation, in [[UseModWiki]] in February 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usemod.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UseModWiki/OldVersions |title=UseModWiki/OldVersions |last=Adams |first=Clifford |date=26 April 2001 |access-date=25 July 2024}}</ref> In that implementation, link terms were wrapped in a double set of square brackets, for example <kbd><nowiki>[[Kingdom of France]]</nowiki></kbd>. This syntax was adopted by a number of later wiki engines.

It is typically possible for users of a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite the creation of those pages. Such links are usually differentiated visually in some fashion, such as being colored red instead of the default blue, which was the case in the original WikiWikiWeb, or by appearing as a question mark next to the linked words.

== History ==

[[File:Wikiwiki2008.JPG|thumb|Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport]]

 

[[WikiWikiWeb]] was the first wiki.<ref name="ebersbach10">{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=10}}.</ref> Ward Cunningham started developing it in 1994, and installed it on the [[Domain name|Internet domain]] [[c2.com]] on March 25, 1995. Cunningham gave it the name after remembering a [[Daniel K. Inouye International Airport|Honolulu International Airport]] counter employee telling him to take the "[[Wiki Wiki Shuttle]]" bus that runs between the airport's terminals, later observing that "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web."<ref name="cunningham">{{cite web |last=Cunningham |first=Ward |url=https://c2.com/doc/etymology.html |title=Correspondence on the Etymology of Wiki |date=November 1, 2003 |publisher=WikiWikiWeb |access-date=March 9, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317120823/https://c2.com/doc/etymology.html |archive-date=March 17, 2007 |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="history">{{cite web |last=Cunningham |first=Ward |url=https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiHistory |title=Wiki History |publisher=WikiWikiWeb |date=February 25, 2008 |access-date=March 9, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020621221535/https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiHistory |archive-date=June 21, 2002 }}</ref>

 

 

 

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, and the latter definition is still occasionally in use.<ref name="Easy Wiki Hosting">{{citation |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc700339.aspx |title=Easy Wiki Hosting, Scott Hanselman's blog, and Snagging Screens |date=July 2008 |last=Mitchell |first=Scott |publisher=MSDN Magazine |access-date=March 9, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100316192702/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc700339.aspx |archive-date=March 16, 2010 }}</ref>

By 2014, Ward Cunningham's thinking on the nature of wikis had evolved, leading him to write<ref>{{Cite tweet|number=531149812976996352|user=WardCunningham|title=The plural of wiki is wiki. See https://forage.ward.fed.wiki.org/an-install-of-wiki.html|author=Ward Cunningham|date=November 8, 2014|author-link=Ward Cunningham|access-date=March 18, 2019}}</ref> that the word "wiki" should not be used to refer to a single website, but rather to a mass of user-editable pages or sites so that a single website is not "a wiki" but "an instance of wiki". In this 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]], the idea of a single discrete "wiki" no longer made sense.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forage.ward.fed.wiki.org/view/an-install-of-wiki|title=Smallest Federated Wiki|work=wiki.org|access-date=September 28, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928165957/https://forage.ward.fed.wiki.org/view/an-install-of-wiki|archive-date=September 28, 2015}}</ref>

== Implementations ==

{{See also|List of wiki software}}

The software which powers a wiki may be implemented as a series of [[Scripting language|scripts]] which operate an existing [[web server]], a standalone [[application server]] that runs on one or more web servers, or in the case of [[personal wiki]]s, run as a standalone application on a single computer. Some wikis use [[flat file database]]s to store page content, while others use a [[relational database]],<ref name=Augar>{{cite journal |title=Teaching and learning online with wikis |pages=95–104 |last1=Naomi |first1=Augar |first2=Ruth |last2=Raitman |first3=Wanlei |last3=Zhou |journal=Proceedings of Beyond the Comfort Zone: 21st ASCILITE Conference |citeseerx=10.1.1.133.1456 |year=2004}}</ref> as [[Database index|indexed]] database access is faster on large wikis, particularly for searching.

== Hosting ==

{{See also|Comparison of wiki hosting services}}

Wikis can also be created on [[wiki hosting service]]s (also known as ''wiki farms''), where the [[server-side]] software is implemented by the wiki farm owner, and may do so at no charge in exchange for [[Online advertising|advertisements]] being displayed on the wiki's pages. Some hosting services offer private, password-protected wikis requiring [[authentication]] to access. Free wiki farms generally contain advertising on every page.

== Trust and security ==

=== Controlling changes ===

{{redirect|Recent changes|the Wikipedia help page|Help:Recent changes|the recent changes page itself|Special:RecentChanges|selfref=true}}

Wikis are generally designed with a ''[[soft security]]'' philosophy in which it is easy to correct mistakes or harmful changes, rather than attempting to prevent them from happening in the first place. This allows them to be very open while providing a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of pages. Most wikis offer a ''recent changes'' page which shows recent edits, or a list of edits made within a given time frame.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=20}}</ref> Some wikis can filter the list to remove edits flagged by users as "minor" and [[Internet bot|automated]] edits.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=54}}</ref> The version history feature allows harmful changes to be reverted quickly and easily.<ref name="auto"/>

Some wiki engines provide additional content control, allowing [[remote monitoring and management]] of a page or set of pages to maintain quality. A person willing to maintain pages will be alerted of modifications to them, allowing them to verify the validity of new editions quickly.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=109}}</ref> Such a feature is often called a ''watchlist''.

Some wikis also implement ''patrolled revisions'', in which editors with the requisite credentials can mark edits as being legitimate. A ''flagged revisions'' system can prevent edits from going live until they have been reviewed.<ref>{{citation |title=Wikipedia's Labor Squeeze and its Consequences |journal=Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law |last=Goldman |first=Eric |volume=8}}</ref>

Wikis may allow any person on the web to edit their content without having to register an account on the site first (''anonymous editing''), or require registration as a condition of participation.<ref>{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=108}}</ref> On implementations where an administrator is able to restrict editing of a page or group of pages to a specific group of users, they may have the option to prevent anonymous editing while allowing it for registered users.<ref name=Noveck/>

Critics of publicly editable wikis argue that they could be easily tampered with by malicious individuals, or even by well-meaning but unskilled users who introduce errors into the content. Proponents maintain that these issues will be caught and rectified by a wiki's community of users.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="ebersbach10"/> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barsky |first1=Eugene |last2=Giustini |first2=Dean |date=December 2007 |title=Introducing Web 2.0: wikis for health librarians |url=https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/497/c07-036.pdf |url-status=live |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=147–150 |doi=10.5596/c07-036 |issn=1708-6892 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430195019/https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/497/c07-036.pdf |archive-date=April 30, 2012 |access-date=November 7, 2011 |journal=Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association |doi-access=free }}</ref> Wiki implementations retaining and allowing access to specific versions of articles has been useful to the scientific community, by allowing expert [[peer review]]ers to provide links to trusted version of articles which they have analyzed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yager |first=Kevin |date=March 16, 2006 |title=Wiki ware could harness the Internet for science |journal=Nature |volume=440 |issue=7082 |pages=278 |bibcode=2006Natur.440..278Y |doi=10.1038/440278a |pmid=16541049 |doi-access=free |issn=0028-0836}}</ref>

=== Security ===

{{for|Wikipedia's policy on edit warring|Wikipedia:Edit warring|selfref=true}}

In addition to using the approach of soft security for protecting themselves, larger wikis may employ sophisticated methods, such as bots that automatically identify and revert vandalism. For example, on Wikipedia, the bot [[ClueBot NG]] uses [[machine learning]] to identify likely harmful changes, and reverts these changes within minutes or even seconds.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5412636/this-machine-kills-trolls-how-wikipedia-robots-snuff-out-vandalism |title=This machine kills trolls |date=February 18, 2014 |access-date=September 7, 2014 |website=[[The Verge]] |last=Hicks |first=Jesse |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827115824/https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5412636/this-machine-kills-trolls-how-wikipedia-robots-snuff-out-vandalism |archive-date=August 27, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Disagreements between users over the content or appearance of pages may cause edit wars, where competing users repetitively change a page back to a version that they favor. Some wiki software allows administrators to prevent pages from being editable until a decision has been made on what version of the page would be most appropriate.<ref name=Legal/>

Some wikis may be subject to external structures of governance which address the behavior of persons with access to the system, for example in academic contexts.<ref name=Augar/>

 

 

 

 

 

In academic contexts, wikis have also been used as project collaboration and research support systems.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Au|first=C. H.|title=2017 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM) |chapter=Wiki as a research support system – A trial in information systems research |date=December 2017|pages=2271–2275|doi=10.1109/IEEM.2017.8290296|isbn=978-1-5386-0948-4|s2cid=44029462}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCECS2014/WCECS2014_pp358-363.pdf|title=Using Wiki for Project Collaboration – with Comparison on Facebook|last=Au|first=Cheuk-hang|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412152358/https://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCECS2014/WCECS2014_pp358-363.pdf|archive-date=April 12, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

 

=== Growth factors ===

A study of several hundred wikis in 2008 showed that a relatively high number of administrators for a given content size is likely to reduce growth;<ref>{{cite journal |title=Measuring wiki viability. An empirical assessment of the social dynamics of a large sample of wikis |publisher=The Centre for Research in Social Simulation |first1=C. |last1=Roth |first2=D. |last2=Taraborelli |first3=N. |last3=Gilbert |year=2008 |page=3 |quote=Figure 4 shows that having a relatively high number of administrators for a given content size is likely to reduce growth. |url=https://nitens.org/docs/wikidyn.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011105517/https://nitens.org/docs/wikidyn.pdf |archive-date=October 11, 2017 |df=mdy-all |website=nitens.org}}</ref> access controls restricting editing to registered users tends to reduce growth; a lack of such access controls tends to fuel new user registration; and that a higher ratio of administrators to regular users has no significant effect on content or population growth.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Measuring wiki viability. An empirical assessment of the social dynamics of a large sample of wikis |publisher=The Centre for Research in Social Simulation |first1=C. |last1=Roth |first2=D. |last2=Taraborelli |first3=N. |last3=Gilbert |year=2008 |url=https://epubs.surrey.ac.uk:80/1565/1/fulltext.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616204038/https://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1565/1/fulltext.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 16, 2012 |access-date=November 9, 2018 |df=mdy-all |website=Surrey Research Insight Open Access}}</ref>

== Legal environment ==

Joint authorship of articles, in which different users participate in correcting, editing, and compiling the finished product, can also cause editors to become [[tenants in common]] of the copyright, making it impossible to republish without permission of all co-owners, some of whose identities may be unknown due to pseudonymous or anonymous editing.<ref name=Legal/> Some copyright issues can be alleviated through the use of an [[open content]] license. Version 2 of the [[GNU Free Documentation License]] includes a specific provision for wiki relicensing, and [[Creative Commons]] licenses are also popular. When no license is specified, an implied license to read and add content to a wiki may be deemed to exist on the grounds of business necessity and the inherent nature of a wiki.

Wikis and their users can be held liable for certain activities that occur on the wiki. If a wiki owner displays indifference and forgoes controls (such as banning copyright infringers) that they could have exercised to stop copyright infringement, they may be deemed to have authorized infringement, especially if the wiki is primarily used to infringe copyrights or obtains a direct financial benefit, such as advertising revenue, from infringing activities.<ref name=Legal/> In the United States, wikis may benefit from [[Section 230|Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act]], which protects sites that engage in "[[Good Samaritan]]" policing of harmful material, with no requirement on the quality or quantity of such self-policing.<ref>{{cite web |title=Self-Regulation: How Wikipedia Leverages User-Generated Quality Control Under Section 230 |first1=Kathleen M. |last1=Walsh |first2=Sarah |last2=Oh |date=February 23, 2010 |url=https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=sarah_oh |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106040705/https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=sarah_oh |archive-date=January 6, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> It has also been argued that a wiki's enforcement of certain rules, such as anti-bias, verifiability, reliable sourcing, and no-original-research policies, could pose legal risks.<ref>{{Citation |last=Myers |first=Ken S. |title=Wikimmunity: Fitting the Communications Decency Act to Wikipedia |ssrn-access=free |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=916529 |journal=Harvard Journal of Law and Technology|publisher=The Berkman Center for Internet and Society|year=2008|ssrn=916529|volume=20|page=163 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240124221800/https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=256097088074025084113093077025016081116048056043070018004102098070073113118090069100062035127024024056008082071071025106120037047073003040121094126086064082109026009057126000010065095025066118082112066000081066084026080001028089015088099022125003&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE |archive-date= Jan 24, 2024 }}</ref> When [[defamation]] occurs on a wiki, theoretically, all users of the wiki can be held liable, because any of them had the ability to remove or amend the defamatory material from the "publication". It remains to be seen whether wikis will be regarded as more akin to an [[internet service provider]], which is generally not held liable due to its lack of control over publications' contents, than a publisher.<ref name=Legal/> It has been recommended that trademark owners monitor what information is presented about their trademarks on wikis, since courts may use such content as evidence pertaining to public perceptions, and they can edit entries to rectify misinformation.<ref>{{citation|journal=Managing Intellectual Property|volume=179|last=Jarvis|first=Joshua|title=Police your marks in a wiki world|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/manintpr179&div=31&id=&page=|pages=101–103|date=May 2008|issue=179|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044437/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals%2Fmanintpr179&div=31&id=&page=|archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref>

== Conferences ==

 

* Atlassian Summit, an annual conference for users of [[Atlassian]] software, including [[Confluence (software)|Confluence]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://summit.atlassian.com/ |title=Atlassian |publisher=Summit.atlassian.com |access-date=June 20, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613081406/https://summit.atlassian.com/ |archive-date=June 13, 2011 }}</ref>

* OpenSym (called WikiSym until 2014), an [[academic conference]] dedicated to research about wikis and open collaboration.

* SMWCon, a bi-annual conference for users and developers of [[Semantic MediaWiki]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/SMWCon |title=SMWCon |publisher=Semantic-mediawiki.org |access-date=June 20, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714183910/https://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/SMWCon |archive-date=July 14, 2011 }}</ref>

* TikiFest, a frequently held meeting for users and developers of [[Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tiki.org/TikiFest |title=TikiFest |publisher=Tiki.org |access-date=June 20, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630070137/https://tiki.org/TikiFest |archive-date=June 30, 2011 }}</ref>

* RegioWikiCamp (2009–2013), a semi-annual unconference on "regiowikis", or wikis on cities and other geographic areas.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.regiowiki.eu/Main_Page |title=Regiowiki Main Page |publisher=Wiki.regiowiki.eu |access-date=June 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813101324/https://wiki.regiowiki.eu/Main_Page |archive-date=August 13, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== See also ==

{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}

* {{anl|Comparison of wiki software}}

* {{anl|Content management system}}

* {{anl|CURIE}}

* [[Fork and pull model]] – A common alternate paradigm

* {{anl|Mass collaboration}}

* {{anl|Universal Edit Button}}

{{Div col end}}

== Notes ==

{{Reflist|group=note}}

== References ==

 

== Further reading ==

* {{citation |title=Wikipatterns |last=Mader |first=Stewart |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-470-22362-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/wikipatternsapra00made}}

* {{citation |title=Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything |last=Tapscott |first=Don |publisher=Portfolio Hardcover |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59184-193-7 |title-link=Mass Collaboration}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.artima.com/articles/exploring-with-wiki ''Exploring with Wiki''], an interview with Ward Cunningham

* Murphy, Paula (April 2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110709101821/https://www.ucop.edu/tltc/news/2006/04/wiki.html Topsy-turvy World of Wiki]. [[University of California]].

* [https://c2.com/doc/etymology.html Ward Cunningham's correspondence with etymologists]