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The What, Why, and How
of Wikis
Prof. Burks Oakley II
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Director, University of Illinois Online
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois
January 2006
What is a Wiki?
Essentially a dynamic, collectively
authored set of web pages.
 Invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham
to facilitate online collaboration about
programming and design best practices.
 Evolved by the early 2000’s into a way
to facilitate all kinds of online
collaboration.
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Wiki – Wikipedia Definition
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A wiki (according to Ward Cunningham) is a
type of website that allows users to add and
edit content and is especially suited for
constructive collaborative authoring.
 In essence, a wiki is a simplification of the
process of creating HTML pages combined
with a system that records each individual
change that occurs over time, so that at any
time, a page can be reverted to any of its
previous states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
http://burkso2.wikispaces.com/PAC442B
How the Wiki Got Its Name
Wiki is the Hawaiian word meaning
“quick”, “fast”, or “to hasten”.
 Wiki-Wiki is the name of the bus line in
the Honolulu International Airport.

Ward Cunningham
ca. 2004
How the Wiki Got Its Name
How the Wiki Got Its Name
“Wiki-wiki to the beach.” - Elvis
Presley (as Chad Gates) in the
movie Blue Hawaii (1961). The
line was said with a snap of the
fingers.
More about Wikis

Wiki (according to UIC Prof. Steve
Jones)
– Web-based
– Interactive
– Kollaborative (collaborative)
– Iterative

Wiki is sometimes interpreted as the
backronym for “What I Know Is”, which
describes the knowledge contribution,
storage and exchange function.
What Can You Do With a Wiki?
Easily create and edit web pages,
including styled text, hyperlinks,
pictures, audio, video, etc.
 Easy for a group to collaborate on
creating online documents

Obstacles to Adoption
Wikis are usually open to anyone, and
“if anyone can edit my text, anyone can
ruin my text” (not so, since changes are
logged, authors are notified, pages are
easily restored – no challenge to
hackers).
 Authority is unclear – who “owns” a
collaborative document?
 Wiki openness is at odds with typical
work habits

Wikipedia

Wikipedia – “A multilingual, Webbased, free-content encyclopedia
written collaboratively by volunteers
…(with) editions in over 180 languages.
According to Hitwise, an online
measurement company, Wikipedia is
the most popular reference site on the
Internet.”
http://www.wikipedia.org/
Collaborative Authoring
Esquire article about Wikipedia
 Written collaboratively using Wikipedia
 The article was edited 224 times in the
first 24 hours after it was first posted,
and another 149 times in the next 24
hours.
 The final draft, which was locked on
Sept. 23 to protect it from further edits,
reflects the efforts of the many users
who worked on it.

Jon Udell Screencast
Heavy Metal Umlaut in Wikipedia (ö, ü)
 “The 8.5-minute screencast turns the
change history of this Wiki page into a
movie, scrolls forward and backward
along the timeline of the document, and
follows the development of several
motifs.”

http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/01/22.html
http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/umlaut.html
Wikipedia vs. Britannica

AP article on CNN website
Things You Can Do With RSS
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News syndication
Search for information via RSS
Aggregate your feeds
Display news on your website
Display news on your mobile device
Collect all your email in RSS
Get RSS content through your email
Track Fedex packages
discount air fares
Bargains at Ebay
Get stock updates
Get the weather reports
What people are saying about you, your
company, your products
Music, radio shows, TV clips
Stay updated on someone's schedule
Get cinema schedule updates
Read your favourite comics
What other people are surfing
Automatically backup your weblog posts
Get software updates
Get the latest bittorrent files and p***
Shopping deals at Amazon.com and
others
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What your friends and family would like
for Christmas
Be notified of traffic conditions
Be notified of updates in police and fire
department logs
Web metrics
Virus and security alerts
Events and happenings in your city
Gaming statistics
Search for jobs
Easing government bureaucracy
Create your own news aggregator page
Keep track of your notes
Find recent photos taken near you
Build maps
Make Tag Clouds
All those sites without RSS
Become a comment blogger
Patent Searching
Keep your acquaintances updated with
your latest contact details
Ditch Your Girlfriend
Print Your Feeds
http://www.timyang.com/wiki/doku.php?id=lists:thingsyoucandowithrss
More Uses for a Wiki
Use a wiki for your family’s holiday lists
 “Instead of sending around 83,259,325
emails to see what your family wants for
Christmas, use a wiki instead. Everyone
can put what they want and see what
other people want. Set one up at
http://www.pbwiki.com (takes 10
seconds) and even Grandma will be
able to use it. We promise.”
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http://burkso2.pbwiki.com/
More Uses for a Wiki
100 things to do before you die
 The world’s largest “How-To” manual –
wikiHow
 Things to do in Seattle
 World-wide travel guide – wikitravel.org
 Everything you want to know about
VoIP
 All about the flu – Flu Wiki

Business/Customers
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Apple iPod Nano
Business/Productivity
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Michelin China
Wikis – Great Resource
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Seven Things You Should Know About
… Wikis – from EDUCAUSE
– What is it?
– Who is doing it?
– How does it work?
– Why is it significant?
– What are the downsides?
– Where is it going?
– What are the implications for teaching and
learning?
Wiki Adoption in Higher
Education
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Why use wikis in higher education?
– Participatory
– Progressive knowledge building
– Collaborative
– Encourages student-faculty interaction
– No hierarchy
– Web-based – anytime, any place access
– Software is incredibly easy to use
– Follow the evolution of thoughts and ideas.
Higher Education
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Romantic Audience Project at Bowdoin
College – Chronicle article
Higher Education
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Romantic Audience Project
Institutional Wikis
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http://www.futureofpr.com/higheredwikis
MIT IST – Use of a Wiki
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Track presentations and publications
UMBC – Biology Group Wiki
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Group wiki assignment
Examples of Wiki Usage
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Example uses in higher education
The Future of Wikis
Working in teams is increasingly
common in many fields
 Knowledge management is increasingly
useful
 Education benefits from collaboration
and interaction
 Wiki tools are being planned for word
processors, and even for operating
systems
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Free Hosting of Wikis
wikihost.org
 free-wiki-hosting.com
 wikicities.com
 educational.blogs.com
 duckcomputing.com
 pbwiki.com
 wikispaces.com
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http://ieee-edsoc.wikispaces.com/
http://ieee-edsoc.wikispaces.com/
An (Optional) Assignment
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Create your own wiki
– Sign-up for a free account at
http://www.wikispaces.com/
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Edit the IEEE EdSoc demo wiki
– http://ieee-edsoc.wikispaces.com/
– Add a new page in the wiki
– Tell us about yourself
– Add comments or questions about the
IEEE Distinguished Lecture Series
The What, Why, and How
of Wikis
Submit questions to Rob Reilly: [email protected]
Burks Oakley II
web: http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/
e-mail: [email protected]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution – NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 License.