A wiki is a website designed for collaborative editing, letting many people create, update, and organize content directly in a web browser.
They emphasize simplicity and openness — pages can be created or modified without special technical skills, and most maintain an edit history so revisions can be reviewed or reverted.
Common features
- **Collaborative editing:** Numerous contributors can work on pages, sometimes simultaneously.
- **Edit history:** All edits are stored with timestamps and the author’s name or IP.
- **Interlinking:** Links between pages are simple to create, helping build connected content.
- **Lightweight markup:** Simple markup languages (such as WikiText or Markdown) are used to format pages.
- **Permission settings:** Access controls vary — from fully open editing to permissions for certain users or groups.
- **Discussion pages:** Dedicated discussion pages enable contributors to coordinate and discuss content.
Frequent uses
- Community knowledge bases such as Wikipedia
- Project docs and corporate knowledge repositories
- Cooperative writing and shared notes
- Classroom and educational projects
Benefits
- **Fast collaboration:** Many people can collaborate and iterate quickly on content.
- **Openness:** Visibility into edits and discussions shows how decisions were reached.
- **Expandable:** Wikis expand easily as contributors add and organize content.
Limitations
- **Vandalism and false information:** Open contribution can result in deliberate or accidental misinformation.
- **Inconsistent quality:** Articles can differ greatly in depth, tone, and reliability.
- **Organizational issues:** Poor coordination or governance can cause content fragmentation and disputes.
Illustration
- **Wikipedia** — a well-known wiki operated by the Wikimedia Foundation and written by volunteers around the globe.
