Wiki: Pedia

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. Key features - **Collaborative editing:** Multiple people can edit the same pages, occasionally concurrently. - **Edit history:** Each change is logged with a time and the editor’s name or IP. - **Interlinking:** Creating links among pages is straightforward, which helps interconnect content. - **Lightweight markup:** Pages are typically formatted with lightweight markup like WikiText or Markdown. - **Permission settings:** Some wikis are open to anyone; others limit edits to registered users or specific groups. - **Discussion pages:** Talk or discussion pages let contributors debate edits and organization. Frequent uses - Community knowledge bases such as Wikipedia - Internal documentation and company knowledge bases - Collaborative writing and shared note-taking - Classroom and educational projects Pros - **Fast collaboration:** Many people can collaborate and iterate quickly on content. - **Openness:** Transparency through revision histories and discussions. - **Expandable:** They scale organically as users add more pages and topics. Cons - **Vandalism and false information:** Open editing may allow intentional or accidental inaccuracies. - **Inconsistent quality:** Content quality may vary widely between pages. - **Organizational issues:** Poor coordination or governance can cause content fragmentation and disputes. Illustration - **Wikipedia** — the largest example, maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation and contributed to by volunteers worldwide.