According to Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the very first wiki (WikiWikiWeb),
a wiki is "The simplest online database that could possibly work."
A wiki engine is a piece of software that enables the creation of a wiki site. A wiki site allows users to create and modify pages on the fly using their web browser, and a basic markup syntax.
The wiki platform allows collaboration and group communication quite unlike anything else.
The diagram to the right shows an example of how a wiki is edited by many users over a period of time, resulting in what you see presently.
Reference the following pages:
- http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki
- http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/WhatIsaWiki
- http://oddmuse.org/wiki/What_Is_A_Wiki
- http://webtrends.about.com/od/wiki/a/what_is_a_wiki.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_software
- http://communitywiki.org/en/HowWikiWorks
- http://communitywiki.org/en/WhyWikiWorks
- http://communitywiki.org/en/WhyWikiDoesntFailShortVersion