WhatIsAWiki

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://www.oddmuse.org/cgi-bin/oddmuse/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/HowWikiWorks

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Aaron's Take

My take on "what is a wiki?" is pretty simple: A wiki is a community. It's a place where users the world over can collaborate and put their thoughts together all in one place. It's a platform that allows creating and peer reviewing content, seamlessly integrated.

A better description would be a wiki is the simplest collaborative content management system that could possibly work. (citation)