Wiki

From The WESTbase Wiki, The Online Digital Marketing Resource.

The ability to think critically and act on that thinking is the key to success. It's no surprise that businesses would look to the internet for product and service information, but what if that data could only be accessed by those who had the proper authorization? Certainly not any longer! In 1994, Ward Cunningham coined the term “wikis” (short for “WikiWikiWeb”) to describe a new kind of website. “Wiki”¹⁾ is the Hawaiian word for “quick”.

These online communities allow for the collaborative editing of content housed in a large-scale database, providing easy access to the material for readers not only via the company itself, but also from anywhere in the world (but also through third parties like freelancers). There is a wealth of information waiting for you right here, whether you're researching advertising collateral, social media tactics, or content creation.

Try to picture a world where data isn't systematically recorded and stored; it's enough to make your head spin! However, this is exactly what the “wiki engine” does, as it generates structure on the fly. Wikis allow users to contribute their own thoughts in an unstructured way by adding paragraphs wherever they please, in contrast to blog software such as WordPress or Blogger, which has pre-made templates and styles for you to create content (or even none at all). The “wiki engine” that drives wikis is an open-source, publicly available program. In contrast to other website software like blogging platforms or content management systems (CMS), a wiki allows any user with access to the site to edit, add, or delete content. Considering how they function, this lack of structure makes sense.

• Related wiki links for this topic will appear here.

• Wikipedia – Free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Multilingual portal (contains links to all language editions).