What-the-wiki-is-a-wiki?
There is no urge so great as for one man to edit another man's work - Mark Twain
A
wiki is ... a website ... and a database ... and a weblog ... a
discussion forum ... a project management tool ... an intranet built by
non-technical people ... an electronic document management system ...
an organisational model ... an efficient way of working collaboratively ...
It is called a "wiki" because it moves things along more quickly when people are working together on any project involving some sort of documentation.
"The name comes from the Hawaiian term wiki wiki, meaning "quick" or "super-fast".
More about wikis: Google define:wiki - definitions of wiki on the web
What is Wiki?
(Encyclopaedia of Educational Technology, San Diego University)
As Wiki creator Ward Cuningham puts it, Wiki is “The simplest online database that could possibly work.”
Wiki
is software that allows anyone to edit or create a web page with a
browser; the web pages created with Wiki software are also referred to
as Wikis.
Generally, Wikis provide a means for open, worldwide
collaboration on all kinds of topics. While open editing may sound
chaotic, most users observe Wiki etiquette, and damage control measures
exist to combat the actions of those that abuse the open editing
capabiliy of a Wiki web page.
New Wiki users are encouraged to
practice writing Wiki pages in a "sandbox", which has a function
analogous to the "preview" function in many other software programs;
the user can see what their work might look like without having to save
changes to an original document (Cunningham, 2004).
Wiki History
WIKI CRASHES INTO INTERNET IN 1995
It
is the year 1995. Ward Cunningham has developed an idea and posted it
to the Portland Pattern Repository (PPR). The PPR is an online
publication that is comparable to Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park – one of
the first online communities of shared ideas for software development.
Cunningham had chosen the Hawaiian word “Wiki-Wiki”, which means
“quick”, for his server software idea. Since then, the Wiki concept
continues to evolve as different Wiki sublanguages with different
capabilities are developed (Cunningham, 2004).
Personal comments:
Wikis
are at the "cutting edge" of information technology, knowledge
management and team collaboration. They are easy for "non-technical"
people to set up and use and are eminently adaptable for a wide range
of group projects. Initially developed and adopted by small
"communities of interest", they are now being used by global
corporations.
I have tried out a several project management
applications over the last 18 months, including Microsoft Sharepoint
Team Services. All of them were unecessarily complex, with a steep and
painfully boring learning curve before they would be any use. Most were
clumsy to set up, awkward to use and very expensive.
This is a LOT simpler and should be a doddle for anyone used to programming dynamic display screen comm aids 
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