Tech Talk: What's in your Wiki?

Wikis are becoming so popular these days that even third graders (see recent SLJ article) are using them to collaborate and share ideas. So what's a Wiki you ask? According to Wikipedia (the mother of all wiki's -- its not only a collaborative encylopedia that anyone can add content to, but it's built using a wiki itself) a Wiki is...

"is a group of Web pages that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also permits others (often completely unrestricted) to edit the content. The term wiki also refers to the collaborative software (wiki engine) used to create such a website (see wiki software)."

Within the past 2 years, the use of these quick and easy collaborative tools has blossomed along with blogging as more wysiwyg editors have been created to replace hard coding. In fact, there are so many websites out there built upon wiki software that you may not even realize that what you're looking at.

Interested in finding out more about wikis or setting one up for yourself? There are several out there that you can try. Some require you to download and install software, but many others simply allow you to setup a user name and login and use thier site.

Here's just two free remote options you could try: pbwiki.com or jotspot.com

If you've dabbled with Wiki's already or have created one of your own, let me know. I'd love to tap you as a staff resource.

PS: Why Wiki? The name's borrowed from the native Hawaiian word "Wiki" which means "quick" or "fast."

PPS: First staff member to post the meaning of "wysiwyg" and define it gets a Net Head magnet from me. :)