A wiki is a collaborative platform or web site that permits customers to create, edit, and set up content material collectively. The time period wiki comes from the Hawaiian phrase wiki-wiki, which implies quick or fast. This title was chosen to emphasise the benefit and velocity with which data will be shared and up to date on these platforms.
The idea was coined by Ward Cunningham in 1995 when he created the primary wiki software program, WikiWikiWeb, to facilitate the change of concepts amongst programmers. The concept was to create an area the place anybody may edit content material, thus simplifying documenting and sharing data.
Wikis have developed considerably since their inception. Initially, they had been primarily used inside tech communities for documentation and data sharing. Nonetheless, their use has expanded throughout numerous sectors and functions, together with schooling, enterprise, and hobbies. The performance of wikis has additionally grown, incorporating options like model management, entry rights administration, and multimedia help.
Wikis stay in style resulting from their collaborative nature, ease of use, and skill to consolidate data in a centralized location. They’re significantly valued for undertaking administration, inside documentation inside organizations, instructional functions, and as community-run data bases, with Wikipedia being essentially the most well-known instance.
Enterprise Use of Wikis
Companies may implement a wiki or contribute to at least one for a number of causes:
- Data Administration: Wikis are a superb device for inside documentation, permitting workers to simply entry and replace firm insurance policies, procedures, and data.
- Collaboration: They facilitate collaboration amongst staff members throughout completely different places and time zones.
- Group Engagement: Contributing to exterior wikis related to their business may help companies set up authority, share experience, and interact with potential prospects and companions.
- Buyer Assist: Making a publicly accessible wiki can function a dynamic FAQ or assist heart, decreasing help prices and enhancing buyer satisfaction.
Wikis supply a novel mixture of ease of use, collaboration, and data sharing that continues to be related within the digital age. For companies, they symbolize a strategic device for inside documentation, buyer engagement, and establishing thought management inside their business.
Markup Language Use in Key Wiki Platforms
Utilizing markup languages in wikis is crucial for creating, formatting, and managing content material. Whereas every wiki platform might make use of its distinctive markup language, the underlying purpose is to make content material creation accessible to customers with out in depth data of HTML or CSS. Whereas studying the particular markup language of a wiki platform requires some preliminary effort, it permits contributors to create, edit, and collaborate on content material effectively.
Right here’s how some in style wiki software program makes use of markup languages, together with temporary examples of their markup and the way it interprets into HTML.
Confluence
Atlassian Confluence is a well-liked business wiki companies use for inside documentation and collaboration.
- Markup Instance: In older variations of Confluence that supported Wiki Markup, to insert a heading, you may use
h1. Heading. - HTML Rendering: This interprets to
<h1>Heading</h1>in HTML, displaying a top-level heading on the web page. In newer variations, Confluence makes use of a WYSIWYG editor, however macros and restricted markup can nonetheless be used for superior formatting.
MediaWiki
The software program behind Wikipedia, MediaWiki is broadly used for creating large-scale, public wikis.
- Markup Instance: To create a daring textual content, you’d use
'''daring textual content'''. - HTML Rendering: This converts to
<b>daring textual content</b>in HTML, displaying the textual content in daring on the webpage.
Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware
Tiki is an all-in-one bundle with wiki performance in addition to CMS and groupware capabilities, appropriate for a variety of enterprise and private makes use of.
- Markup Instance: To format textual content as italic, you’d use
__italic text__. - HTML Rendering: That is rendered as
<i>italic textual content</i>in HTML, displaying the textual content in italic on the location.
Wikidot
Wikidot provides flexibility for each non-public and public wikis, catering to companies and educators.
- Markup Instance: To create a hyperlink to an exterior website, you employ
[[[http://example.com | example]]]. - HTML Rendering: This markup converts to
<a href="http://instance.com">instance</a>in HTML, making a hyperlink to the required URL with the textual content “instance”.
The markup examples supplied above illustrate the simplicity with which customers can format and handle content material on wiki platforms. Although every platform’s markup language has its syntax and peculiarities, all of them summary the complexity of HTML and CSS, making internet content material creation extra accessible to non-technical customers.
The transition from markup to HTML is seamless inside these platforms, with the software program robotically changing user-entered markup into the corresponding HTML and CSS that browsers interpret to show internet pages. This course of permits wikis to take care of a constant look throughout completely different pages and articles, guaranteeing that content material is accessible and readable for all customers.
