Wiki: Pedia

<p>Wikis are websites built for collaborative authoring, allowing numerous contributors to add, edit, and structure content online. They emphasize simplicity and openness — pages can be created or modified without special technical skills, and most maintain an edit history so revisions can be reviewed or reverted. Key features - **Collaborative editing:** Numerous contributors can work on pages, sometimes simultaneously. - **Edit history:** All edits are stored with timestamps and the author’s name or IP. - **Interlinking:** Links between pages are simple to create, helping build connected content. - **Lightweight markup:** Formatting is usually handled by lightweight markup languages (e.g., WikiText or Markdown). - **Permission settings:** Wikis may allow public editing or restrict changes to registered or authorized users. - **Discussion pages:** Separate talk pages allow contributors to discuss edits and structure. Typical uses - Community-driven knowledge bases (for example, Wikipedia) - Project documentation and internal company knowledge repositories - Collaborative writing and shared note-taking - Educational and classroom projects Benefits - **Fast collaboration:** Many people can collaborate and iterate quickly on content. - **Openness:** Edit histories and talk pages reveal how content decisions were made. - **Expandable:** They scale organically as users add more pages and topics. Limitations - **Vandalism and false information:** Open editing may allow intentional or accidental inaccuracies. - **Inconsistent quality:** Content quality may vary widely between pages. - **Organizational issues:** Lack of structure or rules can lead to disorganization and conflicts. Example - **Wikipedia** — the largest example, maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation and contributed to by volunteers worldwide.</p>