Nature of wikis
From Wikiversity
The nature of wikis is a new phenomenon arguably quite worthy of study. This is one of many learning resources at Wikiversity that will explore the "who, what, when, where, why and how" of wiki.
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[edit] Who's here?
On a wiki, everone seems to wonder "who's here?"
That's a very natural thing to think about. Nobody wants to join a "dead" project. You want to know that things are happening and that there are "living people" in there with you. The page you are now reading resides at Wikiversity, a dynamic learning community established within the Wikimedia family of projects, which also includes, but is not limited to the world-renowned Wikipedia project. Wikipedia uses wiki technology to build and maintain the world's largest community-built encyclopedia ever. All Wikimedia projects use a particular wiki engine called MediaWiki.
Everyone "here" is listed on a special page, Special:Listusers.
[edit] Groups
If there is a "top" (which there actually isn't) of the List of Wikiversity Participants some might think the list would look like this:
These "groups" are here simply to maintain a bit of policy and order through different roles. It's really no big deal at all.
[edit] Entities
Some "users" aren't exactly "people":
- User:MediaWiki default - This is the bot that was used when MediaWiki was first set up at http://en.wikiversity.org - It's dead now.
There are other bots:
- User:ArchiveBot
- User:DraiconeBot
- User:HagermanBot
- User:MichaelBillingtonBot
- User:Sebbot
- User:Wherebot
[edit] Self-organization
In a wiki environment, the user base often engages in a social process sometimes called self-organization. The tendency of humans to form groups based on shared interests and other commonality is sometimes phenomenal. The success of Wikipedia is one such example...
Consider the emergence of WikiProjects...
[edit] What's here?
Content development is general the first order of buisiness on a wiki website. Ward Cunningham originally invented the wiki to make a place for people to share ideas openly and easily through a revolutionary web-based application. The interests of the first wave of participants revolved mostly around collaborative software development. The theoretical basis was to simultaneously develop open content within a common context.
..constructing...
[edit] Context
A wiki website is hosted on a named domain that identifies it primary context...
[edit] Content
...more Content development... edit me!...
[edit] See also
[edit] External resources
- Wiki.org - perhaps the "original" by hosts, Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham.
- Wiki Science - this article's "sister" at Wikibooks
- ...it's a wiki - add something, already!...
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