Search:

powered by Lucene

wiki

Wikis are a great way to collaborate and share information in a virtual team.

A Wiki is a piece of software that runs on a server that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Via a simple, easy to learn text syntax, users can create new web pages, add content and change the structure of the contributions. Think of a Wiki as a website that can be created and maintained by anyone.

The ease of update of a Wiki makes it a powerful tool and can result in adding information becoming addictive. It has many benefits over formal documents, including:

• Information is easily and centrally accessible.
• Everyone is capable, with the minimum of training, to actively contribute to the Wiki content.
• The history of updates to content are visible online.
• The informality of a Wiki encourages users to contribute small nuggets of information that may otherwise get lost.
• Wiki content can be later refactored into a formal document if required.

How a Wiki Works

New pages in a Wiki are created very simply. In fact by just creating a link to a new page will create the page when the link is followed. For the content of a page a very simple text markup language is used. The syntax of the markup can vary between different Wiki implementations but all are simple.

Figure 1 shows an example of the text that a user would use to create the content of a simple Wiki page containing a numbered list. By saving the content to the Wiki a new page is created along the lines of Figure 2.

Figure 1. Sample Wiki markup.

Figure 2. Sample Wiki output.

Where do I get a Wiki

There are a number of open source and commercial Wikis available. Some offerings have a hosted and supported option available and you can be up and running within minutes.

For a virtual team you are more likely to want a Wiki securely hosted within your own environment so that the team has complete control over access and security. Additionally, in most cases you will not want your virtual team Wiki accessible from the public Internet.

Wiki and an RSS feed

By members of a virtual team actively using a Wiki, information is shared between the team members, it is stored in a central and controlled way and via the use of an RSS feed, each member of the team is actively informed of changes on the Wiki.