The Beginning
The original wiki community
[1], created by Ward Cunningham. The phrase "wiki wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian, and was chosen to denote this site.
The Concept
WordsSmashedTogether
Nearly everyone can edit nearly every page. Usually, everyone can edit every page. Even as far as editing -- or deleting -- text that others have written.
Pages have titles with
WordsSmashedTogether. Typing a set of
WordsSmashedTogether automatically creates a link to another page. If that page doesn't exist, a QuestionMark
? link appears (
e.g., NonExistentPage
?) to create the page.
Usually there are other simple rules for italicizing text, displaying normal web page links, etc. And most wikis have a
RecentChanges page that tracks pages that have been edited recently.
Does it work?
What's to prevent someone from deleting anything I write? Or from spamming a wiki to death? Amazingly, it works very well -- precisely because the community works together to keep itself healthy, rather than relying solely on technology to do so. This is part of the secret of
WhyWikiWorks.
Wiki
This term has come to denote any on-line community in the style of the original Wiki. A wiki generally consists of a set of documents editable by the entire community. Many clones and variations of this concept have been created, of which WikkiTikkiTavi
? is one. See Wiki:WikiClones
? for a partial list.
Etymology of WikkiTikkiTavi?
The name was chosen in fun . . . It was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's short story "Rikki Tikki Tavi" about a mongoose...
