Wiki Technology

Am a little late in the wiki game - its been around for a few years ... Quite an interesting collaborative software concept concept.

Wiki's origins date back to 1995 when Ward Cunnigham created this wiki Portland Pattern Repository

The basis summary is that
1. Anyone can post on any topic
2. Anyone can edit anyone's post
2. Its very easy to use
3. Its got a simplified editing structure which helps people with non technical background contribute.
4. Its got the power of openness in another sense - where someone else will correct mistakes / errata / partisan reports

The most interesting wiki's are Wikipedia , Wiki News , wiki wiki web . There is a top ten list here for engine rankings.

I have been following and helping out on updating a wiki mirror for the Tsunamihelp blog
What makes this so powerful is that - a disparate set of users were able to learn the wiki syntaxs and update independent of each other - now the various pages in the Tsunami wiki run with no real 'management' - people just know what to do (This learning process does take time to stabilize though) - And requests made by contributors are not 'imposed' but willingly followed.

The next powerful Idea which a lot of commentators are mentioning - Integration of Wiki and Blogging. Wonder when that will happen in a big way.