Wiki: Pedia

<p>A wiki is a website designed for collaborative editing, letting many people create, update, and organize content directly in a web browser.

Simplicity and openness are central to wikis: anyone can often add or change pages without technical knowledge, and edits are usually logged for review or rollback.

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:** Dedicated discussion pages enable contributors to coordinate and discuss content.

Frequent uses
- Community knowledge bases such as Wikipedia
- Project docs and corporate knowledge repositories
- Collaborative writing and shared note-taking
- Classroom and educational projects

Advantages
- **Fast collaboration:** Multiple people can add and refine content quickly.
- **Openness:** Visibility into edits and discussions shows how decisions were reached.
- **Expandable:** They scale organically as users add more pages and topics.

Limitations
- **Vandalism and false information:** Public editing can lead to vandalism or incorrect information.
- **Inconsistent quality:** Articles can differ greatly in depth, tone, and reliability.
- **Organizational issues:** Without clear governance, content may become fragmented or disputed.

Illustration
- **Wikipedia** — a well-known wiki operated by the Wikimedia Foundation and written by volunteers around the globe.</p>