Wiki: Pedia

<p>Wikis are websites built for collaborative authoring, allowing numerous contributors to add, edit, and structure content online.

They emphasize simplicity and openness — pages can be created or modified without special technical skills, and most maintain an edit history so revisions can be reviewed or reverted.

Common features
- **Collaborative editing:** Numerous contributors can work on pages, sometimes simultaneously.
- **Edit history:** Every modification is recorded with a timestamp and the editor’s identity or IP address.
- **Interlinking:** It’s easy to create links between pages, forming an interconnected knowledge base.
- **Lightweight markup:** Formatting is usually handled by lightweight markup languages (e.g., WikiText or Markdown).
- **Permission settings:** Access controls vary — from fully open editing to permissions for certain users or groups.
- **Discussion pages:** Talk or discussion pages let contributors debate edits and organization.

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

Pros
- **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.

Drawbacks
- **Vandalism and false information:** Open contribution can result in deliberate or accidental misinformation.
- **Inconsistent quality:** Content quality may vary widely between pages.
- **Organizational issues:** Lack of structure or rules can lead to disorganization and conflicts.

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