What is wiki? Explain the characteristics of wiki. Explain the uses of wiki for a university.
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross links between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.Like many simple concepts, “open editing” has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in .a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
Characteristics of Wiki
- Wikis can be edited by multiple approved people.
- All edits are tracked in the page’s history.
- Linking between pages on a wiki is very simple.
- Pages are automatically placed in a list of all pages.
- A recent changes page shows all edits made to the wiki.
- Any bad edits can be easily reverted
- Note taking.
- Knowledge management.
- Community Websites.
- Intranets.
Use your judgment. Remember that all sources have to be evaluated.
- Wikipedia is not a replacement for a reading assignment by your professor.
- If a book is in your university library or published by a reputable university press, or if an article is in a standard academic journal, that means that several professors at some point have considered the information and considered it worthy to publish.
- Sourcing a website is a game of chance. Unless you know that the site is run by a respected institution, or if you have verified the information from other (reliable) sources, it is probably a bad idea to cite it.
- While reading Wikipedia articles for research, remember to consider the information carefully, and never treat what is on Wikipedia as surefire truth.
Do your research properly and wisely. Remember that any encyclopedia is a starting point for research, not an ending point.
An encyclopedia is great for getting a general understanding of a subject before you dive into it, but then you do have to dive into your subject; using books and articles and other appropriate sources will provide better. research. Research from these sources will be more detailed, more precise, more carefully reasoned, and more broadly peer reviewed than the summary you found in an encyclopedia. These will be the sources you cite in your paper. There is no need to cite Wikipedia in this case.
An encyclopedia is great for checking general knowledge that you have forgotten, like the starting date of the First World War or the boiling point of mercury. Citation is not needed for fact checking general knowledge.
Some details, such as the population of Canada, can be found on Wikipedia, but it is best to verify the information using an authoritative source, such as the CIA World Factbook.
