Wiki

A wiki ( WIK-ee) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or limited to use within an organization for maintaining its internal knowledge base. The name derives from the first user-editable website called WikiWikiWeb – wiki being a Hawaiian word meaning 'quick' (pronounced [ˈviti]). Wikis are powered by wiki software, also known as wiki engines. Being a form of content management system, these differ from other web-based systems such as blog software or static site generators in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader. Wikis have little inherent structure, allowing one to emerge according to the needs of the users. Wiki engines usually allow content to be written using a lightweight markup language and sometimes edited with the help of a rich-text editor. There are dozens of different wiki engines in use, both standalone and part of other software, such as bug tracking systems. Some wiki engines are free and open-source, whereas others are proprietary. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access); for example, editing rights may permit changing, adding, or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Further rules may be imposed to organize content. In addition to hosting user-authored content, wikis allow those users to interact, hold discussions, and collaborate. There are hundreds of thousands of wikis in use, both public and private, including wikis functioning as knowledge management resources, note-taking tools, community websites, and intranets. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described wiki as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". The online encyclopedia project Wikipedia is the most popular wiki-based website, as well being one of the internet's most popular websites, having been ranked consistently as such since at least 2007. Wikipedia is not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of wikis, with each one pertaining to a specific language, making it the largest reference work of all time. The English-language Wikipedia has the largest collection of articles, standing at 7,185,990 as of May 2026.

Tables

· Characteristics › Editing › Example of syntax

"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had '''nothing''' yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take ''less''," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take ''more'' than nothing."

Wiki markup

Equivalent in HTML

"Take some more tea ," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less ," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."

Output shown to readers

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."

Wiki markup	Equivalent in HTML	Output shown to readers
"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had 'nothing ' yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more. You mean you can't take less ," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."	"Take some more tea ," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more. You mean you can't take less ," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."	"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more. You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."

References

The realization of the Hawaiian /w/ phoneme varies between [w] and [v], and the realization of the /k/ phoneme varies be
"Hawaiian Words; Hawaiian to English"
https://www.mauimapp.com/moolelo/hwnwdshw.htm
Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/wiki
Wikipedia, 3 million articles and counting
https://archive.org/details/wikipedia35milli0000hasa/page/11
A dictionary of the Hawaiian language to which is appended an English-Hawaiian vocabulary and a chronological table of remarkable events
https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofhawa00andrrich/
Easy Wiki Hosting, Scott Hanselman's blog, and Snagging Screens
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc700339.aspx
Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192819/wiki
Legal Issues for Wikis: The Challenge of User-generated and Peer-produced Knowledge, Content and Culture
https://web.archive.org/web/20121222125337/https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/archives/issues/2007/1/eLaw_legal%20issues%20for%20wikis.pdf
Cunningham, Ward
https://www.wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki
"Alexa Top Sites"
https://www.alexa.com/topsites
The Economist
https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia
The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web
https://books.google.com/books?id=JmvbAAAAMAAJ
"Wiki Design Principles"
https://web.archive.org/web/20020430181259/https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples
Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2038558.2038571
Ebersbach 2008, p. 178
"Frequently Asked Questions"
https://web.archive.org/web/20070810213702/https://wikinodes.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.fcg/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
Bäckström, A., & Wändin, L. (2005). Spatial Hypertext Editing Tools for Wiki Web Systems.
"UseModWiki/OldVersions"
http://www.usemod.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UseModWiki/OldVersions
Ebersbach 2008, p. 10.