Wikis



The wiki has been around for a long time—Ward Cunningham started developing the original WikiWikiWeb in 1994—but it’s now become mainstream and, as ’social software’, very much part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

One of the downsides of wikis, and possibly the main disincentive for using them, has been the arcane mark-up syntax that editors have had to learn … and the syntax may vary from one wiki software to another. Built-in WYSIWYG editors are now making many wikis more accessible to non-techie people.

Selected hosted wikis

Only wikis with a free hosting option are listed here.

  • PBwiki
    This is one of my favourites. The free version gives you 10MB of space for files and attachments—maybe not an enormous allowance these days but, given that large media such as video clips can be hosted elsewhere, probably sufficient for most people.
    » http://www.pbwiki.com
  • WetPaint
    With almost as many features at PBwiki—OpenID integration, configurable page ordering, and especially the WYSIWYG editor—this is an alternative good solution for a hosted wiki.
    » http://www.wetpaint.com
  • StikiPad
    “StikiPad is a hosted wiki solution (What’s a Wiki?) that gives you an easy way to organize your information and share information with others. We run completely in your browser with no downloads and easy administration, letting you take your StikiPad wherever you have access to the Internet.” I opened an account back in March 2006 at a time when it was pretty cutting edge. It’s since been overtaken by others in terms of features and ease of use, not least because of it’s unfriendly editor. Still worth a look, though.
    » http://www.stikipad.com
  • WikiSpaces
    Public wikis are free, have a WYSIWYG editor, themes and colour control, easy image and file upload, custom logos, and offer a massive 2GB of space, but carry advertising; private and ad-free wikis start at $9 (around £4.50) per month.
    » http://www.wikispaces.com
  • ClearWiki
    Lots of features (incl. tagging and WYSIWYG editing of content).
    » http://clearwiki.com
  • @wiki
    Based on MediaWiki. Three edit modes: wiki, HTML, and plain text. Free, with full text search, editable css, rss support, and no storage limit.
    » http://atwiki.com

Installable wikis

References

Brian Satterfield, ‘Exploring the World of Wikis: Collaborative Web sites organize information, encourage participation‘, TechSoup, 5th June 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software