In case you are not too familiar with it, Wiki is a internet web site that can be constructed by lots of authors collectively. That is its most basic definition. The word “wiki” comes from Hawaiian “speedy.” Wikipedia is the world’s very best known wiki but, as essential as it is, it barely scratches the surface of the wiki applications on and off the Online.
Let’s clear up a semantic point: a “wiki” refers both to a internet web page and the application that tends to make the web web page doable. And the cause I say “on and off the Online” since there are many higher-tech businesses about the globe right now who are generating their personal wiki sites hosted on their personal servers, which can or can not be reached by means of the Web. Some wikis are for the exclusive use of membership groups.
The power of a wiki is the way it enables various authors pool their knowledge and experiences and build up a know-how base considerably quicker than a single author could ever do it. Just appear at how Wikipedia has replaced lots of other standard paper-primarily based encyclopedias, specifically for the under-30 generation.
The cause why you should pay consideration to wikis and discover much more about them is since higher-tech businesses have began to shift their documentation load to wikis where not only technical writers but engineers, field technicians, high-quality control engineers, managers, and even consumers and finish-customers can also participate in information creation. The on-line enable software program creator Quadralay is a single such company that opened up its know-how base to its finish-customers via a corporate wiki. In such a new environment, technical communicators shoulder the editing and facilitation roles as nicely.
Be the very first one in your business to find out as a great deal as you can about wikis. How many kinds are there? How must Biography pick the suitable wiki for the right job? How to set it up? How to configure it? How to write for a wiki? Create your personal writing guidelines and be in front of this vital technological wave. The future belongs to the “fast” and the “wiki.”