The Wonderful World of the Wiki
Posted by sarahsmart on March 31, 2009
Over the past couple of months I have been learning about various online tools that will assist me in my future career. One of these tools, which is my favourite and has proved to be the most beneficial, is the wiki. A wiki is a way to share files between users. You can password protect your account so that only the people who have the password have access to your wiki. As I’ve mentioned before, I am a student in college and I do a lot of group work. Before I was introduced to the wiki, my group members and I were constantly e-mailing our work back and forth to each other causing my inbox to always be full and clogging up my folders. Once we learned about using wikis we were able to create our own account and post our work there. We can view, comment on, and edit each other’s work once it is posted. Now, instead of a constant barrage of emails, I am emailed once daily if our group wiki has been changed.
Pbwiki is a website that allows you to create a wiki for your company or group for free. Using the wiki is an easy process that even I was able to master. You are able to make folders and separate pages for as many categories as you want, and can upload, edit, or delete files. The wiki’s recent history is listed on the first page once you sign in, so you can see what the other members of your wiki have done. If you do have difficulty understanding how to work the wiki, here is a video that explains it all in plain English.
Anyone who uses the internet is aware of Wikipedia. It is a “free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit” and is probably the most well-known instance of the use of a wiki.
The wiki has completely changed the way I do group work and I would highly recommend checking it out if you find yourself bogged down with emails when working with others. Comment and let me know if you found using a wiki helpful.
