Chapter 9

Not much has caught my eye in the way of news about the ways that people are using the internet to communicate.

I am participating in a class wiki, where my part within my group is to talk about the same type of things. The evolution of writing on/for the internet. I just realized that I haven't talked about wikis yet.. so the subject of this post has been decided - the Wiki.

The definition of a wiki, as posted by the most popular wiki in the world - Wikipedia, is: software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link pages together. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

What this boils down to is, a web of information posted and edited and updated by users. Some wikis are specialized, such as The Penn State Wiki, and others are general like Wikipedia (which is more of an online, open source, encyclopedia).

There are pros and cons to wikis, the major pro is that information can be constantly updated and edited to make sure it is valid. Of course, there is some authentication process (some require a username/password combo to be able to update, others have admins fact check information before it officially gets posted). This also leads to the biggest con, wrong information getting out before someone fact checks it, or someone else comes along to correct it.

Overall, I believe wikis can be a good source of information. As with anything you read on the internet, it is always good to double check sources for validity.