A wiki is a web site that is developed collaboratively by a
group of users which allows any user to add and edit its content. A user can create
or edit the actual site contents without needing any special technical
knowledge or tools. A wiki is continuously ‘under revision’ due to the process
of constant updating of information.
Everyone with Internet access is familiar with a wiki, the most famous
example is Wikipedia. While storing copious amounts of information it allows
users to update, remove and edit the information that is stored on this
website. This is the main reason Wikipedia is considered a controversial
website for use in academic pieces of work. The website is constantly being updated by users and, as a result, the accuracy of the information is always called into question.
In university, as part of a group assignment, we used a wiki to research education and technology in different parts of the world from the past to the present. By researching individual topics and adding them to our
class wiki page we were able to gain a lot of information and a better
understanding of each area of technology and education in a short period of
time.
This video explains perfectly how a wiki can be used between
groups of friends planning to go on a camping trip. It highlights how
information can be updated and changed fast.
After using a web 2 application, such
as wiki, I have complied a list of pros and cons that I faced when using the
class wiki. For example the advantages include:
- Interactive: having the ability to post content
in the wiki that is related to the subject while users being in a variety of
different places can be seen as a pro. A community of users just like our class
can create a wiki to communicate and share information with people from all
over the world.
- It is not based upon one user providing
information; everyone has the equality to post content in a wiki.
- Content is being continuously updated; therefore
there is a constant flow of information that is being provided.
However while using a wiki I also noticed a variety of
disadvantages that were highlighted. These include:
- Freedom to update content already published:
users in a wiki can edit information that has previously been provided which
can cause question of reliability. Wikipedia is a great example for this as
highlighted above as anyone can edit information and provide untrue and false
facts. Furthermore when designing the wiki I noticed that changes I made to the
class wiki could be updated by someone else to suit the preferred style such as
removing a picture I put in the wiki and changing it to something they
preferred.
- Organisations nowadays block all forms of social
media and a wiki or especially web 2 applications fits under the umbrella of a
social media site.
- The internet today is filled with frauds and
hackers, a wiki can attract plenty of these due to the freedom to comments and
views and especially having the ability to update any information that has been
posted on a wiki.
