|
|
|
Wikis | View information about Wikis within our Technology Website Reviews section by reviewing this area of our website. We provide a wealth of information online to help our visitors become better informed about Computer Buzz. |
|
Wikis
|
|
|
|
The meteoric rise of the Internet since 1990 has ushered in a whole new vocabulary of strange sounding words. One of those strange words is "wiki," and it has been compounded into any number of other new words with which we would all do well to become familiar. The word "wiki" is a shorter form of "wiki wiki," a Hawaiian word meaning quick or fast. A wiki is a collaborative website which can be quickly and directly edited by anyone with access to it.
The very first web site to be called a wiki was WikiWikiWeb. A fellow by the name of Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in 1994, and installed it on Internet domain c2.com the following year. Cunningham remembered a Honolulu Airport employee telling him to take the so-called "Wiki Wiki" shuttle bus line that runs between the airport's terminals. According to Cunningham, "I chose 'wiki wiki' as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web."
Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Let's take a look at it and its associated web sites.
Official Website: www.Wikipedia.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wikipedia | website review
|
|
Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. It is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. With rare exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the Edit This Page link.
The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites in the world. It is published in a couple of dozen languages, each of which has its own subset of entry topics. English, with more than two million articles (and counting) is by far the largest subset.
In every article, links will guide the user to associated articles, often with additional information. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references, or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. One need not fear accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.
Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism.
Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed. Wikipedia is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.
Official Website: www.Wikipedia.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wiktionary | website review
|
|
Wiktionary (a portmanteau of "wiki" and "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. Unlike standard dictionaries, it is written collaboratively by volunteers using wiki software, allowing articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the web site.
Like its sister project Wikipedia, Wiktionary is run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Because Wiktionary is not limited by print space considerations, most of Wiktionary's language editions provide definitions and translations of words from many languages, and some editions offer additional information typically found in thesauri and lexicons. Additionally, the English Wiktionary now includes Wikisaurus, a category that serves as a thesaurus, including lists of slang words.
Official Website: www.Wiktionary.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wikiquote | website review
|
|
Wikiquote, a free online compendium of quotations from notable people and creative works in every language, including sources (where known), translations of non-English quotes, and links to Wikipedia for further information. The English version of Wikiquote has 13,255 web pages so far with many thousands of quotations and proverbs. Visit the help page to learn how you can edit nearly any page right now.
Official Website: www.Wikiquote.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wikinews | website review
|
|
Wikinews is, as you might expect, a website containing user-contributed news stories. Like its big sister Wikipedia, Wikinews is run and funded exclusively by volunteers, and accepts no advertising. Discussion is encouraged, and decisions are made collectively.
Anyone can contribute, and articles are written collaboratively for a global audience. Wikinews strives to adhere to the policy of using a neutral point of view, omitting opinion and commentary as much as possible in its articles and ensuring that its reporting is as fair as possible.
Everything that's done on the wiki can be undone, so it's very friendly to new users. The interface is designed to be easy to use and easy to learn.
Wikinews has two main types of articles:
The more common is the synthesis article. These draw on media reports from other sources (always fully cited). It is rare for other media stories to contain all the available facts, so Wikinews provides a more rounded and detailed report.
The other type of article involveds original reporting. These are first-hand news reports written by Wikinews contributors on-the-spot of news events.
Computer Buzz judges Wikinews to be the weakest of all the current wiki websites. The featured news stories on any given day tend to be of minimal relevance to most patrons, and the writing styles are unsophisticated and inconsistent. As abysmally poorly as most syndicated print news articles are written, Wikinews manages to carve out a new low on a daily basis. Their efforts to appear "neutral" are commendable, but the perception of neutrality most often resides within the preconceived prejudices of the reader.
Official Website: www.Wikinews.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wikiversity | website review
|
|
Wikiversity is a community for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. It is also a multidimensional social organization dedicated to learning, teaching, research and service.
Its primary goals are to:
Create and host free-content, multimedia learning materials, resources, and curricula for all age groups in all languages, and to;
Develop collaborative learning projects and academic communities around these materials.
Learners and teachers are invited to join the Wikiversity community as editors of this wiki website where everyone can edit the pages. The community portal lists information about many aspects of Wikiversity.
Wikiversity seems a bit ambitious to us here at Computer Buzz, but we admit that their hearts seem to be in the right place, and we wish them and their warm, fuzzy, harmless goals the best of luck.
Official Website: www.Wikiversity.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to Reviews Page |
|
|
|
|
 |
