Understanding Wikis: Definition, Usage, and Key Terms
What is a Wiki?
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wikis support hyperlinks and have a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
A wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, “open editing” has some profound and subtle effects on wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
Helpful Internet Vocabulary
- Bookmarks or Favorites: Bookmarks (in Firefox and Safari) and Favorites (in Internet Explorer) are links to websites that make it easy to get back to your favorite places.
- Browser: Program for accessing the World Wide Web/Internet.
- Cache: Reserved areas of memory in every computer that are used to speed up instruction execution, data retrieval and data updating.
- Cookie: A small data file created by a website you visit that is stored on your computer either temporarily for that session or permanently on the hard disk. Cookies provide a way for the website to recognize you and keep track of your preferences.
- Home: The icon on a browser that takes you to your home page. The home page is the first page that comes up when you open your browser and can be customized to your own settings.
- Facebook: A social networking website that allows users to create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages.
- Hashtag: A # prefix used to group tweets together. For example, if people commenting about a Twitter event in New York used #nyctweetup in their posting, all those messages could be viewed together by searching #nyctweetup.
- Lasso: Selecting many files at once to move them to the same location (i.e. trash, or another folder).
- mFile: Gives you access to your U of M IFS space from any computer with an Internet connection.
- Refresh: The icon on a browser that updates the currently displayed Web pages. (Also called reload.)
- Right-click: Use the right mouse button (or press the Control key as you click on a Mac) to open a menu of ancillary operations such as copying and pasting, viewing a file’s properties, etc.
- Search engine: Software that searches for information based on some criteria on the World Wide Web/Internet.
- Tab: A small flap used for quick access that projects out from the end of a page or file.
- Tabbed browsing: A function of a browser that hides the current webpage behind a tab and presents a new blank window for continued browsing. This allows the users to view multiple pages on one window.
- Twitter: A social networking system that lets a person send brief messages to a list of followers. Messages can be sent or received via cellphone text messaging, the Twitter website, or a third-party Twitter application. A posted Twitter message is called a “tweet.”
- URL / Address bar: The address that defines the route to a file on an Internet server. URLs are typed into a browser to access webpages.
- Window: A viewing area on screen that contains a surrounding frame (border). It is used to separate parts of an application from each other and to separate one application from another.
- YouTube: A video sharing Web site that lets anyone upload videos for private or public viewing.