Building Your Own Wiki

Posted on January 19, 2008

A wiki (the shortened version of a Hawaiian term wiki wiki, meaning “fast”) is a collaborative Web site that anyone can update. Once established, a wiki becomes an ever-changing online database of information. Wikis are especially effective if your readers or Web site visitors have a lot of information to contribute on your subject.

If answering questions and keeping up with comments on your blog is becoming too overwhelming, you may consider building your own wiki. However, while a wiki may be a good solution, keep in mind that a wiki requires quite a bit of maintenance.

A wiki is used by entering content directly from a Web page, so anyone can add to any wiki at any time. By definition, a wiki is a collection of wiki pages that users create, edit, and add to at their convenience. Wikis can be public, meaning anyone can contribute to them, or private, meaning that a user needs certain permission to add new content.

To start building your own wiki, you can install a wiki using the same open-source software used to power Wikipedia – MediaWiki. You can also use a service, such as Wikidot.com, to start your own wiki. The documentation is very good, so do not be intimidated, be empowered!

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