The term wiki comes from the Hawaiian "wikiwiki", meaning "quick".
The following video describes how wikis can be used as a collaborative tool, without the redundancy involved in shuffling emails back and forth:
As with blogs, there are many wiki providers to choose from. Most offer a free basic service, but charge for wikis with more elaborate features. Entering "free wiki" into your search engine will locate many such services. Teaching Learning & Assessment is hosted by WikiDot (see video tutorials). Another well-known provider is PBWiki (see Demo).
Google_Sites is a structured wiki provided by Google. As with other products offered by Google there are videos to provide guidance, e.g.:
For other video guides to the creation and editing of wiki pages, just go to YouTube and enter the appropriate search terms, such as "Create wiki".
A very few wikis offer a WYSIWYG1 editor, but most use some basic syntax which currently allows for greater flexibility. For example, the first line on this page provides a hyperlink to the Wikipedia entry for "wiki". In the edit page this was achieved by typing "wikipedia:wiki" inside square brackets. Likewise, a simple widget provided by WikiDot enabled the creation of the comments area below; this simply involved typing "module Comments" inside two lots of square brackets. In general, guidance for creating and editing pages is provided by the host organisation, which includes a list of the syntax to be used.
A long list of providers is provided at WikiMatrix, which allows a side-by-side comparision of selected providers.
As the site administrator of Teaching Learning & Assessment, I was a complete novice in Wiki use when I set up this site. I did find that there was a certain learning curve to go through. I initially had trouble working out how to link pages and modify menu items. This did take a bit of sweating over, and I began to doubt the testimonials of other WikiDot users about how easy it all is. However, once I'd figured it out it was mostly plain sailing thereafter. A large amount of structure and content was developed within three or four days of the site's creation.
As with anything worth doing, you need a bit of patience and the willingness to learn from your mistakes. In fact, mistakes are reversible because all the edits you make are listed, so you can revert to earlier versions.
David Hardman