Wiki

Wiki pages

> http://www.GenesONS.com > Homepage > Demonstration facilities

At the heart of the GenesONS systems is the Wiki feature, which enables users to create and edit a virtually unlimited number of content pages, just like this one, even if they have little or no knowledge of web site creation and management. At one level, the Wiki feature can be thought of as an exceptionally easy-to-use tool for adding content to a GenesONS web site — but this understates this feature's significance. Wikis are one of the most useful tools yet created for online teamwork and collaboration since they enable spontaneous, organic development of content that different individuals across a team can each contribute to.

The term Wiki is short for wiki-wiki, which means quick in Hawaiian. The first Wiki was created (and dubbed "Wiki-Wiki") by Ward Cunningham, a US (Portland), Operational Research computer programmer, in 1995. The largest Wiki, and arguably the most well known is the remarkable Wikipedia, which now contains more than 2 million publicly-contributed entries.

If a User has the appropriate permission they can create new Pages and edit existing ones to develop a particular topic in a very organic manner. The editing functions are not quite as 'rich' as we have perhaps become accustomed to with a full blown word processing application, but the limitations are more than outweighed by the speed and flexibility that can be achieved in the creation of on-line material.

Use the Sandbox menu item, available on the left once you have logged in using testuser/testuser, to practice Wiki page creation and editing - you will be surprised how easy it is and the 'wiki help' button at the bottom of the Sandbox page opens up a listing of all the common editing function; just try them out and experiment.


If you have any questions or suggestions for using Wiki Pages then please do post a question in our Demo Feedback Forum which you can also access once you login using the id/password of testuser/testuser.

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