Wiki Wiki

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The term WikiWiki ("wiki wiki" means "quick" in the Hawaiian language; "wee kee wee kee") can be used to identify either a type of hypertext document or the software used to write it. Often called "wiki" for short, the collaborative software application enables web documents to be authored collectively using a simple markup scheme and without the content being reviewed prior to its acceptance. The resulting collaborative hypertext document, also called either "wiki" or "WikiWikiWeb," is typically produced by a community of users. Many wikis are immediately identifiable by their use of CamelCase, produced by capitalizing words in a phrase and removing the spaces between them; this turns the phrase into an automatic link. The world's largest Wiki Wiki is Wikipedia whose goal is to produce a complete encyclopedia from scratch.

The original WikiWikiWeb was established by Ward Cunningham, who invented and named the Wiki concept, and produced the first implementation of a Wiki Wiki server. Some people maintain that only Ward's wiki should be called Wiki (upper case) or the WikiWikiWeb. Ward's Wiki remains one of the most popular Wiki sites. It is a mark of wiki culture that no two wiki clones are alike. It is often debatable whether a site is a wiki or not, and few people expend much effort trying to define or preserve the difference.

Wiki software originated in the design pattern community: the Portland Pattern Repository was the first wiki.