A wiki is an online tool that allows users to update and publish content collaboratively. Anyone who has access can edit the content, using a very simple tool and an ordinary web browser. Wiki usage is known as 'collaborative authoring'.The largest and most famous wiki is Wikipedia - a web-based encyclopedia based on free collaborative content.Founded in 2001, it already has more than 1.6 million articles. A more recent example of wiki innovation is Wikicities, a collection of communities with websites that you can edit.
One of the fastest ways to understand wikis is to see how Wiki's are different from other internet based communication tools, such as email, blogs, bulletin boards and etc. Wikis are toolkit for creating pages. the pages created can work in many different ways. this is difference for understanding wikis and other forms of websites and tools for collaboration. wikis are not emails. individual emails share some wiki properties, they are easy to create and easy to be formatted. however emails lack the a central place where every one can work at once. Wikis are different from blogs, where in a blog the most recent article comes at the top and people can read and post a comment but can not edit it. As Wikis it can be used by many different users all at once which actually boosts communication among the individuals.
