Maybe my explanation is superfluous, but it's handy to know how we - interpret a Wiki :
A Wiki is a hyperlink-driven site of information, allowing for a ultimate structured way of presenting this information; hyperlinks can be created of anything, any word, and in a very easy way.
The most powerful intrinsic feature will be the ability for the reader to skip all the lines he/she already knows (i.e. don't click the hyperlink), or just dive into the info which is behind the hyperlink. Therefore it is up to the reader to decide how much lines have to be read, having to do with the knowledge the reader already obtained.
Example :
We as Heart just started on a Wiki.
Now for everyone already knowing what and who Heart is and what it stands for, the above 8 words are the only words necessary to read in obtaining the info that this organization started on a Wiki. Now for those not knowing what/who Heart is -and while this line may come up anyhwhere !- a click on the hyperlink is needed. Of course this takes time to read, and the intention of a Wiki is that any time needed to even skip through the lines already known, are to be avoided.
Of course this is nothing different from encountering www-links somewhere, but the difference with the Wiki is that within this one www-site (the Wiki) another level of structuring-down of the info exists. And of course the Wiki-pages can contain normal www-links as well, with the additional feature of the ability of working out phrases to hyperlinks automatically. So, qb@heart-profit.com was just typed as a normal sequence of words, but was automatically rephrased to a hyperlink for an email-address.
Please note that once a Wiki topic has been created, it 'll show up in any text where the word is used in. Even when the text was already there before the new topic was created.
Though this all allows for a very structured way of working, it encourages a mess as well. According to this we must realize that the words we turn into a topic, will be worked out as a hyperlink always and therefore must be unique to any possible context. For example, when the word "operation" would have been made a topic, it would show up as a link at all places where "operation" is used, and of course also in future texts ! Now since this word without context is not unique, it would be not allowed to make it a topic, because when it will be in a future text with other context than ment when the topic was created, the text may become unreadable, or just will be once the link is clicked.
Therefore a Wiki must be used well-thought.
-- Peter Stordiau
CategoryLearningWebsite