Did you know that the University of Otago runs a wiki service?
If you aren’t familiar with wiki’s, you should visit Wikipedia – arguably the most famous example. It’s an online encyclopedia with over 10 million articles, written and edited by members of the public. The real strength of a wiki is that it can be easily edited (without specialist web-design or HTML skills) online, without the need for any software other than a web browser. It is ideally suited to any sort of collaborative work – like research groups, committees, or student group projects.
An example of a wiki, showing the editing interface.
Any staff member may request a wiki on the University of Otago’s wiki server. Currently, it’s used for a number of different purposes, such as:
- Research Projects
- Technical and Operational knowledge bases
- Student-created academic knowledge bases
- Collaborative pages for departments or committees
Wiki’s can be either public or private; and they can be editable by everyone, or only editable by members. The University of Otago Wiki Service (which uses the same wiki software as Wikipedia – “Mediawiki”) allows you to choose which options suit your particular needs. For example, you could create a completely private wiki where you would need to log in to view or edit pages, or a publicly viewable wiki which you would need to log in just to edit pages. You can add anyone as an editor – both students and staff members. Once your wiki has been created, you can immediately start working on the content, by creating pages, adding and editing text, and adding images and file attachments.
A few examples of wiki sites on campus:
For more information about getting your own wiki, visit the University of Otago Wiki site.
