Wiki As Good Example

The InternetProfessionalsNorthwest? asked its members what constitutes a "good" web site? In preparation for a meeting on the subject they solicited urls for examples. I nominated wiki...

I suppose most people build sites that emphasize what they consider important. That said, I will nominate pages I have prepared as an example of a good web site. This site is a database, groupware of sorts, used by researchers interested in a unique style of software documentation called "patterns".

The site has grown to over 700 pages. Most of these, including many higher level organizational pages, have been contributed by visitors. Good starting points for browsing include:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?StartingPoints http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FindPage

The pages are delivered by a cgi script called WikiWikiWeb or just wiki for short. Wiki wiki means quick in Hawai'ian. Wiki is a quick way to make a web. Details for authoring, and some history appear in:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?MoreAboutMechanics http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiHyperCard

The site is a year and a half old. (That would be 7-1/2 "Internet Years".) It receives a steady flow of 100 visitors a day. Many visitors retrieve only a handful of pages, others retrieve 25 to 50 at a time. New or changed pages are automatically recorded in:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RecentChanges

as a convenience for regular visitors. This gives the site a "temporal" feel. Pages can become "threads" where wiki convention is to drop a horizontal rule between postings. But most readers find this form less than ideal. A more innovative style of discourse involves the prompting statement:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PromptingStatement

With it one asks a question by making a place for the answer. This leads authors to seek agreement rather than counter point as is the usual case with net-news. A dialog conducted with prompting statements also makes much more informative reading for the transient visitor.

I have collected unsolicited kudos offered by my readers:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiKudos

Although the authors tend to gush (possibly as payment for my volunteer effort) their comments point at issues I really did intentionally address. I've been influenced by Roger Blumberg's WWW '94 paper that asks if there isn't a better metaphor for the web than a super highway. I'll close this note with one more citation:

http://c2.com/doc/space.html

In this short essay I use Roger's metaphor of public space to categorize the services I offer on c2.com. I have one of each: a billboard, a museum and open space. Wiki is the open space. -- WardCunningham