Wiki Wiki Kudos

Unsolicited comments, many excerpted from email ...

Did you write this whole WikiWikiWeb thing yourself? It is an amazing product/concept. You should license/patent it asap. It is incredible and mind-boggling.

Here is a great application of what you have done. Say I have published a paper/patterns. I want people to add comments & thoughts about how and where they have used the pattern. The great problem with patterns is that they are one-directional, from author to consumer. Authors need to get the feedback about patterns so that they can refine them. -- RichardHelm

Wiki is just too cool not to have, and the kind of thing I love to play with at 2:00am...

I'm also interested in some easier ways to collaborate. Wiki seems like a great start. I think there's a lot of potential here. Unfortunately, I also think that the Web browsers have a long way to go to really make use of HTTP. -- PatrickMueller

I've been looking at the wiki wiki web for some hours now. I am impressed with the friendly but scholarly feel of this spot. There seem to be a lot of high-level thinkers here. -- RickWartzok

I would love to be able to make *some* contribution to wiki. If wiki-like projects can be made to succeed, it could be the greatest boon to civilization since movable type. History strongly suggests that any increase in the speed with which insight and improvements can be distributed to others can result in a dramatic acceleration in those improvements. I believe wiki - or something very much like it - can be such an improvement. -- RichardFleischer?

Wow ... An interactive, collaborative, editable webspace on oo pattern design. Staggering. IT JUST WORKS! It even spell checks...

Wiki is a real find - as my officemate commented, "the signal to noise ratio here is waaay too high to be popular" - and so this community can produce a stable discussion, rather than HotWired? or any of the mere chat-style collaborations on the web. -- RohitKhare

Would you believe me if I wrote that WikiWikiWeb changed my life? Well, believe it! Having this forum to record patterns, pattern debate, anecdotes, tall tales, and theories has complete rejuvenated me from a nearly terminal condition of burnout. Through this site and the folks I met at PLoP '95 (http://c2.com/ppr/about/plop.html) I feel reconnected to an energetic, enterprising, and exciting community. What's the point of all this if not to have some real fun? Hats off to Ward! Three cheers! -- DonOlson

I've found WikiWikiWeb to be a wonderful new way to collaborate. I've started looking at EmailCollaborations in a new way. I may write my own server just to be able to use this mode for some of the projects I work on. (note: I have now written my own server, and I'm quite pleased with the new idea capture abilities it provides me.)

I'm also tempted to write a little PC-app (for the HP-100, if not for plain DOS) that acts as a SingleUserWiki; that and some merge tools would be great for collecting inspirations as they strike. -- MarkEichin

Dammit, Ward! I had a long list of things I wanted to get done today! Why did you have to go and make this thing so seductive? Oh well, there's one day left in the weekend... -- JanSteinman

I finally got around to visiting your home page and I must tell you that it is one of the most pleasant I have seen and used. In addition, the content indicates that you are facilitating a very active interchange. Keep up the good work. And thanks for the experience. -- JackRing

I was referred to your pages by PeteMcBreen, who told me I was in for something pretty interesting. He didn't fib. I like your pages very much. ... It is appealing, and it strikes me it facilitates an amazing level of process creativity. -- DennisDaupert

I just found the site after browsing from the pattern mailing list home page. Your site is one of the best uses of the web I've seen. -- KatyMulvey

I stumbled into your web site this morning. It's one of the best sites I've found. Thanks for giving people the chance to share their experience. I wasn't there more than a few minutes before I found a couple of things that could clean up some of our code. -- WesHunter

I hadn't visited [wiki] for a while... am always re-amazed at how cool it is. Good work! -- RonJeffries

I haven't had much time for Wiki but I think it is a remarkably successful experiment in participatory writing. I spent last week in Austin at the Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, CFP98. One of the birds-of-a-feather meetings discussed governing online communities and the innumerable problems that arise therefrom. That something as open and vulnerable as Wiki has worked seems a wee little miracle. -- FrankLusardi

This is almost as neat as sliced intestines, and it doesn't cause my fingers to bleed nearly as bad! -- anon.

The great thing about Wiki is that it is under your control. You get information at your speed. You don't stand in front of a firehose like you do with a mailing list that suddenly gets hot. If Wiki goes ballistic for a week, you just stop looking at it. Then things settle down and you get more involved. -- KentBeck

I had to scratch my head for awhile to figure out how Wiki was architected, but I finally grasped your conceptual model: Power to the People! Wiki feels like a 1960's movement time-warped into the Internet. -- ChamondLiu

You know, I think your wiki site is my all-time favorite place on the web. -- AnthonyLander

I'm working on an environment for people in my company to share "stuff". Someone told me to come to WikiWikiWeb. So I came. It took me 20 minutes to get over the "What in the World?" reaction. Then another 20 minutes to get over my anxiety about the lack of control. And then I thought, YES! -- SusanLilly

Well done with WikiWiki! I've been waiting for HyperG (http://hyperg.uni-paderborn.de/) - this is not it - but it is power to the people. I came from NeedToKnow, The UK's Premier Sacro look at IT. -- MarkCross

You know, your cgi-web editing script is tooo cool! Someone on a national list of writing teachers pointed me to it. I know that you'll soon be getting 1000s of requests for them. -- MarkCrane

Wiki exemplifies something that eludes so many: the art and power of simplicity. -- JoshuaKerievsky

Yes, simply brilliant. Brilliantly simple. -- RichardDrake

Ward! What's up dude. You don't know me, but I certainly know your WikiWiki. It is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. You've become a bit of a legend with the people I talk with. -- BradNeuberg

I think this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life. -- NealOlander

Wow can't believe more people don't have a site like this. -- anon

Wish I could set this up on my server. -- anon

I'd just like to praise you on Wiki Wiki Web. It's very well thought out, designed, implemented, done. How it coalesces is stunning. It's just . . . very cool! I'd say more, but it's just so elegant it speaks for itself (literally, too) I mean, you absolutely caught the paradigm of hyperlinks and took the web (which is a very small subset of hypertech) to its utmost. Wow! Not to mention Zen, another cool paradigm. How did you get the idea in the first place? DivineInspiration?? {See WikiWikiHyperCard} -- SunirShah (1998)

Hey your web site is stupid!!!!!!!! You should be hung for that stupid site!!!! -- DonnaCousineau?

Maybe delete above paragraph? Or refactor to WikiWikiFlames? or similar?

... I will say that Wiki must be at the one extreme of sparsity, but I prefer it to the noise at the site that referred me to you. -- Pekka Pihlajasaari

Ward's wiki code is one of my favourite examples of AlexandrianDensity. Merging document title, URL and document identifier to form WikiNames, as well as the simple, implicit structure shows that powerful software doesn't have to be complex or large. Ward has obviously had enough time to make the code shorter. --

The WikiWikiWeb community is for me the real nucleus of the evolving GlobalBrain or have I missed something? -- FridemarPache

The page on the Subject line has several grammatical and stylistic errors!! In fact, many of your pages have lots of writing bugs. Constructively yours, DAS

Please be more specific to be helpful, thank you. To which of the 7000+ pages are you referring?

If I had a Wiki server, and pros in my field rolfed it daily, and I read it, I wonder how smart I'd appear to my colleagues. -- PhlIp

Very Impressive. I've just found out about WikiWikiWeb. It's so amazing. It would have to be one of the most inspiring places I've found on the web in five or so years of surfing. Congratulations. -- RichardCollins

I love wikiwikiweb and wikiwikiweb loves me. -- anon

I wanted to tell you how very much I like your idea for the Wiki Wiki server... I am really impressed Ward, and I wanted to tell you that I think Wiki Wiki servers are an incredible idea. Thank you for creating them. -- AndresValloud?

The Wiki concept may be a little tough to manage at the beginning but it is very effective. It reminds me of the original web concept laid out by Tim Berners-Lee (the client software was intended to both browse and create content). Great stuff. I am sure I will spend many hours reading/learning the collective wisdom in Patterns pages. -- MarinoDuregon

In WeavingTheWeb TimBernersLee articulates a two-part vision for the Web, the first part of which is "people-to-people communication through shared knowledge". This is exactly what the WikiWikiWeb facilitates - the "inter-creation", as he puts it, of a shared body of knowledge. -- RandyStafford

Moved from WikiWikiSystemNotice ...

Did you know that Ward spends thousands a year out of pocket to keep your favourite addiction around? -- anon

Wow! No, at least I didn't know... Well, more reasons to keep wiki a nice place, full with interesting discussions and useful information, as well as a warm place to learn and 'live' with others. Actually, the whole concept of wiki, the Portland Repository, &c is an incredible example of communal gift (á la FreeSoftware and even like those neolithic communities (Gatherer Cultures) still extant in Africa or South America, who lived from gifts... So, with even more reasons, thank you for all. -- DavidDeLis

No, but it shouldn't be a surprise. A 24/7 connected Linux box with static IP address and .com domain name can cost at least US$350 per year for entry-level service (the kind with 99% reliability, i.e. it doesn't work 3.65 days every year, and you do all the work yourself). Good service is an order of magnitude more expensive. Costs for human time, backup media, and Replacement parts (computers do break every year or three) are all extra. -- ZygoBlaxell

Thanks Ward et c. -- MartinPool

I don't think I've ever had the chance to thank you for sponsoring Wiki. It has not only brought lots of entertainment, but also been a significant source of professional learning that has (not to put too dramatic a point on it) changed my life. -- BillBarnett

The Wiki has changed the way I think. I enjoy the medium, but the content is unparalelled. (well, maybe the library of congress) -- ShaeErisson

Wiki is one of most remarkable - and long-lived - online collaborations in existence, radical in that every document is editable, always, by every user. -- JonUdell in BYTE (http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000427S0002)

A cunning programmer named Ward Tired of fetching when everyone stored Took up knitting and perling And finally unfurling This fabulous Bulletin Board!

-- LimmaWiki

There doesn't seem to be any order to the site. It seems to be a mumble-jumbo of things that are supposed to, I guess, relate in some way to design patterns. But if it does, I'm not smart enough to understand the relationship. -- BobCarpenter?

The repository has over 10,000 pages, so it can be a real effort to get even an overview. Try a couple of the regular StartingPoints. Use the ones that work for you. -- WardCunningham

Thanks Ward... I'm beginning to understand the layout now. I'll dig deeper. -- Bob

I have just spent half an hour reading the most interesting web site that I have stumbled over for the last couple of years. I first discovered it by noticing a sports car in Shoreham West Sussex UK with the registration mark C2.COM. So I clocked into it and am glad that I did. -- Alan

And they say Ward doesn't know about marketing.

See http://c2.com/sportscar.html

Here's the license plate that Ward might really like to have:

 http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/licensemaker.cgi?text=c2.com&state=Oregon

Here are some of my favourite plates:

It's way better than all those other web sites I was hanging out at.

I think it's going to be a WikiFuture for me and you (although that page doesn't seem to be about the future much). -- JohnAbbe

Thanks for conceiving the Wiki idea, it affords us all a wonderful opportunity to make use of web technology in a way that genuinely adds something to what is going on. -- DavidNess

I am lucky enough to get plugged to wiki; it happend when I was doing my thesis on pattern-oriented analysis and design. I stumbled into EjbLinks, and now I have my own wiki at my work place JspWiki, this is the next big thing after internet. -- SeshKumar

A fascinating place this is with much wisdom around floating. Return soon I shall to a better look get. -- Yoda

Moved from WardAndWiki

Ward creates wiki as the ultimate test for joint ownership was penned by WardCunningham himself recently in HistoryOfExtremeProgramming. I remain very interested in any WikiSharedOwnershipTestCriteria that can shed light for any of us on possible future direction of Wiki.

But after just a few days, I already see Wiki as a life-changing, web-changing, world-changing achievement. So I really wanted to say, in much bigger letters than I know how to produce in Wiki ThankYou Ward Cunningham. As I don't want to embarrass anyone, least of all myself, please feel free to delete and/or move to WikiWikiKudos as appropriate. -- RichardDrake

On this or any other page, it would be really helpful to have any general reflections from Ward on the progress of Wiki, including his view on personal, technical and commercial challenges for him as it grows, with space for others to comment of course. Ward seems to keep watch and add value by removing that without more than most. It must take up enormous time. He should know that the original development and ongoing commitment is greatly appreciated.

[Ward presented a talk about Wiki and WikiWay and the like at a CHI-FOO meeting June 20, 2001. I am so glad I attended the talk which in structure greatly reflected a Wiki style organization. Things rambled on a bit, then he broke out a well formatted version of his topic, and then the talk went back to a more chaotic (though quite enjoyable) state. A great way to spend a Wednesday night. -- Ross]

A related topic: what other specialist interest groups are already using Wiki or Wiki-type servers? I would really love to see it used in a number of other disciplines.

Yes: see PublicWikiForums. There are lots and lots of them. This list is probably grossly incomplete.

I have just explored Wiki. I was referred to your site by my collaborator who said it was weird. It is simply beautiful. I'm a journalist, not a programmer, and getting into ZopeApplicationServer coz i really want a high degree of dynamic interactivity in the historical documentary I am working on - and also a lot of online collaboration (I travel about a lot). I honour your collective genius and your willingness to share. -- DavidRose?

Going to bed this AM, I was playing with my pocket PC (with wireless internet access). I noticed the Python page had a link (and small tribute) to you and your wiki site. I ended up getting sucked into spending 2 hours browsing your site. Fascinating. -- JimBesemer

Thanks for coolness. I love the Wiki Wiki Web idea. -- RichShumaker

Dear Ward,:Thank you for growing a beautiful community project. Thank you for reminding me that simplifying things often makes them better. -- DavidCary

I stumbled on your site while looking up the word "McGuffin". I liked the collaborative format and went to your home page. I'm a software architect, principally doing re-engineering projects with Prolog tools. I have been curious about xp, but never really learned much about it. Well wiki wiki and its users are pretty amazing. I have never been able to graze so much information so quickly.

I am blown away by the collaboration. I contrast it with a protest discussion group around the RNC that I have been lurking on and sporadically contributing to. Almost no constructive collaboration. I wonder if such folks could benefit from wiki wiki or whether they would just erase each other in the same way that they are talking on top of each other. -- Chris Rose

ThankYou!

Ward, I just wanted to thank you, publicly and personally, for providing such a remarkable environment for sharing learning. This Wiki, in particular, floats above an ocean of information like a liferaft. Thank you, and all the talented folk you have enticed into sharing their hard-won knowledge and experience of managing complexity with abstractions. -- PaulWilson

A tornado shredding a bookstore and depositing the contents elsewhere would produce a more organized webpage than that. --NathanMates? (reposted from USENET without permission)

CategoryWiki