International Institute of Care to Buildings

Wikis are websites built for collaborative authoring, allowing numerous contributors to add, edit, and structure content online.

They emphasize simplicity and openness — pages can be created or modified without special technical skills, and most maintain an edit history so revisions can be reviewed or reverted.

Common features
- **Collaborative editing:** Several contributors can edit pages, sometimes at the same time.
- **Edit history:** All edits are stored with timestamps and the author’s name or IP.
- **Interlinking:** It’s easy to create links between pages, forming an interconnected knowledge base.
- **Lightweight markup:** Formatting is usually handled by lightweight markup languages (e.g., WikiText or Markdown).
- **Permission settings:** Some wikis are open to anyone; others limit edits to registered users or specific groups.
- **Discussion pages:** Talk or discussion pages let contributors debate edits and organization.

Common uses
- Community knowledge bases such as Wikipedia
- Internal documentation and company knowledge bases
- Cooperative writing and shared notes
- Classroom and educational projects

Advantages
- **Fast collaboration:** Contributors can rapidly create and improve content.
- **Openness:** Transparency through revision histories and discussions.
- **Expandable:** They scale organically as users add more pages and topics.

Drawbacks
- **Vandalism and false information:** Open contribution can result in deliberate or accidental misinformation.
- **Inconsistent quality:** Content quality may vary widely between pages.
- **Organizational issues:** Without clear governance, content may become fragmented or disputed.

Illustration
- **Wikipedia** — the best-known wiki, run by the Wikimedia Foundation and built by volunteer contributors worldwide.