How to Contribute to a Wiki like Wikipedia or Wikihow

Wiki

Member

By Anthony Delgado
eHow Community Member

Article Rating: (10 Ratings)

A wiki is a user-friendly, collaborative database. Essentially, many parties can enter this database and enter in their own information or edit and/or elaborate on existing data. Probably the largest example of this is Wikipedia; a virtual knowledge database containing information which has been compiled over many years from users around the world.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Step 1

The first step is to decide where you will wiki. Are you interested in providing information to the public or do you have a business project or some other private application for wiki? If you need a private wiki, there are a number of network based wiki applications that provide user-friendly environments for compiling and accessing information such as TeamSpace and SharePoint. If you are interested in public wiki, the best way is to join an on-line wiki such as Wikipedia, Wikiquote or Wictionary.
Step 2

If you are creating a new wiki, it is important to establish a data structure for others to follow. Once a data structure is established, it will be easy for others to follow along the same structure. Most applications use a tree-based structure or some variation, using directories because of the commonness. Others have capability of a looser, web-like structure which will allow you to access data from many sources and also include meta-crawlers and search engines. Prior to purchasing software or joining an existing wiki, it’s important to consider how your data will be most efficiently accessed.
Step 3

Inputting your data can be tedious. Make sure it is accurate and any links or meta-tags are accurate to the subject. This will maximize the efficiency of the wiki when accessing it to retrieve data. Use detailed titles as many search engines will prioritize the words in the title over the tags. Use variations of key words in the tags so that others accessing the wiki will be able to locate your data easily. This is also important in order to prevent data (especially conflicting data) from being entered in different areas.

Comments

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