The popularity of wikis stands out by some difference amongst other content management systems although it shouldn't. Consider this: we invented an immense array of tools that help out ancestral laziness rule, from slaves and butlers to sophisticated remote controls, from the very wheel to the (personal?) jet.

So why does a system which actually makes us work survives, oh no, strike that, leads the online C.M.S. pack on its own? Because it is game. That means that you wont find wikis anywhere, at random locations, but in specific online spaces where people either work or have fun together.

Wikis empower "together".

For example, a recipe website. If the owner of the website posts a classic lasagna recipe how is he to be sure that it is the "uber-lasagna-recipe"? He asks around. How many people can he ask? Say ... a thousand and compare that to the millions online. As a wiki page or topic the simple recipe gets debated, developed, improved and in the end results in better food because you'll get to know that: "Lasagna is the favorite dish of the fictional cat Garfield ..."; wikipedia, probably the mother of all wikis.

Large wikis also dispose a feeling of trust.

The mechanism is simple: if the community (the total of users) is active, articles or topics are revisited often and, very important, it is so easy to actually change and correct mistakes or omissions that somebody ultimately does it.

Another great and defining aspect of wikis is their "black hole" effect on information.

The larger they get the more information they attract and incorporate. And the similitude is so clear just by observing that once an information is debated or better yet defined inside a wiki it actually becomes a reference so it never escapes the wiki. An illustration of this point of view is a simple "define: something" search on the largest and most popular search engine in the world and notice the sudden encounter of the aforementioned wikipedia.

So, there you have it. The wiki is a human paradox that evolved into a communication standard.

Learn more about this author, Andrei Draganescu.
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