Lab Sheets
BB 1704: COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
Academic Year: 2012-13
Semester: Spring
Session: 1(a)
Date: Thursday 31st January 2013
Title: Wikis
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Objectives: To gain an understanding of the wiki concept by examining wikis such as WikiWiki and Wikipedia.
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------------------------------------------------- To compare different wiki systems.
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Outcomes: You should be able to search a wiki, and to edit a page in a wiki, such as Wikipedia. You should also be able to create new pages and to create links from existing pages.
Carry out the following, and answer the questions, writing appropriate details in your log book:
1. Using a search engine or otherwise, find out as much as you can about “Wikis”, and their inventor. Write details in your log book. Note that you will get different results by using different search engines. You might, for example, find this one if you use Altavista – http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wiki.htm but it’s probably not on the first page in Google. Don’t just take the very first item in the first search engine you try. By all means read it, but you should look at others as well in order to get a feel for what these things are. Don’t always use Google – there are other search engines. Although Google is very good, sometimes other search engines do better, and sometimes it is more useful to use a search engine which accesses specialized databases.
You should also try typing in different search terms, such as “wiki”, “Wikis”, “What is a Wiki?”, “What are Wikis?” etc. You will very probably get some different results this way, and some will be better than others. You are expected to evaluate the results, and make your own decisions about which describe wikis (or
Academic Year: 2012-13
Semester: Spring
Session: 1(a)
Date: Thursday 31st January 2013
Title: Wikis
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Objectives: To gain an understanding of the wiki concept by examining wikis such as WikiWiki and Wikipedia.
-------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------- To compare different wiki systems.
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Outcomes: You should be able to search a wiki, and to edit a page in a wiki, such as Wikipedia. You should also be able to create new pages and to create links from existing pages.
Carry out the following, and answer the questions, writing appropriate details in your log book:
1. Using a search engine or otherwise, find out as much as you can about “Wikis”, and their inventor. Write details in your log book. Note that you will get different results by using different search engines. You might, for example, find this one if you use Altavista – http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wiki.htm but it’s probably not on the first page in Google. Don’t just take the very first item in the first search engine you try. By all means read it, but you should look at others as well in order to get a feel for what these things are. Don’t always use Google – there are other search engines. Although Google is very good, sometimes other search engines do better, and sometimes it is more useful to use a search engine which accesses specialized databases.
You should also try typing in different search terms, such as “wiki”, “Wikis”, “What is a Wiki?”, “What are Wikis?” etc. You will very probably get some different results this way, and some will be better than others. You are expected to evaluate the results, and make your own decisions about which describe wikis (or
References: Leuf,B and Cunningham, W (2001), The Wiki Way, Addison-Wesley , Note: All the URLs cited in this document were accessible or tested on 31st January, 2013.