Wiki is a form of hypertext publication on the internet that is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can be edited by the public or by an organization. The name comes from WikiWikiWeb, the first user-editable website, and derives from a Hawaiian word meaning quick.
How wikis work
Wikis are powered by wiki software, also called wiki engines, which belongs to the family of content management systems. Unlike blog software or static site generators, wiki content has no defined owner or leader, and the structure of a wiki tends to emerge from the needs of its users. Editing usually takes place through a lightweight markup language or a rich-text editor, and some wikis keep a full version history so that earlier versions of a page can be restored.
Use and significance
Hundreds of thousands of wikis are in use, both public and private, serving as knowledge management resources, note-taking tools, community websites and intranets. Wikipedia is the most popular wiki-based website, and it is in fact a collection of hundreds of wikis, one for each language, making it the largest reference work of all time.