Wiki Software and Facilities for Museums

The potential for the use of wikis by museums to aid collaboration between users is great. Wikis allow a virtual community to maintain and update information in a cooperative and convenient manner. This mini-workshop presents current wiki tools and facilities that are available on-line and suitable for use by museums for on-line collaboration and the building of virtual communities. The general concept of wikis is introduced, and the leading wiki on the Web, Wikipedia, is covered in a museum context. Major wiki software platforms are briefly mentioned, with pointers to further information. The use of external wiki facilities such as those provided by Wikia, a free community of wikis, is also presented. Alternative wiki facilities are briefly compared. A selection of existing examples of museum-related wikis is surveyed, including comments on their features in a wider context. Some lessons from experience of wikis so far are given and the possible future of wikis, especially with respect to museums, is considered.