News > January 24, 2008

By Caitlin Brooks | Staff writer

Students may spend hours procrastinating on Wikipedia, but the same has yet to apply to the “Wake Wiki.” The university’s unofficial networking forum, http://wfu.collegewikis.com, provides students with an easy to navigate Web site boasting the motto “information for students, by students.”

The site is powered by MediaWiki, the same organization that runs Wikipedia.

The word “wiki,” or “fast” in Hawaiian, is best known as the prefix of Wikipedia, the worldwide free encyclopedia written and edited by the public.

The first Wiki was WikiWikiWeb, invented in 1994 by Ward Cunningham as software that allowed users to create, edit and link Web pages easily.

Wikis are often used to create community Web sites like databases and forums.

They are used to network businesses and schools.Cunningham originally described WikiWikiWeb as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.” The university’s Wiki allows students to pose questions to their classmates about university life, classes or any other subject and receive prompt feedback.

The layout of the site is distinctly similar to that of Wikipedia.

Students merely register on the site, a process that takes less than five minutes and requires a valid college e-mail address, and then are on their way to theoretically unlimited information and resources.

Users may register to receive e-mail notifications of their classmates’ queries based on graduation year, residence hall or class.

Additionally, the Web site provides a newsfeed of university press from major publications so that new information is only a click away.

However, the Collegewiki site’s similarity in layout and content to Wikipedia has not translated into a similar level of student interest and use. To the contrary, student interest in the site seems to be meager, if that.

The site is scarcely used, and seems to be merely barebones at the moment.

Sophomore Kyle Rogers recently joined the Wiki network.

“The layout makes about as much sense as Wikipedia itself does, but it’s a little hard to tell when the search function doesn’t have anything to search for,” Rogers said.

“Right now, the only articles that seem to be on the site are those on the front page.”

“I think it (the Web site) is a good idea but it needs a lot of work,” said freshman April Nutt.

“It’s a feasible option but at the moment it seems to be a little too sporadic. The article topics are mostly useless and have nothing to do with Wake at all.” The future looks uncertain for the site. “I’ll use it to spread my earthly wisdom concerning Wake Forest and its surroundings to all who desire it. But that’ll only happen if people actually start posting more articles and questions,” said Rogers.

Nutt agreed. “I might try checking it out to see if things are updated or if there are any topics that interest me in the future, but right now, the site isn’t too useful,” she said.

Until either students find new interest in the site or the site comes out with new and improved features, students may continue to lack interest in the site.

The site depends on user input such as forum posts and the writing of articles as its main source of materials.

This means that the more lack of interest that there is in the site, the less material there will be available, and the less appealing and useful the site will be.

Unless student interest is stimulated or more useful information is added, a bright future for the site appears doubtful.