wikiwikiweb. truer hypertext.
wiki is tabula abrasa. is a beautiful collaborative consensual document, an organic text structure. wiki writing calls in loss of persona. an faq could be a kind of wiki, as could a knowledge base or online help system.
we look at the hierarchy model of organising information; the chapter-and-index hierarchy of the book document, or the disputational back-and-forth of the news hierarchy. look at the model of identity, and see that the news discourse is driven by a confrontational force, a highly rarefied cult of personality, of the individual, the re-tracing and chaining of postings.
wiki is crucially the ability to edit another's text, seamlessly. to correct and to respect; to develop a *network* consensus in a community, to document its process and to show it to others, its openness.
like the 'hinternet', i suppose (the backwater; the hidden internet) we would not advertise it, or restrict access to it; it would just be there, for those who were curious or exasperated enough to find it.
the wiki would become a hyper-glossary, hyper-documentation; summaries and expansions and counter-arguments, the formation of centers and backwaters, the flow of traffic (could one represent this graphically, the wiki growing, the patterns of traffic in trails, most recent bright red, stronger or paler according to frequency of visit).
wiki is self-generating documentation. it is both a reference point and a collaborative forum; a centralised notation of ideas and networks in any given subject. could be focused to any degree of granularity, but i suspect there is an optimum size and core user group for a wiki. i wonder, and would like to experiment.
can wiki be used elsewhere to the web, functionally as an intranet? certainly the casbah usage of wiki as a form of public documentation is overt, overt documentation and fails to grab one precisely for that reason; the patterns wiki is far more engaged and social.
should i then lose interest in individual text? am i overly hopeful in finding this work in a model of successful, bright, respectful people such as the patterns community?
from my recent reading christopher alexander and vague attempts to use his guidelines, that wiki is particularly well-suited to the development of patterns or pattern languages; the trusted, self-editing development of community consensus, many starting points for the novice, many reference points and contacts for the guru; always expanding, refining, accreting.
10/01/99 and earlier.