From Envirowiki

A Wiki is a collaborative website, that allows anyone to add and edit pages.

The basic idea behind a wiki is that everyone knows something, and no-one knows everything, so the best way to collate all the relevant information is to get everybody to pitch in just a little bit. This means, that if someone has some information about, say, trees, they can write a short page with everything they know. Other users can then read the information posted. If they find some information missing, or incorrect, they can freely add to or edit the page, thereby improving it's information. Eventually, after many edits, the information should become close to complete.

[edit] 1 How wikis expand

Unlike conventional encyclopedias, or magazines, in which articles are usually written by single authors, wiki pages are usually a piecemeal process, starting with a tiny page (sometimes just one or two sentences), and then gradually building up to a large, comprehensive page as more users add a sentence here, or a paragraph there.

Similarly to magazines and encyclopedias though, there are lots and lots of contributors, who provide the bulk of the content, and there are a smaller number of people who dedicate themselves to editing existing content to make it look nice, or to link it to other pages. For this reason, it's good to be bold, and just add content, even if it doesn't look right. Someone will usually come along later and re-arrange it and add to it.

Attribution in wikis is also different from in magazines: instead of a whole article being attributed to a single person, each edit is attributed. You can see the list of changes, and who made them by clicking on the "History" tab.

[edit] 2 Formatting

In addition, wikis usually have a certain simplified syntax, allowing users to easily format text (italics, bold, etc), add internal or external links. This makes it easy to join the dots between various disparate pieces of information.

See also: Help:Formatting

[edit] 3 Software

Wikis run on a piece of software called a wiki engine. There are numerous implementations of wiki software, and all have various advantages and shortcomings. Envirowiki is based on the Mediawiki wiki software, the same software used by Wikipedia.