Wiki software: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "Category:Miscellaneous "Wiki" is an Hawaiian word meaning "fast" or "quick". The term wiki is now applied to software that facilitates development of a website that can be u...") |
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Mediawiki, the software platform underlying Wikipedia and '''TS Wiki''', employs a simplified markup language called "wikitext", and allows some elements of HTML as well. | Mediawiki, the software platform underlying Wikipedia and '''TS Wiki''', employs a simplified markup language called "wikitext", and allows some elements of HTML as well. | ||
A pioneer of information technology, | A pioneer of information technology, Vannevar Bush, foresaw something like a wiki in July, 1945, in his brilliant essay, "As We May Think": | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, memex will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory. | Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, memex will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory. | ||
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.< | |||
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.<ref>Vanevaar Bush, "As We May Think," ''Atlantic Monthly'' (July, 1945). Available online at [http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm The Atlantic.com] and at [http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~duchier/pub/vbush/vbush.shtml "As We May Think" in several formats].</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
Wiki software has an unlimited capacity to interlink and categorize concepts. Vannevar Bush would have appreciated the way a wiki can emulate the neural networks of the brain: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
The human mind... operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature. | |||
</blockquote> | |||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
Revision as of 15:47, 31 July 2012
"Wiki" is an Hawaiian word meaning "fast" or "quick". The term wiki is now applied to software that facilitates development of a website that can be updated by many editors working collaboratively.
Mediawiki, the software platform underlying Wikipedia and TS Wiki, employs a simplified markup language called "wikitext", and allows some elements of HTML as well.
A pioneer of information technology, Vannevar Bush, foresaw something like a wiki in July, 1945, in his brilliant essay, "As We May Think":
Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, memex will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.[1]
Wiki software has an unlimited capacity to interlink and categorize concepts. Vannevar Bush would have appreciated the way a wiki can emulate the neural networks of the brain:
The human mind... operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.
Notes
- ↑ Vanevaar Bush, "As We May Think," Atlantic Monthly (July, 1945). Available online at The Atlantic.com and at "As We May Think" in several formats.