With Web 2.0 applications becoming popular so fast, it seems that there aren't always standards for what one of these new applications must conform to or not conform to. This is the case for Wikis. This is a conference on the Standards of Wikis, The International Symposium on Wikis. In fact, you can even get on their mailing list to keep up with the group standards of Wikis.
The funny thing is that if you search for Wiki and standards you will find sites that host the standards of many other things such as ISO, TMX, and other items that are hosted in Wikis. However, the search will not provide any sites that give the standards of Wikis.
As many of you know, tokens are one of the most recognized parts of Wikis. You might have seen a set of tokens for MediaWiki or FlexWiki, but there are no standards on what a given token means. For instance, if you saw '''hi''' or *hi*, would know that they both meant that the text would be bold? The result would be: hi
Because there aren't standards on what a token is and is not, people have come up with many ways to represent the same HTML mark up. But is it really nessisary to have an application use tokens to be a Wiki?
If you have ever used Microsoft SharePoint 2007 you might have tried to create a Wiki Library or a Wiki Site. On the Wiki page there is an area for the end user to enter information. The big difference is that the out of the box (OOB) Wiki library page doesn't have many tokens. Instead, it makes it easy for non-technical users to make changes to text with a rich text editior like below. The key idea behind Wikis is to allow many people to add, edit, and create pages of information, but does a Wiki really need to have a bunch of tokens to make it a Wiki you will use?
When talking to many large Enterprise clients, I have found the answer to be yes more times than no. The technology gate keepers are usually the guys and girls in the your IT department. And guess what? They are all used to seeing tokens in their Wiki pages, and they think that you will need them too. I am not saying they are right or wrong, just that many Enterprises will install another Wiki product like MediaWiki because they either:
- Want a Wiki with tokens, or
- Their boss wants a Wiki that looks like WikiPedia.
Well, if you want Wiki Token Support and Rich Text Editor support in your SharePoint 2007 site, then check out the work that has been done on the Enhanced Wiki Edition for the Community Kit for SharePoint.
As for the answer to "Do Tokens Make a Wiki?", the answer is no, tokens don't make a Wiki, but a lot of people want to have the tokens, otherwise they might look elsewhere for a Wiki application.
