Seattle PI — Wikis are spreading into new realms

Robert Weisman — 22 November 2006
Buoyed by the growth of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the wiki model of shared writing and editing is spreading into surprising new realms, from accounting, real estate and academic research to cake design and even intelligence gathering.

“Wikis are finally becoming mainstream,” said Newton technology pioneer Dan Bricklin, who plans to release WikiCalc, a next-generation spreadsheet that lets multiple users simultaneously log and update numbers via the Internet, by the end of November.

This is a handy, if brief, intro to Wikis. Their main use is likely be within organizations, on corporate intranets. There, they will probably not be separate products or services but part of a groupware or collaboration suite. Lotus and Microsoft are keen on them, for instance.

For more, see these two articles by Dion Hinchclifffe - http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=39 and http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=48.

A note on language
It took me a second or two to work out that “Newton technology pioneer Dan Bricklin” means that Dan Bricklin, who is a technology (i.e. computer technology) pioneer, lives in Newton (actually Newton Highlands) in Massachusetts, USA. My first go at unravelling the expression had me wondering what “Newton technology” might be. Most people know Bricklin better as the inventor of Visicalc, the first commercially successful spreadsheet program.

This habit of American journalists of stringing together several words to make a new compound noun is similar to the way German works. An extreme — but real — example of this practice is Ueberseedeutschlehrerinternetmailinglistenfragenstellundantwortkundigen, which means “people experienced in asking questions and supplying answers on the Internet mailing list of German teachers abroad”. Memorise it — you never know when it will turn out useful.

In both cases, this block-building approach makes it harder than it need be for the reader or hearer to grasp the intended meaning.