In this article Ward Cunningham discusses how category tags can be used within a wiki. This is a subject that I find most helpful as I begin to sort out the need for making decisions about information architecture and wiki development.

An example of what he means can be see on Wiki Wiki Web, Cunningham’s Wiki. At the bottom of each page there is a category section. When you click on the category link for Media Wiki , the engine that drives the Wikipedia and Wikicities , you come to WikiImplementation , a page that serves as a search node for all of the pages that carry that tag. When you click on the title of that page you get a list of all the pages that were tagged with that tag. An embedded search engine that facilitates tagging.

It privileges authors more than readers, but provides support for readers by helping them to sort through content. Most conventional web design works the opposite way. Menus and navigation bars are designed to help people find information. Wiki sites turn that on its head. All of the navigation is embedded in the content. Blogs do that also, of course. But this wiki takes it to another level. Looks chaotic. But it’s fun to browse for people like me who love randomness.

This page, for instance, seems to suggest that this site may be moving to the Wikia site this month. It’s tagged, CategoryRant. A list of 109 links is displayed when I click on that title.

I was interested in the WikiProblems link, which says that wikis are plagued by spam, vandalism, and edit wars. There is a discussion on the page regarding this topic.

The Wiki Wiki Web is a site I’ll be returning to. It is probably the most sincerely collaborative wiki that I’ve seen, and it meshes with my philosophical bias toward democratizing media.