I am currently in the planning stages of a PhD in social sciences and I was wondering if anyone is using a wiki for research purposes. If so, which one do you use and how good is it?

Hi,

I apologise for my ignorance and probably a stupid question but could you explain what a "Wiki" is?

Kind regards

If you are referring to "Wikipedia", then no, this is not a trustworthy source of information as content is not created by experts.

I saw that someone on here was doing this and wanted to ask how it works. It seems like a really smart idea, particularly if you have more than one supervisor. Is it complicated (or, would I be able to explain it to my supervisor, given that I introduced her to the idea of a usb stick a couple of months ago!)?

Hi Moomin

There are a number of wiki type interfaces out there that you can use - ranging from wikispaces, pbwiki, twiki, swiki and Mediawiki. The last of these is the one used for Wikipedia and is nice in terms of controlling layout, users, etc. but would not be ideal for novice users. pbwiki and wikispaces are probably the simplest ones to use for novices and short-term projects. There are, however, many issues you need to consider if you wish to use a wiki for research - if it is as a simple 'sharing' domain, fine - not too many issues - if you want to use it as a repository to collect info - lots of ethical and privacy and copyright issues to consider.

So not always an easy option. Both pbwiki and wikispaces offer 'closed' wiki options for private use but you have to pay. If you want to know more about wikis and the development of wikis for collaboration/research - best place to start is Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb. Ultimately, which option you use depends on (1) your intended users (2) your intended purposes (3) 'external' issues - ethics, etc.

If you want to know what a wiki is and how it works... you might as well start here.

Wikis in Plain English

Basically, a wiki is an 'open' web page which allows multiple users to add, edit and share information. However, you can also password protect the page to limit editing facilities to preferred users. If you were using it to monitor your research progress, you could allow your peers or supervisor to add comments, etc. Doubtful (to my mind) that a supervisor would have time/desire for this, though.

Ooops - this forum doesn't like html coding... here's the link again.

Wikis in Plain English

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=977cd0cefdafc40175a9

wiki tends to be open to all sorts, it tends not to be reliable.

I strikes me as a good idea, if you mean "wiki" as opposed to "wikipedia."
We have a committee one. It would make finding info easier as long as you had easy to use menus. Someone here used one for corrections after her viva.

Answering Rick, you set up a kind of blank webpage with your own headings and subheadings and add your own information. You can add passwords and limit access to yourself, or a few people.
You can post pictures, send messages and track changes you have made.

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
I've seen 2 on media wiki