WikiWikiWeb is a term that has been used to refer to four things: the first wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

, or user-editable website, launched on 25 March 1995 by Ward Cunningham

Ward Cunningham

Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham , on...

 as part of the Portland Pattern Repository

Portland Pattern Repository

The Portland Pattern Repository is a repository for computer programming design patterns. It was accompanied by a companion website, WikiWikiWeb, which was the world's first wiki....

 (the website was also later known as "WardsWiki"); the Perl

Perl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...

-based application that was used to run it, also developed by Cunningham, which was the first wiki software

Wiki software

Wiki software is collaborative software that runs a wiki, i.e., a website that allows users to create and collaboratively edit web pages via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application that runs on one or more web servers...

 (it was later renamed "WikiBase"); the original general term for wikis; and the original term for wiki software.

The software and website were developed in 1994 by Cunningham in order to make the exchange of ideas between programmers easier. The concept was based on the ideas developed in HyperCard

HyperCard

HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...

 stacks that Cunningham built in the late 1980s. He installed the software on his company's (Cunningham & Cunningham) website, c2.com, on March 25, 1995. Cunningham came up with the name WikiWikiWeb because he remembered a Honolulu International Airport

Honolulu International Airport

Honolulu International Airport is the principal aviation gateway of the City & County of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii and is identified as one of the busiest airports in the United States, with traffic now exceeding 21 million passengers a year and rising.It is located in the Honolulu...

 counter employee who told him to take the Wiki Wiki Shuttle

Wiki Wiki Shuttle

The Wiki Wiki Shuttle is a zero-fare shuttle bus system at the Honolulu International Airport. Shuttles run between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM, carrying people and baggage between the various terminals....

, a shuttle bus

Public transport

Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...

 line that runs between the airport's terminals. "Wiki Wiki" is a reduplication

Reduplication

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....

 of "wiki", a Hawaiian language

Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

 word for fast. Cunningham's idea was to make WikiWikiWeb's pages quickly editable by its users, so he initially thought about calling it "QuickWeb", but later changed his mind and dubbed it "WikiWikiWeb".

The WikiWikiWeb's current WelcomeVisitors page contains the following description:
Some words are written in CamelCase

CamelCase

CamelCase , also known as medial capitals, is the practice of writing compound words or phrases in which the elements are joined without spaces, with each element's initial letter capitalized within the compound and the first letter either upper or lower case—as in "LaBelle", "BackColor",...

 because this is the markup

Wikitext

Wikitext language, or wiki markup, is a lightweight markup language used to write pages in wiki websites, such as Wikipedia, and is a simplified alternative/intermediate to HTML. Its ultimate purpose is to be converted by wiki software into HTML, which in turn is served to web browsers.There is no...

 used to create inter-page links

Hyperlink

In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...

 by WikiWikiWeb's software, WikiBase. Later wiki engines, such as MediaWiki

MediaWiki

MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...

, dropped this convention.

WikiWikiWeb and its designated sister sites

Site	Pages	Founder
WikiWikiWeb	34226	Ward Cunningham Ward Cunningham Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham , on...
WhyClublet	4782	Richard Drake
MeatBallWiki MeatballWiki MeatballWiki is a wiki dedicated to online communities, network culture, and hypermedia.Founded in 2000, its original goal was to focus on collaborative hypermedia, but current topics range from intellectual property to cyberpunk to the confusion of URIs....	5122	Clifford Adams, Sunir Shah
GreenCheese	(dead)	Peter Merel
TheReformSociety	(dead)	Peter Merel
The Adjunct	737	Earle Martin
WikiBase	359	Ward Cunningham Ward Cunningham Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham , on...
FitWiki	225	Ward Cunningham Ward Cunningham Howard G. "Ward" Cunningham is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki. A pioneer in both design patterns and Extreme Programming, he started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it on the website of his software consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham , on...

External links

• WikiWikiWeb (c2.com/cgi/wiki)
• Search the wiki
• Edit The Front Page Of Wiki
• WikiWikiWeb:WikiBase — the Wiki Base software
• WikiWikiWeb:WikiDesignPrinciples
• WikiWikiWeb:WikiHistory, including comments by Ward Cunningham
• WikiWikiWeb:WelcomeVisitors
• Correspondence on the Etymology of Wiki — Ward Cunningham