Interesting comments about Wikis at Many-to-Many. Liz is right to criticize the quality of Wiki's human interfaces, even though the post seems to underestimate the more essential values of Wikis.

One thing to note about web tools (from wikis to weblogs to The Mirror Project) is that, technologically, they're nothing more than HTML page—but that they use the basic web technology in a very carefully-designed way. A Wiki page is just a web page, except that when you click a link you get a form and when you submit that form you come back to the original page which is now updated. So the whole game is to find the very subtle set of features that gloms together into a very useful tool. Weblogs would not be weblogs without permalinks, even though (from a technical point of view) permalinks are just an added feature. We coders need to keep in mind that what is not internally a new technology can still be a new technology from the user's point of view. The difference between a weblog and a weblog with trackback—though the code is almost the same—is like the difference between a telephone and a TV set.

In other words: Yes, Liz, the presentation of the information is vital; the Wiki is not quite mature yet, and one way it needs to grow is toward better presentation (it goes without saying that what's needed is "design" in the Edward R. Tufte sense, not the Dale Chihuly sense). Another way Wikis need to grow is to embrace recognition and trust, and a third is toward encouraging neophytes that editing is OK (while discouraging hoodlums).

I'm interested in developing, pushing, that subtle collage of features that we call the Wiki; any potential allies in that pursuit, let's talk.