Edit This Page ⓘClicking 'Edit This Page' opens this page on github.com. You can edit, and save changes, if you are a contributor to the repository. Close the edit page to return to this one.
Link As You Think
also see Linking Your Thinking
part of Wiki Theory and Culture
from eekim in 2005:
- The Brilliant Essence of Wikis – Eugene Eric Kim (eekim.com)
- Link As You Think (blueoxen.net)
Link As You Think
The core essence of Wikis: the ability to Link As You Think by simply typing the page name. What makes this feature beautiful is that you can link to a page that does not already exist.
To link to a page on a Wiki, you refer to the page's name. This is different from the default behavior of the web, which usually requires that you track down a URL (usually designed for machines, not people) to create a link.
The ability to point to a page that does not currently exist is a powerful capability. Ward Cunningham, who invented the WikiWikiWeb, originally observed this behavior when he was doing software design with index cards. He noticed that engineers would place a card on the table without writing anything on it and talk about it as if it was a real entity, even though it had not yet been named or described.