The term "wiki" originates from the Hawaiian "wee kee wee kee" which means quickly. (Hint: think of the wiki wiki bus at the Honolulu airport that whisks you from the gate to baggage claim) Most people know about the format because of Wikipedia, an open-source encyclopedia that began in 2001 and today contains entries for more than 500,000 topics.

A wiki is a web-based system which supports community authoring. Collaboration and document sharing are some of its most frequently mentioned advantages. Other considerations are:

• Opportunity to pool expertise, benefit from the group's collective wisdom, and generate synergy and creative ideas.
• Efficient way to do document editing where several people need to give input.
• Easy to administer and to add various types of content including PowerPoint presentations, audio and video podcasts, calendars,surveys, photos, and widgets of all varieties.

There is concern about security, but most wikis (including this one) can be either public or private, where invitations to join are sent to specific individuals. It's also possible to grant page permissions within the wiki, with individuals being granted access to only certain pages.

Please see the Attachments section below for a PowerPoint presentation on the use of wikis, including some thoughts on how a wiki can facilitate the magnet process in hospitals.