Is there a wiki in your genealogy future?

Wikis are specialized Web programs that allow users to create and edit the content of Web pages using any browser. The organization of the contributions can be edited as well as the content. See What is Wiki. Although the concept is simple, the content can become extremely complex. The first Wiki was created online in 1995 as is known as the Wiki.

Because of their collaborative nature, Wikis are dynamic and when popular, can change minute by minute. Inevitably, Wikis have been created for genealogists. Cyndi's List currently lists eight genealogy Wikis. One of the larger Wikis is the Family History and Genealogy Wiki, which has currently, 37,966 articles on genealogy. Here are some statistics from the site:

• Pages: 113,600
• Articles: 38,149
• Info pages: 7, 075
• Files: 20,326
• Edits: 333,810
• Surnames: 4,262

Another newer and smaller Wiki is Wiki FamilySearch. This is a very informational Wiki, which includes the FamilySearch Research Outlines and other resources.

We Relate claims to be the world's largest genealogy Wiki with pages for over 2,000,000 people. Quoting from their home page, "WeRelate is a free public-service wiki for genealogy sponsored by the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy in partnership with the Allen County Public Library."