Getting started

A wiki is a collaborative web site, set up to allow users to edit and add content via their web browser. Wikis are often used to share knowledge and information in a group.

The University Computing Service Managed Wiki service is available to groups who wish to have their own wikis within a managed service. Wikis are available to University institutions, sub-institutions and similar groups, such as established research groups. They may also be used for groups and research projects that span institutions.

Use of wikis in the Managed Wiki service is subject to the Information Strategy and Services Syndicate rules and guidelines.

A wiki name will be in wiki.cam, of the form http://wiki.cam.ac.uk/wikiname. For example the Raven Support wiki is http://wiki.cam.ac.uk/raven/. Wiki managers may choose their own wikiname, note that this is subject to approval by the University Computing Service.

For users within the University of Cambridge access to a wiki is generally controlled by Raven authentication. It is also possible to choose to make the wiki world-readable (i.e. the contents are public), while restricting write access to a specific group.

Wiki managers must be University of Cambridge staff or, exceptionally, research students. Students require vouching for by a member of staff. Wikis will be cancelled on the departure (account cancellation) of the last manager; if managers want the wiki to continue they must arrange to have another manager added before they leave.

The UCS Managed Wiki service is based on Mediawiki, with some local modifications. Mediawiki is the software used by the wiki encyclopedia Wikipedia. UCS Managed Wikis are 'vanilla' - extra plugins or extensions cannot be installed.

There is no charge for a managed wiki up to a size limit of 500 Mbytes for the wiki directory. Larger wikis may be allowed by arrangement and may be subject to a charge. There is a limit on individual files of 10 Mbytes. Queries about the Managed Wiki service may be made to service-desk@ucs.cam.ac.uk

Last updated: February 2011