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The term Wiki has become very much popular among IT users for last couple of years with the popularity of websites such as Wikipedia. Wikipedia was first introduced as a virtual encyclopedia for the general public. The creators of Wikipedia have accomplished this task by now and most importantly; they have made the concept “Wiki” available for the users of other disciplines. So eventually, the concept “Wiki” is now being used in different fields for knowledge management.

A Wiki Farm is a server or a cluster of servers, which provides hosting for a Wiki or a group of Wikis. The other term used for Wiki farms is “hosted Wiki service providers”. Now the important question is, why do we need Wiki farms? Before Wiki farms were introduced, if a party or few parties needed to share knowledge via a Wiki, they had to establish a Wiki installation. If you are a system administrator, you know what a hassle it is to maintain servers. So the users wanted a simpler solution of maintaining Wiki software. That’s how Wiki service providers made their way to IT services market.

There are two main categories of Wiki farms as commercial and non-commercial. These are widely available for individual users and online communities. Some service providers allow any one to open their own Wiki and of course some have their own restrictions. So, how do these Wiki farms earn for the maintenance of their facilities? Most of the service providers do advertize on their Wiki sites. Others earn through subscriptions by users. But majority of Wikis operate with the policy to make Wiki accessible free of charge.

Wiki software by default offers few attractive but simple layouts for arranging Wiki pages. Some Wiki farm providers offer the default layouts also known as “Skins” for the end users and some service providers allow users to customize the layout using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Nowadays you will be able to find thousands of different Wikis and Wiki farms available for usage and customizations on the original Wiki software are legal by the law. A growing trend in the Wiki market is many organizations using it as their intranet for communication and knowledge sharing.