Wiki’s are powered by wiki software like Mediawiki, Dokuwiki and TikiWiki – which requires a web server to host the files and a database to run the wiki software. But if you are no geek and want to create a simple Wiki for a small organisation, Google Sites can be a good option.

How to Create a Simple Wiki with Google Sites

With Google Sites, you don’t have to worry about the software, database or other technical things. You just need a Google account and have to pick the right template for your wiki, powered by Google sites.

1. Log in to Google Sites with your Google account and create your site. Next, pick the “Project Wiki” theme and choose a decent color scheme for your wiki.

Pick the right template for your Wiki powered by Google Sites

2.  If you want only selected people to add or edit information in the wiki website, select “Only people I specify can view this site”.

Create Public or private Wiki's with Google sites

3. That’s it. Your wiki website is ready and now you can invite your friends to view it or add/edit information.

Adding Collaborators to Your private Wiki

Adding collaborators and members in the wiki is quite simple. Select “Share this site” from the more actions dropdown and enter the email address(s) of collaborators you want to add. The process is exactly the same as sharing your Google Docs documents. You can choose from two different user levels:

• Collaborators – these people can view and edit information in your wiki. They can edit pages and create new pages as well.
• Viewers – these people can only view your wiki but they cannot edit or delete any content or pages.

Adding Collaborators and Viewers ofyour Wiki Website

The person whom you invite will get an email notification request as shown below:

Invitation request for viewers and Collaborators

When the viewers or collaborators try to access the wiki website, they will be asked to sign in with the same email address where you sent the invitation request.

Subscribing to the Wiki and Getting Automatic Alerts on Changes

Once the website is up and running, you can add new pages to the wiki one by one. You can also embed Google docs documents, images, Google gadgets, videos and other media files in the pages. When the content and pages are ready, ask all the members to visit your wiki website and “subscribe to the site changes”. This will send them email notification whenever a new page is added to the wiki or an existing page is modified.

To subscribe to the site changes, select “Subscribe to site changes” from the more actions dropdown as shown below:

Subscribe via Email to Site changes and updates

The feature set of Google Sites is very basic and you can not modify the design or edit the codes but considering the purpose of a wiki, I think Google sites does a great job. It’s simple and easy to manage and the best part is that you do not have to worry about the software or maintain it. Google sites also supports adding Google docs documents, spreadsheets and presentations and thus it can be a great way to collaborate on project ideas.

Tip: Use Google Docs to publish blog posts

How to Use Google Sites as a Wiki and Collaborate on Projects originally published on Ampercent

Google sites now contains a gallery of public templates for personal as well as business use. Here are my favorite picks:

Google sites lets you quickly create collaborative websites so that other users can publish content easily, just like a wiki. The new templates would be helpful for businesses, team websites and personal profile pages.(also read : Themes for Google chrome)

How to create a new Google site

A Google site can be made easily and takes only a couple of minutes. Following are the steps involved to create a Google site:

1. Go to Google Sites and login with your Google account.

2. As soon as you login, hit the “Create a new Site button”.

3. Pick a template for your Google site from the Google sites themes gallery.

4. Give your Google site a name and choose an available url.

5. Next, choose a theme for your site. The theme determines the design element of your site e.g sidebar, header positions etc. I personally like the Micro Blueprint theme.

6. Write a small description of your site and choose the sharing settings. If you want to create a private site, choose the option “Only people i specify can view this site”.

7. Fill up the word verification and hit the “Create Site” button.

That’s it. You have just created your Google site. (see example)

Google Sites Gets Richer With New Themes and Templates originally published on Ampercent