Heidi+Beezley

=A Wikiparison of Wikispaces and PBWiki=

Overview
This wikipage is dedicated to a comparison of the Wikispaces and pbwiki providers. Both provide wikis free of charge. Both are wikis, of course, and have many similar features. Though they are similar in important ways, such as displaying a history of edits, allowing collaborative editing, there are some important differences. These differences may impact which of the two providers would be the best choice for a classroom project. Below you will find a side-by-side wikiparison of the two wiki providers that compares the basic services that they offer free of charge.

Side-By-Side Wikiparison
||< **Yes. **Fill out some information, click a button or two and you have a wiki. Very easy to set up. Also, when you first start a wikipage, you get a fairly extensive welcome that helps you in getting used to the format and customizing your space. ||< **Yes. **In order to get a wiki, you simply need to fill out a form requesting some information and then your wiki is created. Very easy to set up. || ||< **Yes. **& **No. **Yes, you simply go into the Manage Space area and choose either members or invite. Then you enter their email, and click a button. However, you do not have the ability to determine the permissions invited users have as easily as in pbwiki where you can determine the level of permissions for each member with significant granularity. ||< **Yes. **To the right of the wiki, there is a widget that allows you to invite users. Users invited via the widget are added as writers. If you click the //User Settings// link below, you can add individuals as //Administrators, Editors, Writers, Readers,// or a particular //Page// || ||< **Yes. ** There is also a floating visual editor that allows limited formatting of text. Users also have the option to use the text editor and edit the code. What is strange to me is that there isn't a dropdown menu of fonts in the visual editor. Instead, there is a tool that does both the changing of the font color and style. Also if you want to use a color again and again, you have to remember its hexidecimal number because otherwise you can only select colors from a wheel where getting the same color again is the luck of the draw. ||< **Yes. **There is a fixed visual editor that allows you to alter the formatting and insert media. This editor has a more intuitive method for changing the font or color of text since there are dropdowns right in the editing bar. You also have the option to edit the source code. However, it is more difficult to fine tune the formatting of a table in the pbwiki editor since there are no additional modifications possibly after the initial insert. (At least none that I found. || ||<  **Yes. **& **No. **You have the ability to create templates of types of pages, but none are automatically available. ||< **Yes. **Each new page can be created as either blank or from a template. However, in terms of styles for the overall wiki, you must upgrade to a paid subscription in order to make color scheme changes permanent. || ||< **Yes. ** The page title automatically appears at the top of the page. The visual editor also has got various style options that can be used to make subheadings. ||< **Yes. ** The page title automatically appears at the top of the page. Pbwiki also makes it very easy to rename a page by clicking on the editing symbol to the right of the title. The visual editor also has got various style options that can be used to make subheadings. || ||< **No. ** No comments field is automatically generated at the bottom of each page. ||< **Yes. ** There is a comments field automatically placed at the bottom of each page. || ||< There is a page history tab. If you click on the History tab, you see a list of each time the page has been edited with the date, the author, any comments about the edit and the ability to compare two different versions side-by-side. When you click on a previous version, you then have the option to revert to that version.
 * ~ Topic ||~ Wikispaces ||~ PB Wiki ||
 * < **Is it easy to set up?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Is it easy to invite others?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Is it WYSIWYG?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Does it have templates?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Are there automatic heading?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Are there automatic comments?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**How is page history handled?**

As you edit a page, at the bottom there is an option to add notes that will show up in the page history under comments. ||< There is a page history link to the right of the entry. When clicked, a list of all edits is broguht up with the date, time, and editor's name. You can compare two different versions by selecting them, delete versions, or by clicking the links view a version and revert back to it. || ||< **<span style="color: rgb(56, 182, 43)">Yes. **There is a discussion tab that allows those who are editing a page to discuss the progress of the page. The discussion is formatted as a forum. A user can post a separate discussion to which others can reply. This would be helpful for separating out various topics. It isn't just a running list of comments about the page. ||< **<span style="color: rgb(213, 16, 16)">No. ** Pbwiki does not have an area where editors can discuss changes. || ||< **<span style="color: rgb(56, 182, 43)">Yes. **There is a notify me tab at the top of the page. It allows you to be notified via email or via RSS. If you choose RSS, you can either be notified about new discussions or page edits. ||< **<span style="color: rgb(56, 182, 43)">Yes. **By both email and RSS. However, these two options are located in different places and both are somewhat difficult to find. At the very bottom of the page hidden among the terms of use and other links is an RSS link. If you want to be emailed about any changes, you would click the settings link in the upper right hand corner and then click notifications. Not quite as user-friendly as Wikispaces. || ||< Controlling page edits as a teacher is easy. You give access to only the individuals that you would like to participate. Then you can receive notification of any changes to the page. If an unwanted change is made, you simply go to the history tab and reinstate the version previous to the unwanted edit. ||< Ditto for pbwiki, but in addition there is the Page Security link. This allows you to lock a page completely, lock it so only administrators can edit, hide the page, or provide custom security for a page. || ||< The recent changes link (upper left) shows what is happening most recently. The history page will show who has made posts to each of the pages. If you click on a student's name, you find out how many edits they have made. ||< There is a recent activity widget in the right hand column that shows recent activity with a link at the bottom that will shows the revision history for the site. Otherwise, you have the page history link for each page that will show you all changes on that particular page. || ||< It is easy to add a picture. If you chose to add a picture, you simply click on the "Insert Image" icon and double-click on a picture already uploaded or upload your own. However, the only alignment options are left, right, or center. If you require a more particular placement you need to create a table.
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Is there a place to talk about the article outside of the article itself?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Can you be notified of changes to the pages you contribute to? How?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**How will you be able to control page edits**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**How can teachers see what each student has contributed to the wiki?**
 * < <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**How well does it handle media such as images, video, and more?**

Wikispaces also allows for a variety of widgits that can embed video and many other types of media such as audio, chat, polls, documents, and much more. ||< I'll have to go with kind of easy. Once again, the layout of tools is a probelm. In wikispaces the toolbar has everything you need. For some reason, pbwiki has the place to upload an image (that isn't from a plugin) in the right hand column. Then placing the picture is weird. You don't drag the picture over unless you want a mini-thumbnail. Instead, you make sure your cursor is where you want the picture and then click on the name of the picture. Pbwiki does have some pretty cool plugins that you can add to your site. These are easy to add || || **<span style="color: rgb(213, 16, 16)">No. ** Spellcheck can be done from the browser, but there is not an option to spellcheck within wikispace. || **<span style="color: rgb(213, 16, 16)">No. ** Spellcheck can be done from the browser, but there is not an option to spellcheck within pbwiki. || || When a new page is created in wikispaces, the link to it is initially a red color indicating that this page has not been visited yet. || In pbwiki, links to new pages are blue whether they have been visited or not. ||
 * <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Can you spellcheck?**
 * <span style="background-color: rgb(197, 190, 190)">**Creating new pages**

Which is a better choice for education?
There is no cut-and-dry answer to this question. Most likely the best choice will depend on what you are wanting to use the wiki for. Wikispaces makes it very easy to collaboratively edit a page because it provides an area for discussion, while pbwiki makes it easy to provide comments on a page that could be used for evaluation, formal feedback, etc.

For ease of use, my choice would be Wikispaces. Although the formatting interface does not allow text to be formatted as easily, all of the tools that you will need for editing including the all-important Save button are on the toolbar (the Save button is also at the bottom of the entry). In pbwiki, the save is at the bottom of the entry, which is in a different location than all the other tools. This is a minor issue but is a common theme in pbwiki. For example, all of the available tools for wikispaces are found in four tabs at the top. All in the same location. In pbwiki, if you are viewing or editing you would look at the tabs at the top, but if you are inviting additional users or altering settings you would look at the sidebar on the left, and if you are wanting to view the history, it is on the left side of the page itself. Having all of the tools scattered in different places makes the interface slightly more complicated to use.

For the ease of controlling access to the wiki, pbwiki appears the winner. When you first invite collaborators, you can very particularly determine their abilities on your wiki page. Whereas, in wikispaces, there appear to be only two levels of privileges; member and organizer. In addition, you have more fine grain control over when a page can be edited and by whom with the page security feature of pbwiki.

Pbwiki appears to be geared more toward business than education. When you visit their frontpage, most of the information is related to business uses of the wiki. In my experience, wikispaces seems much more geared toward education. Educators get a free upgrade to their wiki that allows them to make the wiki private not just protected. Just a quick anecdote in further support of wikispaces...a friend of mine, who is incidentally starting the COMET program next year, set up a wiki for her class. When she needed accounts set up for her students, she simply forwarded her class information to wikispaces and they set up the accounts for her. They seemed to be extremely helpful.