Following the trend set by colleges across the country, Binghamton University has created a Web site allowing students and faculty alike access to a database pertaining solely to BU.

BingWiki allows BU students, staff and faculty to add and edit collective BU content by logging into the site with their PODS passwords.

As stated by Wikipedia, ‘A wiki is a collaborative Web site which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. ‘ According to Wiki.org, a wiki also makes it possible for users to create new pages and link them to other pages within the wiki itself.

BingWiki runs off MediaWiki, the same software initially designed for Wikipedia. MediaWiki is now used by numerous wikis throughout the Internet.

Jim Wolf, director of Academic Computing Services, said the purpose of BingWiki is to have a ‘free wiki’ environment for campus, without anyone trying to direct the content.

‘Currently, it [BingWiki] just has information about campus services, but any student can log in and create new pages,’ said Student Association Director of Communications David Belsky. ‘It is still experimental.’

BingWiki currently has links on the site to help users create pages, as well as a link to advice on using and organizing a wiki.

The site was launched last fall and has since been accessed more than 12,000 times since the time of publication.

BU is not the first SUNY to have a Wiki site; in fact, WikiPaltz, the wiki for SUNY New Paltz, boasts almost 1,700 articles.

Comparatively, WikiPaltz was launched in July of 2005 and currently extends over topics such as community portal, current events, student association and Blackboard.

Tracy Soren, a junior journalism major at SUNY New Paltz, likened her school’s wiki to a more commonly known wiki, Wikipedia.

‘I think that it’s a good tool ‘ just like Wikipedia you have to take things with caution because people can make stuff up,’ Soren said in an e-mail. ‘It’s a good outlet for students to pass information or write their ideas, [but] you have to be careful what you post. You don’t know who is looking at the site.’

Wolf shared these sentiments and cautioned that while BingWiki can only be edited by students, faculty or staff, ‘it can still be seen by anyone in the world.’