Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki

A wiki (ⁱ/ˈwɪkiː/ WIK-ee) is a website whose users can add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor.^[1][2][3] Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created collaboratively.

Wikis may serve many different purposes, such as knowledge management and notetaking. Wikis can be community websites and intranets, for example. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules may also be imposed for organizing content.

Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work."^[4] "Wiki" (pronounced [ˈwiti] or [ˈviti]) is an Hawaiian word meaning "fast" or "quick".^[5]

History[link]

Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport

WikiWikiWeb was the first wiki.^[6] Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in Portland, Oregon, in 1994, and installed it on the Internet domain c2.com on March 25, 1995. It was named by Cunningham, who remembered a Honolulu International Airport counter employee telling him to take the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" bus that runs between the airport's terminals. According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web."^[7][8]

Cunningham was in part inspired by Apple's HyperCard. Apple had designed a system allowing users to create virtual "card stacks" supporting links among the various cards. Cunningham developed Vannevar Bush's ideas by allowing users to "comment on and change one another's text."^[2][9]

In the early 2000s, wikis were increasingly adopted in enterprise as collaborative software. Common uses included project communication, intranets, and documentation, initially for technical users. Today some companies use wikis as their only collaborative software and as a replacement for static intranets, and some schools and universities use wikis to enhance group learning. There may be greater use of wikis behind firewalls than on the public Internet.

On March 15, 2007, wiki entered the online Oxford English Dictionary.^[10]

Characteristics[link]

Ward Cunningham and co-author Bo Leuf, in their book The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web, described the essence of the Wiki concept as follows:

• A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons.
• Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.
• A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape.

A wiki enables communities to write documents collaboratively, using a simple markup language and a web browser. A single page in a wiki website is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing, and searching through information. A wiki allows for non-linear, evolving, complex and networked text, argument and interaction.^[11]

A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Many wikis are open to alteration by the general public without requiring them to register user accounts. Many edits can be made in real-time and appear almost instantly online. This can facilitate abuse of the system. Private wiki servers require user authentication to edit pages, and sometimes even to read them.

Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Cito Maramba and Steve Wheeler write that it is the "openness of wikis that gives rise to the concept of 'Darwikinism', which is a concept that describes the 'socially Darwinian process' that wiki pages are subject to. Basically, because of the openness of wikis and the rapidity with which wiki pages can be edited, the pages undergo a natural selection process like that which nature subjects to living organisms. 'Unfit' sentences and sections are ruthlessly culled, edited and replaced if they are not considered 'fit', which hopefully results in the evolution of a higher quality and more relevant page. Whilst such openness may invite 'vandalism' and the posting of untrue information, this same openness also makes it possible to rapidly correct or restore a 'quality' wiki page."^[12]

Editing wiki pages[link]

There are many different ways in which wikis have users edit the content. Ordinarily, the structure and formatting of wiki pages are specified with a simplified markup language, sometimes known as wikitext (for example, starting a line of text with an asterisk often sets up a bulleted list). The style and syntax of wikitexts can vary greatly among wiki implementations, some of which also allow HTML tags. Designers of wikis often take this approach because HTML, with its many cryptic tags, is not very legible, making it hard to edit. Wikis therefore favour plain-text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions than HTML, for indicating style and structure. Although limiting access to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of wikis limits user ability to alter the structure and formatting of wiki content, there are some benefits. Limited access to CSS promotes consistency in the look and feel, and having JavaScript disabled prevents a user from implementing code that may limit access for other users.

Increasingly, wikis are making WYSIWYG editing available to users, usually by means of JavaScript or an ActiveX control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions into the corresponding HTML tags or wikitext. In those implementations, the markup of a newly edited, marked-up version of the page is generated and submitted to the server transparently, shielding the user from this technical detail. However, WYSIWYG controls do not always provide all of the features available in wikitext, and some users prefer not to use a WYSIWYG editor. Hence, many of these sites offer some means to edit the wikitext directly.

Most wikis keep a record of changes made to wiki pages; often, every version of the page is stored. This means that authors can revert to an older version of the page, should it be necessary because a mistake has been made or the page has been vandalized. Many implementations, like MediaWiki, allow users to supply an edit summary when they edit a page; this is a short piece of text summarising the changes. It is not inserted into the article, but is stored along with that revision of the page, allowing users to explain what has been done and why; this is similar to a log message when making changes to a revision-control system.

Navigation[link]

Within the text of most pages there are usually a large number of hypertext links to other pages. This form of non-linear navigation is more "native" to wiki than structured/formalized navigation schemes. That said, users can also create any number of index or table-of-contents pages, with hierarchical categorization or whatever form of organization they like. These may be challenging to maintain by hand, as multiple authors create and delete pages in an ad hoc manner. Wikis generally provide one or more ways to categorize or tag pages to support the maintenance of such index pages.

Most wikis have a backlink feature, which displays all pages that link to a given page.

It is typical in a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite others to share what they know about a subject new to the wiki.

Linking and creating pages[link]

Links are created using a specific syntax, the so-called "link pattern" (also see CURIE). Originally, most wikis used CamelCase to name pages and create links. These are produced by capitalizing words in a phrase and removing the spaces between them (the word "CamelCase" is itself an example). While CamelCase makes linking very easy, it also leads to links which are written in a form that deviates from the standard spelling. To link to a page with a single-word title, one must abnormally capitalize one of the letters in the word (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). CamelCase-based wikis are instantly recognizable because they have many links with names such as "TableOfContents" and "BeginnerQuestions." It is possible for a wiki to render the visible anchor for such links "pretty" by reinserting spaces, and possibly also reverting to lower case. However, this reprocessing of the link to improve the readability of the anchor is limited by the loss of capitalization information caused by CamelCase reversal. For example, "RichardWagner" should be rendered as "Richard Wagner," whereas "PopularMusic" should be rendered as "popular music". There is no easy way to determine which capital letters should remain capitalized. As a result, many wikis now have "free linking" using brackets, and some disable CamelCase by default.

Searching[link]

Most wikis offer at least a title search, and sometimes a full-text search. The scalability of the search depends on whether the wiki engine uses a database. Some wikis, such as PmWiki, use flat files.^[13] MediaWiki's first versions used flat files, but it was rewritten by Lee Daniel Crocker in the early 2000s to be a database application. Indexed database access is necessary for high speed searches on large wikis. Alternatively, external search engines such as Google Search can sometimes be used on wikis with limited searching functions in order to obtain more precise results. However, a search engine's indexes can be very out of date (days, weeks or months) for many websites.

Implementations[link]

Wiki software is a type of collaborative software that runs a wiki system, allowing web pages to be created and edited using a common web browser. It is usually implemented as an application server^{[citation needed]} that runs on one or more web servers. The content is stored in a file system, and changes to the content are stored in a relational database management system. A commonly implemented software package is MediaWiki, which runs this encyclopedia. See the List of wiki software for further information. Alternatively, personal wikis run as a standalone application on a single computer. WikidPad is an example. Or even single local HTML file with JavaScript inside – like TiddlyWiki.

Wikis can also be created on a "wiki farm", where the server side software is implemented by the wiki farm owner. PBwiki, Socialtext, Wetpaint, and Wikia are popular examples of such services. Some wiki farms can also make private, password-protected wikis. Note that free wiki farms generally contain advertising on every page. For more information, see Comparison of wiki farms.

Trust and security[link]

Controlling changes[link]

History comparison reports highlight the changes between two revisions of a page.

Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very open, they provide a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of pages. The most prominent, on almost every wiki, is the "Recent Changes" page—a specific list numbering recent edits, or a list of edits made within a given time frame.^[14] Some wikis can filter the list to remove minor edits and edits made by automatic importing scripts ("bots").^[15]

From the change log, other functions are accessible in most wikis: the revision history shows previous page versions and the diff feature highlights the changes between two revisions. Using the revision history, an editor can view and restore a previous version of the article. The diff feature can be used to decide whether or not this is necessary. A regular wiki user can view the diff of an edit listed on the "Recent Changes" page and, if it is an unacceptable edit, consult the history, restoring a previous revision; this process is more or less streamlined, depending on the wiki software used.^[16]

In case unacceptable edits are missed on the "recent changes" page, some wiki engines provide additional content control. It can be monitored to ensure that a page, or a set of pages, keeps its quality. A person willing to maintain pages will be warned of modifications to the pages, allowing him or her to verify the validity of new editions quickly.^[17] A watchlist is a common implementation of this.

Some wikis also implement "patrolled revisions," in which editors with the requisite credentials can mark some edits as not vandalism. A "flagged revisions" system can prevent edits from going live until they have been reviewed.^[18]

Trustworthiness[link]

Critics of publicly editable wiki systems argue that these systems could be easily tampered with, while proponents argue that the community of users can catch malicious content and correct it.^[2] Lars Aronsson, a data systems specialist, summarizes the controversy as follows:

Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a Web site that can be edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds like offering free spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be ugly graffiti and simple tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very well.^[6]

High editorial standards in medicine have led to the idea of expert-moderated wikis.^[19] Some wikis allow one to link to specific versions of articles, which has been useful to the scientific community, in that expert peer reviewers could analyse articles, improve them and provide links to the trusted version of that article.^[20]

Noveck points out that "participants are accredited by members of the wiki community, who have a vested interest in preserving the quality of the work product, on the basis of their ongoing participation." On controversial topics that have been subject to disruptive editing, a wiki may restrict editing to registered users.^[21]

Security[link]

The open philosophy of most wikis, allowing anyone to edit content, does not ensure that every editor is well-meaning. Virtual vandalism can be a major problem. In larger wiki sites, such as those run by the Wikimedia Foundation, vandalism can go unnoticed for a period of time.^{[citation needed]} Wikis by their very nature^{[citation needed]} are susceptible to intentional disruption, known as "trolling". Wikis tend to take a soft security^[22] approach to the problem of vandalism; making damage easy to undo rather than attempting to prevent damage. Larger wikis often employ sophisticated methods, such as bots that automatically identify and revert vandalism and JavaScript enhancements that show characters that have been added in each edit. In this way vandalism can be limited to just "minor vandalism" or "sneaky vandalism", where the characters added/eliminated are so few that bots do not identify them and users do not pay much attention to them.^{[citation needed]}

The amount of vandalism a wiki receives depends on how open the wiki is. For instance, some wikis allow unregistered users, identified by their IP addresses, to edit content, whilst others limit this function to just registered users. Most wikis allow anonymous editing without an account,^[23] but give registered users additional editing functions; on most wikis, becoming a registered user is a short and simple process. Some wikis require an additional waiting period before gaining access to certain tools. For example, on the English Wikipedia, registered users can rename pages only if their account is at least four days old. Other wikis such as the Portuguese Wikipedia use an editing requirement instead of a time requirement, granting extra tools after the user has made a certain number of edits to prove their trustworthiness and usefulness as an editor. Basically, "closed up" wikis are more secure and reliable but grow slowly, whilst more open wikis grow at a steady rate but result in being an easy target for vandalism. A clear example of this would be that of Wikipedia and Citizendium. The first is extremely open, allowing anyone with a computer and internet access to edit it, making it grow rapidly, whilst the latter requires the users' real name and a biography of themselves, affecting the growth of the wiki but creating an almost "vandalism-free" ambiance.

Edit wars can also occur as users repetitively revert a page to the version they favor. Some wiki software allows an administrator to stop such edit wars by locking a page from further editing until a decision has been made on what version of the page would be most appropriate.^[11] For example, an article named Dolf was deemed not notable and after debate between several users a new article on a more general topic was created called Dart Golf.^{[clarification needed]}

Some wikis are in a better position than others to control behavior due to governance structures existing outside the wiki. For instance, a college teacher can create incentives for students to behave themselves on a class wiki they administer, by limiting editing to logged-in users and pointing out that all contributions can be traced back to the contributors. Bad behavior can then be dealt with in accordance with university policies.^[13]

Potential malware vector[link]

Malware can also be problem, as users can add links to sites hosting malicious code. For example, a German Wikipedia article about the Blaster Worm was edited to include a hyperlink to a malicious website. Users of vulnerable Microsoft Windows systems who followed the link would be infected.^[11] A countermeasure is the use of software that prevents users from saving an edit that contains a link to a site listed on a blacklist of malware sites.^[24]

Communities[link]

Many wiki communities are private, particularly within enterprises. They are often used as internal documentation for in-house systems and applications. Some companies use wikis to allow customers to help produce software documentation.^[25] A study of corporate wiki users found that they could be divided into "synthesizers" and "adders" of content. Synthesizers' frequency of contribution was affected more by their impact on other wiki users, while adders' contribution frequency was affected more by being able to accomplish their immediate work.^[26] In 2005, the Gartner Group, noting the increasing popularity of wikis, estimated that they would become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50% of companies by 2009.^[27] Wikis can be used for project management.^[28][29][30]

Wikis have also been used in the academic community for sharing and dissemination of information across institutional and international boundaries.^[31] In those settings, they have been found useful for collaboration on grant writing, strategic planning, departmental documentation, and committee work.^[32] In the mid-2000s, the increasing trend amongst industries toward collaboration was placing a heavier impetus upon educators to make students proficient in collaborative work, inspiring even greater interest in wikis being used in the classroom.^[11]

Wikis have found some use within the legal profession, and within government. Examples include the Central Intelligence Agency's Intellipedia, designed to share and collect intelligence, dKospedia, which was used by the American Civil Liberties Union to assist with review of documents pertaining to internment of detainees in Guantánamo Bay^{[citation needed]}; and the wiki of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, used to post court rules and allow practitioners to comment and ask questions. The United States Patent and Trademark Office uses a wiki to allow the public to collaborate on finding prior art relevant to examination of pending patent applications. Queens, New York has used a wiki to allow citizens to collaborate on the design and planning of a local park. Cornell Law School founded a wiki-based legal dictionary called Wex, whose growth has been hampered by restrictions on who can edit.^[21]

There also exist WikiNodes which are pages on wikis that describe related wikis. They are usually organized as neighbors and delegates. A neighbor wiki is simply a wiki that may discuss similar content or may otherwise be of interest. A delegate wiki is a wiki that agrees to have certain content delegated to that wiki.^{[citation needed]}

One way of finding a wiki on a specific subject is to follow the wiki-node network from wiki to wiki; another is to take a Wiki "bus tour", for example: Wikipedia's Tour Bus Stop. Domain names containing "wiki" are growing in popularity to support specific niches.^{[citation needed]}

The English Wikipedia has the largest user base among wikis on the World Wide Web^[33] and ranks in the top 10 among all Web sites in terms of traffic.^[34] Other large wikis include the WikiWikiWeb, Memory Alpha, Wikitravel, World66^{[citation needed]} and Susning.nu, a Swedish-language knowledge base.

Medical and health-related wiki examples include Ganfyd, an online collaborative medical reference that is edited by medical professionals and invited non-medical experts.^[12]

The four basic types of users who participate in wikis are reader, author, wiki administrator and system administrator. The system administrator is responsible for installation and maintenance of the wiki engine and the container web server. The wiki administrator maintains wiki content and is provided additional functions pertaining to pages (e.g. page protection and deletion), and can adjust users' access rights by, for instance, blocking them from editing.^[35]

Growth factors[link]

A study of several hundred wikis showed that a relatively high number of administrators for a given content size is likely to reduce growth^[36]; that access controls restricting editing to registered users tends to reduce growth; that a lack of such access controls tends to fuel new user registration; and that higher administration ratios (i.e. admins/user) have no significant effect on content or population growth.^[37]

Conferences[link]

Conferences and meetings about wikis in general include:

• The International Symposium on Wikis (WikiSym), a conference dedicated to wiki research and practice in general.
• RecentChangesCamp, an unconference on wiki-related topics

Conferences on specific wiki sites and applications include:

• Atlassian Summit, an annual conference for users of Atlassian software, including Confluence^[38]
• RegioWikiCamp, a semi-annual unconference on "regiowikis", or wikis for cities and other geographic areas.^[39]
• SMWCon, a bi-annual conference for users and developers of Semantic MediaWiki.^[40]
• TikiFest, a frequently held meeting for users and developers of Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.^[41]
• Wikimania, an annual conference dedicated to the research and practice of Wikimedia Foundation projects like Wikipedia.

Rules[link]

Wikis typically have a set of rules governing user behavior. Wikipedia, for instance, has an intricate set of policies and guidelines summed up in its five pillars: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; Wikipedia has a neutral point of view; Wikipedia is free content; Wikipedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner; and Wikipedia does not have firm rules. Many wikis have adopted a set of commandments. For instance, Conservapedia commands, among other things, that its editors use "B.C." rather than "B.C.E." when referring to years prior to the common era and refrain from "unproductive activity."^[42] One teacher instituted a commandment for a class wiki, "Wiki unto others as you would have them wiki unto you."^[13]

Legal environment[link]

Joint authorship of articles, in which different users participate in correcting, editing, and compiling the finished product, can also cause editors to become tenants in common of the copyright, making it impossible to republish without the permission of all co-owners, some of whose identities may be unknown due to pseudonymous or anonymous editing.^[11] However, where persons contribute to a collective work such as an encyclopedia, there is no joint ownership if the contributions are separate and distinguishable.^[43] Despite most wikis' tracking of individual contributions, the action of contributing to a wiki page is still arguably one of jointly correcting, editing, or compiling which would give rise to joint ownership.

Some copyright issues can be alleviated through the use of an open content license. Version 2 of the GNU Free Documentation License includes a specific provision for wiki relicensing; Creative Commons licenses are also popular. When no license is specified, an implied license to read and add content to a wiki may be deemed to exist on the grounds of business necessity and the inherent nature of a wiki, although the legal basis for such an implied license may not exist in all circumstances.

Wikis and their users can be held liable for certain activities that occur on the wiki. If a wiki owner displays indifference and forgoes controls (such as banning copyright infringers) that he could have exercised to stop copyright infringement, he may be deemed to have authorized infringement, especially if the wiki is primarily used to infringe copyrights or obtains direct financial benefit, such as advertising revenue, from infringing activities.^[11] In the United States, wikis may benefit from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects sites that engage in "Good Samaritan" policing of harmful material, with no requirement on the quality or quantity of such self-policing.^[44] However, it has also been argued that a wiki's enforcement of certain rules, such as anti-bias, verifiability, reliable sourcing, and no-original-research policies, could pose legal risks.^[45] When defamation occurs on a wiki, theoretically all users of the wiki can be held liable, because any of them had the ability to remove or amend the defamatory material from the "publication." It remains to be seen whether wikis will be regarded as more akin to an internet service provider, which is generally not held liable due to its lack of control over publications' contents, than a publisher.^[11]

It has been recommended that trademark owners monitor what information is presented about their trademarks on wikis, since courts may use such content as evidence pertaining to public perceptions. Joshua Jarvis notes, "Once misinformation is identified, the trade mark owner can simply edit the entry."^[46]

See also[link]

References[link]

• Ebersbach, Anja (2008), Wiki: Web Collaboration, Springer Science+Business Media, ISBN 3-540-35150-7 

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Wiki" article dated 2007-03-14, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

Learning materials related to Wiki at Wikiversity

Media related to wiki at Wikimedia Commons

• WikiIndex, a directory of wikis
• Exploring with Wiki, an interview with Ward Cunningham by Bill Verners
• WikiMatrix website for comparing wiki software and hosts
• WikiPapers (a wiki about publications about wikis)
• WikiTeam, volunteers group to preserve wikis

Ruben Wiki

Wiki with the Rugby League World Cup in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Ruben James Wiki
Nickname	The Kava King[1]
Born	(1973-01-21) 21 January 1973 (age 39) Auckland, New Zealand
Playing information
Height	186 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	104 kg (16 st 5 lb)
Position	Prop, Centre, Second-row
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1993–2004	Canberra Raiders	225	60	0	0	240
2005–2008	NZ Warriors	90	12	0	0	48
	Total	315	72	0	0	288
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1993	Auckland
1992–1993	New Zealand Māori
1994–2006	New Zealand	55	15	0	0	60
Source: Yesterday's Hero, RLP

Ruben Wiki, ONZM (born 21 January 1973, South Auckland, New Zealand) is a former professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. A New Zealand international representative centre-turned-prop forward, he retired with the record for most number of international appearances of any rugby league player in history.^[2]

At club level Wiki played for the Canberra Raiders, winning the 1994 NSWRL Premiership with them before finishing his career with the New Zealand Warriors. He currently works as the NZRL's High Performance Manager and a High Performance Assistant with the New Zealand Warriors.

Playing career[link]

An Otahuhu Leopards junior, Wiki played first grade for the Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors in the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) competition. Alongside future All Black captain Tana Umaga, Wiki wreaked havoc for the Junior Kiwis in 1992. He represented the New Zealand Māori side in 1992 and 1993, playing on the wing at the 1992 Pacific Cup. In 1993 he played for Auckland.^[3][4]

In 1994, he teamed up with Kangaroo legend and current Queensland State of Origin coach, Mal Meninga (who was listed in the Australian Rugby League's Team of the Century), as centre to score a premiership win for the Canberra Raiders. He was then involved in controversy when both the Canberra Raiders and new Auckland Warriors tried to register him for the 1995 season. After a long dispute Wiki stayed with Canberra where he would remain until 2004 before moving to the Warriors. In 2001 Wiki was banned for two matches after pleading guilty to a dangerous throw charge on Sydney prop Scott Logan.^[5] Wiki joined the New Zealand Warriors in 2005. He became only the tenth player and first New Zealander to play 300 first grade games in the NRL when he started at prop in the Warriors 28-26 victory against the Wests Tigers on the 29 June 2008.

Representative Football[link]

Wiki, of Samoan and Maori heritage,^[6] played 55 test matches for New Zealand between 1994 and 2006, at the time the most test matches played by any rugby league footballer in the world, equally (with Darren Lockyer).^[7] He captained the New Zealand national rugby league team in 18 of those tests.^[7]

Wiki will probably be remembered most as the captain of the Kiwi team that scored an historic 24–0 win over the Kangaroos in the 2005 Tri-nations.^[7] This was the first series win since 1978 and the first time in 20 years that New Zealand had kept Australia scoreless in a test match. In the final Wiki was named man-of-the-match and became the first player of any nation to reach fifty test caps.^[8]

During that same period, his former junior Kiwi team mate Tana Umaga, was also captaining his team, the All Blacks to an undefeated tour of the England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Retirement[link]

After playing his 55th test match in the 2006 Tri Nations final Ruben Wiki announced his retirement from the international game along with other New Zealand veterans Nigel Vagana and Stacey Jones. New Zealand lost the final in golden point extra time 12-16 after the scores were locked at 12-all after 80 minutes.

Wiki snubbed the chance to join a European Super League side for the 2009 season,^[9] and entered into retirement from first grade rugby league in 2008.^[10] He played, what was meant to be his final game with the All Golds as part of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup against the New Zealand Māori rugby league team. Later that year he was an assistant to the New Zealand team which won the Rugby League World Cup.

In 2009 Wiki came out of retirement to play for the Samoan Residents,^[11] a team representing his Mother's homeland,^[12] in a one off match which raised money for the Samoan tsunami relief fund.^[13]

In 2010 Wiki took up a role as a High Performance Assistant with the Warriors.^[14] On the 22 January Wiki was named the New Zealand Rugby League's national High Performance Manager, a role which will ensure he is involved with the New Zealand Kiwis.^[15]

Media[link]

Wiki's biography, Ruben Wiki, was published in 2006. In August 2009, Wiki appeared on the New Zealand travel program Intrepid Journeys with a trip to Laos.^[16]

Honours[link]

In 2002 and 2003 Wiki was named the Canberra Raiders' player of the year. In 2006, he was named in a Kiwi All Time XIII at a gala awards dinner celebrating New Zealand's centenary of rugby league alongside his good friend Stacey Jones. Wiki and Jones are the only recent players to be named in the side with the majority of the players being from the "immortal" 1950-60s side and the destructive 1980s team.

Wiki was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2007 for his services to rugby league.^[17]

Career highlights[link]

• 2008 - New Zealand Warriors upsetting minor premiers the Melbourne Storm 18-15 in what was the first time an 8th placed team had defeated the 1st placed since 1999.
• 2008 - First New Zealander to reach 300 first grade NRL games
• 2008 - The oldest player in the NRL at 35 years and 250 days.^[18]
• 55 test caps for Kiwis 1994-2006 before retiring from representative football
• 18 tests as Kiwi captain 2003-2006
• 2006 - Set a record for the most first grade NRL games by a New Zealander, surpassing Stephen Kearney's mark of 264 games.
• 2005 - Was awarded man of the match in his 50th test for the Kiwis. In the same match he also became the first player ever to receive 50 test caps for their country. New Zealand won this historic test against Australia 24-0 and consequently beat Australia for the first time in a series since 1953.
• 1994 - Won a premiership with the Canberra Raiders club.
• First Grade Debut: Round 11, Canberra v South Sydney at Canberra Stadium, 13 June 1993

Personal life[link]

Wiki drank a bowl of the Pacific island drink kava after each match, which he credits for his longevity in the game.^[19]

His sister, Germaine Wiki, has also represented the Kiwi Ferns.^[20]

References[link]

Kim Clijsters

Kim Clijsters at the 2011 Open GDF Suez
Country	Belgium
Residence	Bree, Belgium
Born	(1983-06-08) 8 June 1983 (age 29) Bilzen, Belgium
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st)
Turned pro	17 August 1997
Retired	6 May 2007 Returned 11 August 2009
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US $24,271,348 (3rd in overall earnings)
Singles
Career record	513–124
Career titles	41 WTA (10th in overall rankings) 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (11 August 2003)
Current ranking	No. 47 (28 May 2012)[1]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (2011)
French Open	F (2001, 2003)
Wimbledon	SF (2003, 2006)
US Open	W (2005, 2009, 2010)
Other tournaments
Championships	W (2002, 2003, 2010)
Doubles
Career record	131–54 (70.81%)
Career titles	11 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 1 (4 August 2003)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2003)
French Open	W (2003)
Wimbledon	W (2003)
US Open	QF (2002)
Mixed Doubles
Career titles	0
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon	F (2000)
Last updated on: 28 May 2012.

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters^[3] (Dutch pronunciation: [kɪm ˈklɛistərs] ( listen); born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 28 May 2012, Clijsters is ranked no. 47 in singles. Clijsters is a former world no. 1 in both singles and doubles.

Clijsters has won 41 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She has won four Grand Slam singles titles: three at the US Open, in 2005, 2009, and 2010 and one at the Australian Open in 2011. She has also been runner-up in four Grand Slam singles tournaments, and won the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002, 2003, and 2010. In doubles, she won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters announced her retirement with immediate effect on 6 May 2007,^[4] but almost two years later, on 26 March 2009, she publicly declared her intent to return to the WTA tour for the 2009 summer hard court season.^[5] In only her third tournament back, she won her second US Open title, becoming the first unseeded player and wildcard to win the tournament, and the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.^[6]

In June 2011, TIME magazine named her one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future".^[7] According to Forbes in August 2011, she became the fifth highest-paid female athlete over the past year.^[8]

Playing style[link]

Clijsters is recognized for her powerful groundstrokes, as well as for her backhand slices and drop shots.^[9] She is also recognized for her all-court defense, characterized by her speed, slides, and athleticism.^[10] Maria Sharapova, interviewed after losing to Clijsters in the 2005 Nasdaq-100 Open, said, "You just have to expect that she's going to get every ball back".^[11]

Personal life[link]

Clijsters was born on 8 June 1983, in Bilzen, Limburg, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. She is the daughter of Lei Clijsters, a former international footballer, and Els Vandecaetsbeek, a former national gymnastics champion. Lei Clijsters died of lung cancer on 4 January 2009.^[12] Clijsters says that she inherited footballer's legs from her father and a gymnast's flexibility from her mother.^[13] Kim's younger sister Elke finished 2002 as the ITF World Junior Doubles champion and retired in 2004 after back injuries.

In December 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian Lleyton Hewitt, but their relationship ended in October 2004.^[14] Clijsters is still affectionately nicknamed "Aussie Kim" by Australians. In October 2006, Clijsters announced her engagement to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who is based in Clijsters' hometown of Bree. In an interview with Sportweekend (a sports programme on Belgian Flemish television), Clijsters said that she was retiring to start a family.^[4] Clijsters and Lynch married privately on 13 July 2007, at 6 am at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with sister Elke, Lynch's brother Pat Lynch, and both sets of parents present.^[15]

Clijsters gave birth to daughter, Jada Elle, on 27 February 2008, at 1:35 pm at the Vesalius hospital in Tongeren, Belgium.^[16]

Tennis career[link]

Junior career[link]

Clijsters was an accomplished junior player. In singles, she finished as runner-up in the 1998 Wimbledon junior event,^[17] finishing 11th in the year-end singles ranking.^[18] In the same year in doubles, Clijsters won the French Open title with Jelena Dokić, defeating Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova in the final,^[19] as well as the US Open with Eva Dyrberg, defeating former partner Dokic in the final.^[20] Clijsters ended the season as no. 4 in the International Tennis Federation junior doubles world ranking.^[18]

1999[link]

In 1999, Clijsters made her breakthrough professionally. At her first WTA tournament in Antwerp, she qualified and lost to the eventual finalist Sarah Pitkowski-Malcor in the quarterfinal, after failing to convert a match point.

Playing through the qualifying rounds at Roehampton, she made it to the main draw of Wimbledon.^[21] Clijsters won six matches in a row, while only losing 25 games. She defeated no. 10 Amanda Coetzer en route to the fourth round, during which Clijsters lost to her childhood idol,^[22] Steffi Graf, in straight sets, in difficult rainy circumstances.^[21] Later that summer, Clijsters reached the third round of the US Open, losing to eventual champion Serena Williams after serving for the match. In the autumn, Clijsters won her first Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles title in Luxembourg. She followed up with her first WTA doubles title in Bratislava, partnering Laurence Courtois. At the end of the year, she was granted the WTA Most Impressive Newcomer award, the only Belgian player to have received this trophy.

2000–2002[link]

Clijsters climbed up the rankings over the next couple of years. In 2001, she reached her first Tier I final at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, losing to Serena Williams in a match overshadowed by controversy. Clijsters also reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where she lost to Jennifer Capriati, 10–12, in the third set. This two-hour, 21-minute match featured the longest third set in a French Open women's final. Clijsters was four times within two points of winning, before Capriati prevailed. Her next important breakthrough came at the end of 2002, when she won the year-end Home Depot Championships in Los Angeles, defeating top ranked Serena Williams in the final. This was only the fifth defeat of the year for Williams and snapped her 18-match winning streak. On her way to the final, Clijsters defeated fourth-ranked Justine Henin and second-ranked Venus Williams, becoming just the fourth player to beat both of the Williams sisters in the same event. She also equaled the event's record for the fewest games dropped.

2003: Ascent to No. 1[link]

Clijsters started her season at the Adidas International, where she won her first tournament of the year, defeating Lindsay Davenport in straight sets in the final.^[23] Clijsters reached the final after defeating Patty Schnyder,^[24] Chanda Rubin^[25] and Justine Henin.^[26] At the Australian Open, Clijsters lost in the semifinal to Serena Williams 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, after leading 5–1 in the final set and holding two match points.^[27][28] On the way to the semis Clijsters lost just fifteen games beating Samantha Reeves^[29] and completing a double bagel (wherein the opposing player fails to win a single game) against Petra Mandula.^[30] She then continued by winning in straight sets against Tatiana Poutchek,^[31] Amanda Coetzer, and Anastasia Myskina.^[32] At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, she defeated Lindsay Davenport in the final.

Clijsters in 2003

Clijsters reached the final of the WTA German Open, after defeating Jennifer Capriati 6–4 in the final set.^[33] In the final, she played Justine Henin and squandered three match points to lose the final set, 5–7.^[34] To compound the day, Clijsters also lost the doubles final 4–6 in the final set.^[35]

Clijsters’ third title of the year came at the Telecom Italia Masters in Rome, where she defeated Amélie Mauresmo in the final.^[36][37] Clijsters had defeated Myskina^[38] and doubles partner Ai Sugiyama to make the final.^[39]

At the French Open, Clijsters reached the final for the second time in three years, after defeating Nadia Petrova.^[40] In the final, Clijsters lost to Henin 0–6, 4–6,^[41] and again at the US open, 5–7, 1–6. She also lost in the semifinal at Wimbledon to Venus Williams, after leading by a set and a break.

On 11 August 2003, Clijsters attained the world no. 1 ranking, holding the spot for 12 non-consecutive weeks during the remainder of the year, and was the first player to be top ranked by the WTA without first winning a Grand Slam singles title.

On 18 August 2003, Clijsters also attained the world no. 1 ranking in doubles, joining a very select group of only four players—Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Martina Hingis, and Lindsay Davenport—having reached the world no. 1 ranking in singles and doubles simultaneously. By 2010, only Serena Williams had managed to join this group.

The world no. 1 ranking was again at stake in October during the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, Germany. Clijsters rallied from a set down to beat Henin. The match marked only the eighth time that the top two players battled for the top ranking.^[42] Even though Clijsters won that match, she finished the year ranked world no. 2, just behind Henin.

2004[link]

Clijsters started 2004 by playing in the Hopman Cup. During the tie against Australia, Clijsters injured her ankle against Alicia Molik.^[43] Clijsters was on crutches for a few days and feared she might need surgery. Clijsters pulled out of the Adidas International due to the injury.^[44] Clijsters did recover in time to reach her fourth career Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where she lost once more to Henin.^[45] After defeating Marlene Weingärtner, Maria Elena Camerin (with a double bagel),^[46] Dinara Safina,^[47] Silvia Farina Elia,^[48] Anastasia Myskina (during the match Clijsters aggravated her ankle injury),^[49] and Patty Schnyder to reach the final. Clijsters then won two consecutive titles in Paris and Antwerp. In Paris, Clijsters defeated local favourite Mary Pierce in the final.^[50] To reach the final, Clijsters defeated Maria Sanchez Lorenzo,^[51] Farina Elia,^[52] and Safina.^[53] While defending her Tier I title at the Pacific Life Open, Clijsters injured her wrist during her win against Angelika Roesch in her first match. Clijsters withdrew before her second match with the injury described as a bruised bone.^[54] Clijsters withdrew from the event in Miami the next week^[55] Clijsters then appeared six weeks later in her home town of Bree to play in a Fed Cup tie against Croatia,^[56] winning both of her rubbers. Clijsters returned to the tour in Berlin and needed three sets to see Marta Marrero off.^[57] Clijsters then pulled out of her second match and then was told to rest for five weeks, causing her to miss the French Open.^[58] Clijsters then had surgery to remove a cyst, causing her to miss three months of the tour, including Wimbledon and the US Open.^[59][60] Clijsters also missed the Olympics, but she had already decided not to play the tournament after a dispute about clothing sponsors.^[61] Clijsters returned to the Tour at the Gaz de France Stars.^[62] She made the semifinals, defeating Iveta Benešová^[63][64] and Magdalena Maleeva,^[65][66] before pulling out in the second set against Elena Bovina.^[67][68] Clijsters had aggravated the injury and although she did not need surgery, she was out for the rest of the season.^[69] She played down fears that the injury might force her retirement from tennis.^[70]

2005: First Grand Slam title[link]

Clijsters missed the Australian Open due to injury.^[71] In February, after four months out, Clijsters returned to the tour by participating in the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. Her first match back was against Jelena Kostanić, which she won in straight sets,^[72] before losing to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.^[73][74]

Clijsters completed her comeback in March and April, when she won, as an unseeded player, 17 matches in a row to claim two Tier I titles and regain a top-20 ranking. At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Clijsters was ranked world no. 133. The Belgian began by beating Nicole Pratt,^[71] Shinobu Asagoe,^[75] Anna Chakvetadze,^[76] and Evgenia Linetskaya,^[77] all without dropping a set. In the semifinals, Clijsters defeated world no. 5 Elena Dementieva in straight sets^[78] and world no. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the final in three sets.^[79] The week after that win, Clijsters defeated four top-6 players in straight sets to win the NASDAQ-100 Open. To win the title, Clijsters defeated Sandra Kloesel,^[80] Amy Frazier,^[81] Nathalie Dechy,^[82] Anastasia Myskina,^[83] Elena Dementieva, Amélie Mauresmo,^[84] and Maria Sharapova,^[85] going the whole tournament without dropping a set.

Turning her attention to clay, Clijsters’ winning streak continued at the J&S Cup. Clijsters defeated Tatiana Perebiynis,^[86] Maria Kirilenko,^[87] and Elena Bovina. Against Bovina, Clijsters’ picked up a minor shoulder injury.^[88] Clijsters’ 17 match winning streak was finally ended by Svetlana Kuznetsova.^[88] Playing next at the WTA German Open Clijsters defeated Yuliana Fedak^[89] and Dinara Safina in straight sets before, hurting her right knee^[90] and retiring against Patty Schnyder.^[91] Clijsters recovered in time to play in the French Open.^[92] Playing in the French Open for the first time in two years, Clijsters defeated Meilen Tu,^[93] Cervanová, and Daniela Hantuchová^[94] to advance to the fourth round, where she lost to Davenport 1–6, 7–5, 6–3 after leading 3–1 in the second set.^[95]

Clijsters got off to the best possible start for her grass-court season at the Hastings Direct International Championships by winning the tournament. Clijsters defeated Jelena Janković,^[96] Conchita Martínez, Mashona Washington,^[97] Kuznetsova^[98] and Vera Dushevina to claim her third title of the year.^[99] At Wimbledon, Clijsters defeated Katie O'Brien,^[100] Marissa Irvin,^[101] and Roberta Vinci,^[102] before facing Davenport in the round of 16 for the second Grand Slam in a row. The result was the same as the French Open, with the American winning.^[103]

After Wimbledon, Clijsters went on an amazing run of form, where she lost just once between July and October. Clijsters’ run began at the Bank of the West Classic against Ai Sugiyama,^[104] and she defeated Daniela Hantuchová,^[105] Anna-Lena Grönefeld, and Venus Williams to win her fourth title of the year.^[106] Clijsters’ streak continued in San Diego, as she defeated Marta Domachowska^[107] and Janković,^[108] before suffering her only defeat in this run to Shuai Peng.^[109]

After the defeat to Peng, Clijsters continued the run, as she won 22 matches in a row, collecting four straight titles along the way, including her maiden Grand Slam title. The 22-match streak started against Karolina Šprem,^[110] with victories over Safina, Nadia Petrova,^[111] and Francesca Schiavone.^[112] Clijsters collected her fifth title of the year.^[113] The streak continued in Toronto as Clijsters beat Virginie Razzano,^[114] Ana Ivanovic (via a walkover),^[115] Flavia Pennetta,^[116] Anastasia Myskina^[117] and Justine Henin-Hardenne to win the Rogers Cup.^[118] After winning three of her four US Summer Hard court tournaments, Clijsters won the US Open Series, which links all the US summer hard courts together and doubles the winners prize money at the US Open. Giving Clijsters a chance to double the $1.1 million US Open winners prize to $2.2 million.^[119]

Clijsters won her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open, after having reached four Grand Slam finals previously. Clijsters started by defeating Martina Müller,^[120] Fabiola Zuluaga,^[121] Ai Sugiyama^[122] and María Vento-Kabchi^[123] in straight sets to reach the quarter finals. There, Clijsters defeated tenth-seeded Venus Williams in the quarter-finals 4–6, 7–5, 6–1, winning 11 of the last 13 games after being down 6–4, 4–2.^[124] Clijsters squandered five match points in the second set of her semi against Sharapova but eventually won 6–2, 6–7(4), 6–3.^[125] In her fifth attempt, Clijsters won her first Grand Slam final, defeating Mary Pierce in straight sets. By winning the US Open Series Clijsters doubled her US$1.1 million in prize money she received for winning the US Open, to US$2.2 million.^[126][127] The pay check was the largest payday in women's sports history.^[128]

On 15 September, a week after her US Open victory, it was announced that Clijsters and her coach, Marc Dehous, had parted company, which was due in part to her paying him only $9,000 of her $2,200,000 US Open winnings.^[129][130]

Clijsters’ hot streak continued as she extended her streak to 21 wins, even without a coach at the Fortis Championships. Clijsters beat Klara Koukalová,^[131] Schiavone,^[132] Dechy and Lena Groenefeld all without dropping a set to win her eighth title of the year.^[133] The title was Clijsters’ fourth consecutive title.^[134] At the Porsche Grand Prix Clijsters defeated Šprem^[135] for her twenty second consecutive match win before Dementieva ended the streak.^[136]

Clijsters then won her ninth and final tournament of the year at the Gaz de France Stars, defeating Schiavone in the final, to go the whole tournament without dropping a set.^[137] Clijsters defeated Ekaterina Bychkova,^[138] Šprem,^[139] Julia Schruff^[140] and Safina^[141] to make the final.

At the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, Clijsters was eliminated in the group stage. Clijsters lost her first match, a rematch of the US Open final, to Pierce 6–1, 4–6, 7–6^[142] and her second match to Mauresmo 6–3, 7–6. This left the Belgian needing to win and hope that the results in the other matches went her way.^[143] Although results did not go her way and Clijsters was eliminated with one match still to play,^[144] she finished her season by defeating Dementieva in straight sets.^[145] Clijsters ended the year ranked World No. 2.

2006[link]

Clijsters in 2006

Clijsters started the year by from her semifinal match at the WTA tournament in Sydney, citing a left hip muscle strain.

At the Australian Open, Clijsters defeated former champion Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals, 6–3, 2–6, 6–4, before retiring from her semifinal match with Amélie Mauresmo. Despite the loss, the ranking points she accumulated were enough to regain the world no. 1 ranking, a position she last held on 9 November 2003. She was the first tennis player, male or female, to rise from outside the top 100 (world no. 134) to world no. 1 in less than a year. Clijsters' loss to Mauresmo in the Australian Open semifinal was due to an ankle injury. Although she had been expected to miss at least eight weeks to recover, Clijsters returned two weeks later at the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp. She lost the final of that tournament to Mauresmo in three sets.

Clijsters won her first title of the year at a clay court event in Warsaw, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. At the French Open in May, Clijsters reached the semifinals without losing a set, defeating Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals, 7–6, 6–1. However, she lost to Justine Henin in the semifinal, 3–6, 2–6, on her 23rd birthday. She was seeded second going into Wimbledon, but was again eliminated in the semifinal by Henin, also in straight sets, 4–6, 6–7(4).

Clijsters at 2006 Wimbledon

Clijsters collected her second title of the year as the top seed in Stanford, defeating Patty Schnyder in the final. Clijsters then reached the final in San Diego, falling to second-seeded Maria Sharapova in straight sets. This was her first loss to Sharapova in five career meetings.

On 16 August, after receiving a first-round bye at the Tier I Rogers Cup in Montreal, Clijsters faced Canadian Stéphanie Dubois in the second round. Having won the first set 6–1 and trailing 2–3 in the second set, Clijsters slipped and fell on her left wrist and was forced to retire from the match. On 18 August 2006, Clijsters announced on her official website that the condition of her wrist was worse than she had expected and that she would be unable to defend her title at the US Open. She also missed the Fed Cup final against Italy, which Italy won 3–2.^[146]

Playing in Paris at the Gaz de France Stars tournament, her first event in more than two months, Clijsters successfully defended her title by beating qualifier Kaia Kanepi in the final. At the year-end WTA Tour Championships, Clijsters lost a semifinal to Mauresmo, 2–6, 6–3, 3–6, after defeating Dementieva and Kuznetsova and losing to Sharapova in the round-robin phase of the tournament.

2007: Retirement[link]

2007 was to be Clijsters’ final year on tour, as she had planned in 2005 to retire at the end of the 2007 season.^[147] Clijsters started the year by winning an exhibition tournament, the Watson Water Challenge, in Hong Kong. On her way to the title, she defeated Zheng Jie, Patty Schnyder, and top-ranked Maria Sharapova. Clijsters then won the Medibank International in Sydney, defeating Nicole Pratt,^[148] Shahar Pe'er,^[149] Li Na, and^[150] Jelena Janković to claim the title, after being match point down in the final.^[151]

Clijsters at the 2007 J&S Cup

At the Australian Open, Clijsters was the fourth seed. The Belgian started by giving a double bagel to Vasilisa Bardina, before going on to defeat Akiko Morigami,^[152] Alona Bondarenko,^[153] and Daniela Hantuchová^[154] in straight sets. Clijsters then defeated sixth seed Martina Hingis in three sets,^[155] before losing to Sharapova in the semifinals.^[156]

Clijsters next played in Belgium at the Proximus Diamond Games, after pulling out of the Open Gaz de France with a hip injury.^[157] While Clijsters said that she was fit, she hinted that she might miss the French Open.^[158] Clijsters defeated Olga Poutchkova,^[159] Ana Ivanovic,^[160] and Tatiana Golovin^[161] to reach the final without dropping a set, though she lost there to Amélie Mauresmo.^{[162][163][164]}