THIS IS A REALLY GOOD QUESTION!
But let's start from the meaning of the strange word wiiki!
The word wiki comes from the Hawaiian language and it means "quick". Nowadays it refers to a database or a website developed collaboratively by a COMMUNITY of users. This word was coined by the US programmer Ward Cunningham, who stated "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web.". Some also think it could also be the acronym of "What I know is..", which describes the function of a wiki: sharing knowledge and acquiring new information.

WHAT'S A WIKI?
Wiki is discussion medium and tool for collaboration, anyone can just come along and put whatever they like on any page( comments, impressions)
Wiki uses open source software to collaboratively write and re-write what others have published.
It is a sort of half finished work because anyone can get around and get involved on the discussion or on the topic.
A successful example of a wiki is Wikipedia, which was started in 2001. It's a free and multilingual encyclopedia. It is a collective project where anyone can edit or post entries.

Obviously you can't put whatever you want in wiki, there is an "etiquette" to follow, the so-called "wikietiquette" that clearly express what you can and cannot do in a wiki. A wiki can be considered a community and expects correct social behaviour.First of all you have to be polite, you shouldn't offend people or send spam, you always have to be objective but never bitting otherwise your post will be not sent. The most important thing is that you have always to be CIVIL.

As far as the style is concerned, the language in wikis is quite formal because it should be understood by anyone who comes to visit the webpage ( even by non- native speakers). Local slangs and acronyms are( or should be) reduced to a minimum. However, surfing in some wikis I noticed that in forums, which are shown in almost every wiki, the language is more informal, and abbreviations or local expressions are present in a large number.


When I was exploring wikis I tried to understand why they decided to buid up a wiki, and I found out that is main purpose is freedom, but also the opportunity of improving webpages by adding comments and knowledges.
At the beginning I thought that it was more or less a sort of forum, but then I realized that a wiki is more, it collects all the important arguments, and then you can easily search for them on net.

I think that like weblogs or podcasts,wikis have started to become popular online as people find that it's a new stimulting way to create and to express themselves, but also to know what other people's knowledge is.

What's a podcast?
This week we are exploring the intriguing world of "podcasting", but let we start from a short definition...
"A podcast is an audiofile you download from Internet using syndacation feeds so that you can listen to it on your personal computer or on your mp3( if you're lucky on your I-Pod)"

Roaming on the net I found three intresting podcasts, which can be also useful for you:

1. British Council podcast, where you can improve your skills by listening to a large selection of audio files, but you can also find a full range of learning materials, including grammar and vocabulary exercises.Moreover you can click on different sections :Professional;central;kids;teaching English, and observe the peculiarities of each type of language used.
2. Bbc News, in this podcast you have the possibilty to listen to an audio and also watch a video about a professor using podcasts at University. he explains his choice and why he abolished traditional lessons.On the website you can also find a summary of the video and watching the video make everything more comprihensible.
3. ESL learning English:, This broadcast is specific for English learners, it's quite easy to understand and offers not only audio files but also the transcriptions useful for catching on to things you may have missed when listening to the podcast.You'll also find a glossary with defionitions of words.

Now if you like to know my impressions on podcasts and surrondings., click below

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The evolution of technology has been increasing everyday, and it has become a medium for communicating all over the world. In this context the language is also evolving and changing. New words and expressions are coined, new meanings are given to existinging words as society, culture and technology progress.
It's really difficult to identify which language is used and how it has been changing, because there are many varieties of Web sites, each specializing in a particular type of content or use. The ones I will try to analyse can be defined "information sites"because their purpose is to inform readers about news, but they are not necessarily used for publicity.It has ( or at least it should have) an educational function. I chose the" BBC homepage" and the "Mirror homepage".Even if these websites are similar ,they different from many aspects.
From the ghrafical point of view both homepages are organized in many sections, each dealing with a particular aspect or news,and every news has subheading which explain shortly the fact.
Moreover the homepages contain music, videos and you can post instantly your comments to.
As far as language is concerned, the expressions used in the homepages are really different,the language used by the BBC site is standard , it's made up of short sentences, nouns are more frequent than verbs in headlines( e.g Your perspective on the word, Weather for London, etc).In many links you find questions to attract readers' attention, as "Can't find it?", but also imperative forms (watch and listen) or gerundiv as"Learning English". I think the BBC site recreates the genre used in its broadcast as the"Mirror" site is similar to its newspaper .
The language is full of colloquial expressions and idiomatic forms to grab readers' attention, as the editor said "As well as exclusive news, showbiz and sport from the paper, we'll be bringing you breaking stories as they happen and incisive analysis". or again in the subheadings you find such a sentence :"Paris Hilton showered with ice as all hell breaks loose after Michael Jackson show...". In my opinion the language is like a sort fo conversation between the author and the audience and really close to the one used for discussion forums or online diaries. This is maybe a strategy to make visitors feel more familiar with ( e.g.HE'S A FLOP..GET HIM OUT OF HERE). The high number of phrasal verbs or idiomatic expressions make the site site sound more informal, whereas the BBC site tends to be more formal.( e.g. Spain unveils Mid-East peace plan).
These are many other important things you can notice in the two websites,but I hope this short analysis give you a general idea of what you can find in them.

Lucrezia

lucrezia's blog

Enjoying the benefits of bookmarks
Bookmarks enable you to save addresses of your favourite sites so that you can easely return to them without having to retype the address everytime , and you can visit them in the future, even when you're smemorato like me!! You can also decide to bookmark your favourite sites and share them with other members of the community, so you enjoy the social function of bookmarks : you can search for other people's favorites and add their sites to your favourites ones , putting a word or a tag into a field you can find different subjects and get know new friends, who share your same interests.

I surfed in my fellows' favourite websites and all attracted my attention; most of them are about how to improve or to help our language abilities, as the one called "Using English tenses"( by Francesca) or" The use of article or no article in English"(by Annalisa).I really think the bookmark called "Complete guide to phrasal verbs "( thanks Sve) is the one I need to add to my favourites. In fact there is not only the explanation of the word and of its use but also the pronunciation. It's also easy to use, that in my opinion is one of the more important things for a bookmark as my computer skills are limited. I like also Markello's idea of putting the site

"How to write a thesis" and the one of Giorgia of putting "Stages in Italy and abroad". I think Barbara gave me an hand with her site " 11 grammar rules",so everytime I can check my punctuation when I'm writing something. Finally I want to cite the site

"learning vocabulary with games" (by Alice). It's an amusing way of revising some vocabulary and also learning new specific words.Thank you guys, see you at lesson.

Lucrezia