OK, you've seen what wiki's are and why they might be a tool you can use. You've decided to use wiki technology in your work or classroom. Follow these steps to create your own WetPaint wiki.

1. Read WetPaint's Create Your Own Site.
2. Select a wiki name. The name your choose doesn't really matter all that much - just pick one that is easy to remember and not already in use.
3. Decide which template you want to clone to start your wiki. For teachers, Classroom is a good choice. WetPaint provides special pages for educators. See Wikis in Education.
4. Create a Wetpaint account. Hopefully, you arecontributing to this wiki and have an account already.
5. Create your wiki. Pay special attention to who can edit your wiki. For example. if you have a group (peers, class of students, etc) you may choose to limit wiki edit priviledge to just the people you invite. If your wiki is wider, you may deicde to allow anyone who joins your wiki to edit -- or even allow anyone at all to edit.
6. Customize your site. Become familiar with the wiki Easy Edit and be ready to check out the wiki Hekp and FAQ.
7. Since you have a site used for educational purposes, you may want to explore the removal of advertisements.
8. If you are concerned about site backups. you may choose to backup your site. This is generally not necessary.
9. You may choose to moderate your site or have others help moderate it.
10. Now, get the word out. A wiki works well when there is a 'critical mass' of contributors. No matter how many folks read your wiki, without a reasonable number of folks adding to it, you will soon find that a) Your wiki gets stale or b) you spend too much of your own time maintaining the wiki.