Informatics at the UCLA Information Studies department is not as well defined as the other tracks in the MLIS program (library studies and archival studies). While this is justified by the large numbers of students in those tracks, this leaves a disadvantage for incoming students who are interested in informatics as they are forced to devise their own definitions of informatics or left to choose between library and archival studies. Not that this is a huge disadvantage, but there is a lack of comradeship/community within informatics IS students.
The Informatics Wiki attempts to battle this isolation of students interested in informatics and create a community of practice (if you will) through this wiki. The wiki structure gives authoring/editing access to more than one person as well as provide a third space for students to ferment discussion relating to informatics study. At the same time, the wiki format allows future students to expand the wiki in their own way, creating a community ontology organized by the students themselves.
In other words, long live the wiki! May the wiki live long and prosper!