“Those cross-cutting sentiments,” I further write, “found expression in 1995 in the pretensions of Netscape, the California startup that made a breakthrough Web browser and, with its remarkable initial public offering of stock, catalyzed the dot.com boom of the second half of the 1990s. They found further expression in the quiet emergence of Amazon.com, which has become the Web’s greatest commercial success story. And they found expression in the development of the unassuming wiki, the open-editing software that enables Web users to collaborate across distances.

“Netscape, Amazon, and the wiki, each in its way, testified to the Web’s emergent dynamism in 1995 ….”

Cunningham, in an interview with me as I researched the 1995 book, said he decided to call his invention “WikiWikiWeb” after contemplating, but rejecting, “QuickWeb.”

He said he recalled from his honeymoon in Hawaii that “wiki” meant “quick” in Hawaiian, and that sometimes Hawaiian words were doubled for emphasis. The shuttles running between terminals at the Honolulu International Airport were called “Wiki Wiki” buses.

Cunningham said he figured “WikiWikiWeb” was more fun to say than “Quick Web.” The alliteration of “WikiWikiWeb” was appealing, too, he said. And “WikiWikiWeb” also evoked “World Wide Web.”

In time, “WikiWikiWeb” was shortened to “wiki” or “Ward’s wiki.”