How is federated wiki different than google pages? Just about every way it turns out.
# Pages
Pages is a modern clone of Word which is Microsoft's clone of Bravo which is Xerox's clone of a word processor made to speed up clerical work.
Pages makes pages for printers and adopts all of the conventions of the printed page including starting over from scratch after a final draft is printed.
Pages shares keystrokes between users so that everyone can watch each other type letters and punctuation and know how each other spells.
# Wiki
Wiki is a modern realization of Pattern Language which is the Center for Environmental Structures' abstraction of emergent design experience.
Wiki makes hypertext which exists only in the network where it evolves like a living thing growing and improving over time.
Wiki shares paragraphs which suggest new meanings as they move from context to context, user to user, with each learning how each other thinks.
# Purpose
Use Pages when you have an assignment to complete with clerical competence and then move on to the next assignment, maybe smarter, maybe not.
Use Wiki when you're grappling with difficult ideas that will only ring true when reconciled with dozens or hundreds of other ideas from hundreds or thousands of other thinkers to create meaning you can keep.
See Biological Inspiration where we explore deeper foundations.