Blogs vs. Wikis

Blog's and Wiki's are somewhat similar in my opinion.  Wiki's are made so it is an open source for everyone to collaboratively change the content and appearance.  Blogs although generally written by one author can also be from multiple sources.  Blogs are more focused on the chronological order of posts whereas this isn't a major field of concern in wiki's.  Blog's are mainly about the author's opinion of the topic he/she is writing about.  Wiki's are used as a resource to gain knowledge of a certain topic and the information surrounding that topic is constantly updated by the users of that wiki.  Convergence is a key part of our networked world today.  To be able to collaboratively work on an assignment with anyone at any given moment is a true power that can be utilized to further our world today.  For instance the way this class is run is remarkable.  To go an entire semester without meeting once is something we take for granted because of the day and age we live in.  As stated by Ms. Stacie Hankins, a special assistant at the United States Embassy in Rome, "The advantage of Diplopedia, she said, isn’t necessarily the ease of creating new material, but the ease in finding information."(nytimes) I think this a fair point of all wiki's.  They are an endless wealth of knowledge we can all take advantage of.  Arguments can be made that wiki's should be utilized more in the business world.  Emailing documents, putting them on hard drives, updating the document, newest form getting lost in translation are all headaches that can be avoided when using wiki's.  "Wiki's are cheap, extensible, and easy to implement, and they don't require a massive software rollout.  They also interface well with existing network infrastructures."(informationweek)  Blogs, although individualistic by nature, can be used for collaboration.  Whoever creates the blog can have an overall theme that he/she wants to pertain to.  Then the editor has a running stream of authors writing on the feed and constantly updating with new posts.  This way although the individual is creating their own post, they are all adding to the common goal of furthering the theme of the blog.  I think that wiki's being used on the floor of congress would be an interesting concept.  They can make changes to bills, and approve or disapprove certain aspects of the documents in question.  They can all do this simultaneously instead of drafting new documents for every detail they decide to change.

Works Cited:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/media/04link.html

http://www.informationweek.com/how-to-use-wikis-for-business/d/d-id/1034971?page_number=3