Blog vs Wiki

A wiki and a blog are both instruments of web 2.0. Both allow some form of collaboration and community where information sharing and expression is possible in a way that was never available before. It can happen in an instant and it's free or cost close to nothing to create.

A wiki is a website that allows users to add, edit and link content and change the layout of a webpage collaboratively. The information on a wiki is constantly changing because users are continuously updating the information. This ensures that there is a better quality of information available to users. According to the article in InformationWeek, "How To Use Wikis For Business," "Content in a wiki can be updated without any real lag, without any real administrative effort, and without the need for distribution." A blog, on the other hand is a website that is created and updated by one user or group where entries are made in a timely fashion and comments made from others are approved by the author. Compared to wikis, blogs are places to express opinions rather than facts and wikis win when it comes to collaboration. But it is possible to collaborate using blogs according to Linda and Hershey Friedman's article "The New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework." It says, "a single blog may be shared among a group of individuals and sometimes a blog may be used for group work...Google Docs enables groups of users to work on the same document." Essentially adding aspects of a wiki to a blog like linking a Google Doc to be worked on by a group is a great way to promote collaboration using a blog. This can probably be viewed as a convergence of media since it uses two aspects of media. This brings us back to the need to stay current and relevant in an rapid-changing environment of technology. Users want information and tools to find the simplest solution for half the time and half the cost. If providers are not combining different technologies as well as different forms of media, they stand to be one-upped by the next best thing.

Considering the culmination of the use of wikis into the greatest wiki of all, Wikipedia, I have to say that finding a new way to use wikis that could measure up to how it's being used now does not seem possible. A wiki is meant to be an information page that is verified and changed by many. Any other use would be different but perhaps less effective.

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