Differences of blogs and wikis
Blogs: a form of online journal by individual or corporation.
Wikis: a collaborative website for individual or corporation.
Blogs: It shows online diaries. According to Melissa Gerry, “people are able to write about topics that interest them and comment freely on what is going on in their lives and in the world around them.” (Melissa Gerry,2006)
Wikis: It shows sharing on knowledge and information which is useful for research.
Blogs: It is written by one author. The visitors can post comments.
Wikis: It can be written and edited by multiple authors.
Blogs: updated slowly by one author’s post.
Wikis: updated fast by the changes from multiple authors. According to Ezra Goodnoe, “Content in a wiki can be updated without any real lag, without any real administrative effort, and without the need for distribution — users/contributors (with wikis, they're one and the same) simply visit and update a common Web site.”( Ezra Goodnoe,2005)
Blogs: the post is from one’s view point.
Wikis: the post is from multiple view points from different users.
Similarities between blogs and wikis
Both of them enable written discussion and online communication.
Both are open to the public.
Both are easy to set up by obtaining username and password.
Both can be used for classroom website.
Both can post text, pictures, and links.
Their layouts can be designed by users.
Both are free to use and access.
Both can be showed in different languages.
Both enable collaboration and sharing.
Both are accessible in world wide.
Convergence
It means voice, video and data networks are merged into one network. It has more efficiency and less cost.
The cables, computers, and staffs for the voice and data systems can be reduced by convergence. The performance of them can be maximized. Since, the devices are reduced; the IT control is easier to be implemented.
Collaboration of blogs
Everyone can have a blog account. The users can post anything they want to share, discuss, or ask on their blogs; it can be text, picture, or links. The visitors can leave comments on the users’ blogs. The collaboration is formed between the users and visitors by post and comments.
Individual can create blog in order to share anything he or she wants to share with friends or family members.
Companies can create blog for information sharing and collaboration inside or outside of the companies. The employees or managements can discuss their new ideas about company products, comments on business operation. It enables the collaboration inside the company. Companies can show their new advertising and new products to customers on their blog. Customers can also leave comments on the blogs. It enables the collaboration outside the company.
Professors can ask students to create blog for class discussion on a given topic. Students can leave comments on each other’s post. It enables the collaboration between professor and students, and the collaboration among students.
The community can create a blog to discuss about the events in the community, such as an election. It enable to collaboration in the community.
These are few examples of collaborations of blog.
New use of wikis
The Wikis system can notice the visitors the misinformation and disinformation on their contents automatically. People tend to not believe the information on Wiki, because everybody can put information on Wikis, most people are not experts on the field. It is a problem for visitors, if them gather information for making important decision, doing homework, and so forth. It is very wonderful if Wiki can notify the visitors about the quality of information.
I like the way you define Blogs which you use the statement from Melissa Gerry, “people are able to write about topics that interest them and comment freely on what is going on in their lives and in the world around them." And I use the statement from James W. Carey “our day book, our collective diary, which records our common life" to define blogs which i like it too, because blogs is more like journalism. You gave out three different examples about collaboration of blogs, and there is one example that really happened to me. last semester, i took a English class, and my english professor asked as to create a blog account in order to discuss the story that we read. We posted our thought and feeling about the story, and even personal experiences on blog. We sharing our opinion and view each other's blog and leave our comments. people can make discussion in person, but also can make discussion online through blog at any where with internet and any time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the difference of wikis and blogs that wikis is the post from multiple view points from different users. I didn’t think of that before I read your post. This is really an important difference between wikis and blogs.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, it really will be wonderful if Wiki can notify us about the quality of information. In this way, our professors may allow us to use Wikipedia as a source for our projects. However, the point is who is going to rate these information? Scholars or users? If information is rated by users, there may also still have some question on the creditability with the information. If information is rated by scholars, how can we know that the one who evaluate the information is the real scholars. These are only a little thoughts of a further question about your idea.
I like your idea about notifying users about misinformation on content. This would be helpful to let the user know the correct information as well as the other users. They will definitely learn that way!
ReplyDeleteIncorrect information is definitely a major concern when it comes to the openness of wiki authorship. Ultimately, we're dependent on good faith of users, and perhaps some good editors and fact-checkers.
ReplyDelete