Blog v. Wiki

Blogs and wikis are mediums with similar features on the surface, however digging into the depth of these new media communication forms illuminates upon interesting differences. Blogs are about declaring opinions; blogging can be understood as a virtual microphone for folks looking to discuss their interests, hobbies, and pastimes to a wider audience in whatever topic such as politics, arts, skin care products, make up, hair, clothes, news, books, different consumer products,  food, and so much more. The content regarding blogging is based in an opinionated and personal nature. In fact, within a paper, written by Kathy E. Gill, called “How Can We Measure the Influence of the Blogosphere?” it is stated that “bloggers write about topics that matter to them; their audience may be larger or small. Some blogs are single-person operations (one to many); others have a community of authors (many to many)” (par.11). I found some aspects of blogs to be quiet ingenious and novel such as how one is able to see past posts and each post is dated as well as time stamped (if need be). One can imagine a blog as an online diary or chronicle of sorts, but one that is available for all to read and comment on. Comments from other visitors and the audience spark about a dialogue or conversation which adds more fun and excitement to blogging because it transforms those interactions into online socializing. In contrast, wiki is more about collaboration, research, and sharing information; others can in turn, enhance that information by sharing more knowledge, data, and facts towards it. In fact, The Harvard Business Review article, written by Gardiner Morse, called “Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales On Making the Most of Company Wikis”, states that wikis can be used for “pretty much any sort of knowledge sharing that is enhanced by open, flexible, rapid collaboration, particularly in contexts where people are separated geographically and relationship-building is important. Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs” (par.5). I think for multi-national corporations wiki could be a great way for different regions to collaborate or just share information.

Convergence is extremely important in this technologically advanced time period, as we are connected to almost every event and all types of data it is important for convergence to exist. Through it, many aspects of life can become much more efficient. Consider the article written by James Dao, called “Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch As Troops Blog”, which shows the convergence of soldiers and blogging, this brings out a unique point of view of war which only could occur through convergence.

Personally, I don’t see blogs being used for collaboration in a large functional extent, unless you have a case where there is more than one blogger within a blogging site, both blogging publishers can contribute together towards mutually interesting topics and concerns. Also, comments written by the audience may be seen in a slight perspective as collaboration. Perhaps they can “comment” further knowledge which contributes to the blog post in a certain way or that the blogger can use to adjust the blog. When I read the article called “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead To Drug Raid”, written by Michael Wilson, I thought that that was a perfect collaboration between the neighborhood bloggers, the community at large, and the police. If a certain blogger posted a blog about suspicious activity, others contributed and further collaborated with the publisher by providing even more information in real time! I found this amazing and extremely   unprecedented; I truly enjoyed reading about the collaboration present in this article.  

New ways to utilize wiki:

A growing trend of business is to outsource some of its functions such as human resources, talent searches, information technology, and accounting to other firms that excel in providing the services. Perhaps wikis can be used as a collaborative tool between the client organization and service provider firm to stay on top of important projects and to keep all key parties involved by allowing them to meet in one virtual setting. So for example, hiring new employees can be discussed in detail within wiki between both companies. Job descriptions can be edited through the wiki as well by both parties. Or head hunting firms can collaborate with their clients through wiki to help expedite and iron out the job search.