Monday, February 24, 2014

Blogs vs Wikis

Both blogs and wikis are very useful tools in this new media age. Although they have their differences, they share common characteristics such as the 5C's - Communication, Collaboration, Community, Creativity and Convergence. Wikis and blogs are fascinating communication resources because they allow for the exchange of dialogue between their creators and contributors. Wikis are very collaborative in that users can modify the content of the webpage at any given point without restriction. This can foster more creativity and collaborative efforts by users as opposed to blogs. The downside to wikis is that any user can edit their content which makes it very easy for one's contribution to be modified. It is also limited to the number of users unlike blogs where one manages the blog he or she created but has the ability for anyone to read and comment on that blog.

Blogs are so useful in conveying information to the public and although personal blogs are more popular, it is not uncommon to see corporate blogs. The article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03walmart.html speaks of a blog where employees of Wal-Mart actually give their views on products that are sold by the company and their contributions are very useful in shedding light on good and not so good products.

This other article highlights the collaborative elements of wiki in soliciting proposals from the community in an effort to maintain its culture. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/business/media/31link.html.

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