Blogs vs Wiki

Blogs and wiki are referred as essential online source for information. The information provided in these forum could reach large audience and it holds a great multiplicity for knowledge and information. Both of these are consider as the basic student collaboration tool today. Let's start with blogs, it is serve as a medium for recording thoughts  and impression on a particular topic. It provides the opportunity for readers to share their point of view by commenting under the article/journal. Most of the discussion take place in the comment regarding the post and most importantly author/user is able to generate instant feedback about the post. According to the article, 'Wal-mart Tastemakers write Unfiltered blog', "Wal-mart says the website helps buyer solicit quick feedback from consumers on the merchandise". This prove my point about the usefulness of feedback option in blogs. On the other hand, Wiki, which is an online software tool that allows multiple users to collaborate and generate web content typically for reference purposes. The pages on the wiki can be edited/changed by a group or a team. The main concern about the wiki is the possibility of unverified information which could be misleading and can have unwanted information which is just there for no use. My idea is further supported in the article, 'More on how to build your own Wikipedia', " An anything-goes attitude. You want to encourage users to contribute and discuss wiki content, but someone has to make sure it stays relevant. Wiki administrators must keep pages and entries clean and orderly or the wiki won't be useful".  

      Today's networked world allows more people to share their personal information such as opinions or ideas. The could learn anything from each other by just staying home instead of putting efforts to find books in a library.  

       Blogs can also be used as collaboration by first posting an interesting article you wrote and want some feed backs or more ideas. The audience would simply keep on sharing their point of view under the comment section and this way the author could gain some key information from its audience or viewers. 

    I really would love to see  a video sharing tool in wiki so that it makes it more attractive for the users and would encourage them more to collaborate them. Sometime the visual could work better than the words in order to gain any knowledge.

Citation

1. Wiki While You Work; The technology popularized by Wikipedia can help companies gather and manage their own collective knowledge. Here's how to get started by Margaret Locher. CIO, May 1, 2008. Vol. 21, Iss. 14. Available at: http://www.cio.com/article/336818/More_on_How_to_Build_Your_Own_Wikipedia  
2. Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write a Blunt and Unfiltered Blog, NY Times, march 3, 2008, p. C1, at:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03walmart.html