ASSIGNMENT: Compare and contrast blogs and wikis. Comment on the importance of convergence in today's networked world. How can blogs be used for collaboration? Can you think of a new use for a wiki that has not been done yet?
Blogs and Wikis both have a bountiful amount of information. However, blogs tend to be more personal and opinionated, while Wikis are typically backed up by citations and sources. There is also a great contrast between Blogs and Wikis. For starters, blogs have the tendency of diving into the individual’s mind, where blogs add the personal touch of the editor. It allows the reader to pick at the brain of the editor since the content is based mostly around his or her perspective on a certain topic. Likewise, convergence in today's world is especially useful and practical - allowing everyone, anywhere, with access to the World Wide Web to learn from each other and explore areas of interest that they may not typically have the chance to be informed on locally.
Blogs can be used interactively and collaboratively as well - for sake of assembling multiple opinions and thoughts about a particular topic that can be viewed in one social medium. While blogs can be used for collaboration, just as we are utilizing it for our CIS 3810 New Media course, it can also be used for negativity. Dowd writes about an anonymous blogger who took to Google's blogger.com to use "negative, sexual, and promiscuous remarks about the model and Australian Vogue cover girl, Liskula Cohen. Classified as cyberbullying and defamation, a subsequent lawsuit forced Google to reveal the e-mail of the anonymous blogger.
Wikis, on the other hand, tend to be more factual and information based. However, Wikis leave a lot of room for possible errors and vandalism. Cohen explains in "Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People" that with Wikipedia, one of the top 10 websites in the world. Since it is an open-source platform and that it is free for all users to edit and make additions, there leaves a lot of room for inconsistencies and oversight. This article dives into further dissecting the downsides of Wikipedia today.
Works Cited:
"Stung by the Perfect Sting," By Maureen Dowd, The NY Times, Aug 25, 2009. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/opinion/26dowd.html
"Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People" by Noam Cohen, The New York Times, August 24, 2009. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/internet/25wikipedia.html?_r=1
Hi Martin, I think that blogs are more personal because there is more freedom to be creative on that platform. As for Wiki's there is already a set out format and structure.
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