Blogs & Wikis

Blogs are defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as: "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also: the contents of such a site". Blog is a short term we use for Weblog; this was first used in 1999. What I love and like so much about this is that a single user or person in society rather with access to a computer and something to say, can freely and openly express their ideas and feelings with just themselves able to view their thoughts or others in the world.
These Blogs can be used for collaboration in school, for religious groups, people with the same ideas and or feelings about a subject/topic matter; other uses for collaboration can be more professional for example colleagues sharing information and other work related information, a place for companies and organizations to use to share with their consumers updates etc and a space to also receive feedback. There are many ways we can collaborate through blogs and they can be very useful or dangerous depending on the users o host of the blog as we have seen or heard about such as hate blogs and blogs used for cyber-bullying.
A wiki is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as "a Web site that allows visitors to make changes, contributions, or corrections". the first known use of a wiki is in1995, four years before there were blogs. In my opinion I think this is because companies are always looking for new ways to improve and be "ahead of the game" or "cutting-edge". Perfect example the Internet was not created for the general population use but as a way to allow the United States Military the capability to communicate with each other no matter what and no matter where; a sense of globalization. Information sharing was the essential and most important factor and I think it still is.
Wikis allow for companies to exchange information and make inferences on the information they are receiving.Jimmy Wales answering the question When seeing wikis popping up in your organization what does that mean he responded "Obviously people are finding them useful, so that means there’s some need to collaborate that’s not being satisfied well enough by other tools."(Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on making the most of company wikis. A Conversation with Jimmy Wales by Gardiner Morse. Harvard Business Review, April 2008. Available at http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2008/04/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-on-making-the-most-of-company-wikis/ar/1 )
People want to collaborate and it seems like doing it on a computer in a safe place without having to directly confront anyone or feel obliged to feel a certain way helps them do it more effectively and perhaps honestly.
There are many similarities and also differences in wikis and blogs.
Some similarities are the 1.ability to post and comment on a website that can be publicly viewed by others 2. the ability to collaborate 3. companies can use both or either blogs or wikis 4. wikis and blogs have been evolved tremendously in the past 15 years where companies and individuals are finding them more useful and popular.
Some major differences are that 1. wikis are used for companies and not individuals ( also from the same article mentioned "Thousands of organizations, from Microsoft to the FBI, use wikis to aggregate the knowledge of their far-flung employees, creating a place for them to electronically converge and collaborate on everything from planning meetings and documenting best practices to brainstorming about new products and processes.-. A Conversation with Jimmy Wales by Gardiner Morse. Harvard Business Review, April 2008." 2. on a wiki although there is the ability to respond there is also the ability for other users to edit the post that are posted by other users which is not the case with blogs 3.wikis atmosphere is more professional and more of a knowledge sharing space rather than a place for gossip, journals, and other uses.
There is a lot to say about wikis and blogs but one of the most important thing is for companies and individuals to realize this world out there and the way it is collaborating with the world we live in today. Our lives and work spaces have been changed and in many cases improved if these applications are used properly.