Blogs vs. Wikis

Compare and contrast blogs and wikis:
Blogs are online journals, points of view and personal disclosure with reverse-chronological organization, have at least one link per entry and allow visitors to leave comments. Wikis are online databases that allow open editing, even you can set up your own free wikispace or install your own wiki software on a server. Wikis are widely used as web-based project management tools that are low cost, simple and easy use and interface well with existing network infrastructures. According to "More on How to Build Your Own Wikipedia" by Margaret Locher, "a wiki is a software application that allows groups of users to create, edit and comment on online documents - so that each team member could contribute and access up-to-date information on the project." "By making it easier to gather and share information as well as record discussions about a subject, wikis can help people improve their processes and get projects done faster."

Blogs                                 Wikis
single author                             many authors
content is subjective                 content is objective due to open editing
reverse-chronological order      content and users determine the structure
contain external links                contain internal and external links as online databases
limited collaboration                  more flexibile collaboration compared to blogs

Importance of convergence in today's networked world: Voice, data and video now share resources and interact with each other. Text, audio and video material can be delivered over the same wired, wireless or fiber-optic connections, which urges the appearance of multimedia delivery of information. The coexistence of telephone, data and video communication in a single network offers convenience, flexibility and efficiency to all users (consumers, government agencies, business and educational institutions). Both consumers and organizations get benefits from texting, web surfing, VoIP (voice over IP), streaming media, videoconference applications, online gaming and e-commerce. Organizations rely heavily on the telephony and IP solutions for networking. Network convergence is done to reduce infrastructure costs and simplify and expedite the work process. Remote IP VPN (virtual private network) access to corporate networks as a mobile technology has a great impact on the productivity of the company's workforce. Wireless data applications, such as web browsing, e-mail, personal information management systems and instant messaging are being deployed in many organizations. It becomes obvious that network convergence is considered vital for organizations' growth and to achieve customer and employee satisfaction and increase in productivity.

How blogs can be used for collaboration:
Blog authors often make rich use of hypertext to connect to what others have written on a topic or to resources on the web. Blogs also allow comments from readers to write a reaction, which is then logged and linked with other comments. Blogs are easily linked each other to create on-line communities. Take example of the case in "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" By MICHAEL WILSON. Neighbors use blog to make comments of what they heard and saw about the suspicious drug deals in the community. They witness the conflicts and violence brought by drug dealers and the addicts. Knowing they may face abuse or even violence from those drug dealers and addicts, neighbors cannot speak out in reality, whereas, voice out in the blogs, where they form a combination to fight together and lead to a raid and the arrest of five people. As the coffee shop owner, Katherine Khatari says, "People don’t like to fight alone. There’s strength in numbers, you know? There’s more of us than them.” Some blogs have specific topics, which can be used in education, for example, there are blogs used to help student learn ESL and the blogs we create in CIS3810 class are the discussion forums to facilitate our study of Introduction to New Media course.

A new use for a wiki that has not been done:
I'd regard the undeveloped new use/function for a wiki as its current disadvantages. Once its problems are solved, wiki will have a new look. Right now wiki seems to have a gap on the size of uploads which has been problematic for uploading large PPT files. Although wiki allows multiple people to access the same material simultaneously, it has led to two different edits of the same material with only one of them being posted. Wiki also requires users to go to it. If there's any new or modified material, people either go to check wiki regularly or to be notified separately. So in my opinion, if wiki can solve all those problems, there is definitely a room for new use of a wiki.