Blog v Wiki

      Blogs and wikis differ in various ways in that blogs are more individualized and wikis are a collaborative effort where others can edit a page. Both of these online resources capture the idea of using a online platform to display your thoughts to the public. Blogs are more personal and authors are in control of what regulates around his or her page. On the other hand, wikis are edited by anonymous people and so one page is edited by many users and its content lacks strict control. Both are similar because they are forms of expression that are available online for the public to see.

     According to Margaret Locher , wikis are very beneficial because it allows people to work together and so ideas and thoughts can be shared easily. She mentions that one should definitely create their own wiki to get processes done faster in companies. For example, a group of employees can use wikis to focus on a specific topic and collaborate with other co-workers to save time. Also, the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, mentions that "Corporate wikis work best when management encourages everyone in the company to put forward ideas in good faith." This shows one of the disadvantages of wikis in that some companies may have management take over the content on the page and make final decisions on the content. Due to this, some employees may become discouraged to put out ideas. On the contrary, people who have blogs are free to express themselves without the fear of someone editing the content.

   In The New York Times article, "Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People," the author says that Wikipedia has made changes such as creating "flagged revisions" so that content can be approved before being displayed immediately on the site. This is very beneficial because it gives the website control and editors of the page can ensure that the information is correct. Overall, these articles support the idea that blogs and wikis are needed in the web to maintain a connection. This way everyone has a chance to display their thoughts and ideas. Blogs can be used for collaboration in that a person can post on a subject and others can comment on it. This allows the author to get responses and feedback to add more ideas to their page. Lastly, wiki can be used as a link between employees and customers, where customers can write their thoughts on a product and how it can be improved. Employees can then respond by making improvements to the product to increase customer satisfaction.

References:

• 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.
• Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on making the most of company wikis. A Conversation with Jimmy Wales by Gardiner Morse. Harvard Business Review, April 2008. 
• "Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People" by Noam Cohen, The New York Times, August 24, 2009.