Blogs vs. Wikis

    Blogs and wikis enable communication of information by a person or groups of people and provide a platform for feedback. Blogs do this in the form of comments while wikis do it by letter, letting users directly edit content of any given page.

Usage of Blogs
a) Alternate way or complement to publishing.
b) Limited Collaboration.
c) Regular dated posts.
d) Links to news articles and other blog posts.

Working with Wiki
1. Communication
a) Posting is relatively easy.
b) Everyone can contribute.
c) Wiki can adapt to company changes.

2. Collaboration
a) Idea generation.
b) Technical support.
c) Product design e.g. software products.

3. Community
a) Decentralized control.
b) Wiki represents grass roots approach.

Pros and Cons with Blogs and Wikis
Blogs                                                                                            Wikis
a) Information is controlled                                                        a) Your voice will be heard
b) Keeps away internet predators                                               b) Easily accessible to internet predators
c) Comments can be screened                                                    c) Freedom of speech
d) No freedom of speech

     Convergence in today's society is very important as combining information may become of great value to people. Convergence ensures that things or information is legit and not a fake as there would be backup information readily accessible to prove one's point.

    Blogs can be used for collaboration as the information being posted can be very useful to others in a number of cases. An example of this is in the article " Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" by Michael Wilson. In this article it talks about how people were making posts about suspicious activity going on at a house in the bay Ridge area. As the posts accumulated it reached the authority which lead to a drug raid and the arrest of three brothers who were faced with drugs and weapon charges. After reading this article, I figured this is a prime example of collaboration being used.

    In the article "How To Use Wikis For Business" by Ezra Goodnoe it talks about when you should consider implementing a wiki and when a wiki might not be right for your organization.
Consider implementing a wiki if:
a)  You want to establish a company intranet quickly and cheaply without sacrificing functionality, security or durability.
b) You want to manage and organize meeting notes, team agendas, and company calenders.
c) You need a central location where shared documents can be viewed and revised by a large and/or dispersed team.

A wiki might not be right for your organization if:
a) The collaborative format is not appropriate for your group or workplace. Peer review is not always the best solution for content management.
b) You are looking for an exchange of views.
c) You need to use complex file formats as some wiki platforms can support only text or HTML files.