The goals of blogs and wikis vary greatly, yet their foundation is built with one common feature, user input. For blogs, it's one person sharing their thoughts and ideas in a blog shared with the general public who interact through comments. As for wikis, it's an open contribution of many different users to build up a platform of information to be shared. User input is what makes the content and that is the unique point of the open, collaborative environment of the internet and "new media".
However, these two have their differences. For one, blogs can be very personal as it's usually the mind and posts of one individual. Blogs are interactive amongst other blogs to form communities as people leave comments on posts, or link each other's blogs. Wikis on the other hand, are sites where the content is user generated, meanings multiple people collaborate and contribute to the information on one site. This open field can lead to some issues however, as everyone might not be on the same page or have the same information. For example, in "Wikipedia: No Longer the Wild West?" the shift to approval by editors for certain public edits due to criticism for inaccuracies has led people to question the fundamentals of Wikipedia. Quality control is mentioned to be an evolution of the community of Wikipedia just like any normal society.
For blogs, interaction and community is very important. In the article "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" details of a crackhouse is mentioned in a post which gets multiple comments and leads to a successful raid. With a community formed through someone's posts and the commenters, they successfully leveraged the internet and collaborated information that was relevant to them. Linking each other's blogs as well as commenting on each other's posts are all ways of collaboration to form a community.
In today's networked world, convergence is essential to all walks of life. Having a platform where such can occur through the sharing of information or opinions through wikis or blogs, is important so that everyone can be well informed by sharing knowledge, and experiencing different points of view. Through the internet, we are more connected than ever, and it's important to take advantage of that resource and contribute what we have to share.
With the various usage of wikis in all areas, I think that schools can effectively leverage wikis to get a better representation from students, all the intricacies of student life. From information on classes and majors, to clubs, to career advice, I think having a wiki page would be much more informative and easier to navigate than any college website.
Reference:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/26/wikipedia.editors/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html
However, these two have their differences. For one, blogs can be very personal as it's usually the mind and posts of one individual. Blogs are interactive amongst other blogs to form communities as people leave comments on posts, or link each other's blogs. Wikis on the other hand, are sites where the content is user generated, meanings multiple people collaborate and contribute to the information on one site. This open field can lead to some issues however, as everyone might not be on the same page or have the same information. For example, in "Wikipedia: No Longer the Wild West?" the shift to approval by editors for certain public edits due to criticism for inaccuracies has led people to question the fundamentals of Wikipedia. Quality control is mentioned to be an evolution of the community of Wikipedia just like any normal society.
For blogs, interaction and community is very important. In the article "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" details of a crackhouse is mentioned in a post which gets multiple comments and leads to a successful raid. With a community formed through someone's posts and the commenters, they successfully leveraged the internet and collaborated information that was relevant to them. Linking each other's blogs as well as commenting on each other's posts are all ways of collaboration to form a community.
In today's networked world, convergence is essential to all walks of life. Having a platform where such can occur through the sharing of information or opinions through wikis or blogs, is important so that everyone can be well informed by sharing knowledge, and experiencing different points of view. Through the internet, we are more connected than ever, and it's important to take advantage of that resource and contribute what we have to share.
With the various usage of wikis in all areas, I think that schools can effectively leverage wikis to get a better representation from students, all the intricacies of student life. From information on classes and majors, to clubs, to career advice, I think having a wiki page would be much more informative and easier to navigate than any college website.
Reference:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/26/wikipedia.editors/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html
I agree that having a wiki page created by students is a great idea. Personally I've had trouble finding information that would have been easier if it was labeled properly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea of convergence of information. Nowadays when information is overflowing, it'll be easier and more convenience to find and look up information easily.
ReplyDelete