BLOGS vs. WIKIS

According to our assigned readings, Celebrity Blogs: The Impact of New Media by Melissa Gerry, published 3/31/2006. available from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=26280 , “Through blogs, people are able to write about topics that interest them and comment freely on what is going on in their lives and in the world around them. In the world of celebrity and entertainment, some blogs have found a niche and have become quite successful in discussing celebrity news, sharing photographs, and other topics in entertainment.” As we learned in class, blogs are websites organized by a collection of blog posts from different users(bloggers), blogs share news and receive feedback and comments from other users who read those posts. Under blogs, we can find links to other blogs, other blog posts, other articles. For this reason, blogs represent an opportunity for high audience. However, they have limited collaboration since only the blog owners can edit and add information to their blog posts, therefore, blogs are better to control information that is spread over the internet.
Meanwhile, according to another of our assigned readings, assigned readings, Wikipedia on Wikis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki, “A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content (excluding blocked users), using a simplified markup language.[1][2] Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis.[2] Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work."[3]” Wikis represent collaboration and freedom of speech. Everyone has access to every wiki and collaborate with each wiki or even create another wiki that can link to an existing one. Basically, everyone in the community can edit and add more information. However, wikis might lead to inaccuracy due to the lack of control when spreading, editing and adding information.
I believe that convergence is important in today’s networked world since it involves change and most of the time improvement in all aspects, specially on technology, just like watching TV on your computer and being able to record tv shows and movies. Day after day, people are using different forms of media at the same time, like receiving emails on blackberries, and the creation and use of mash-ups is growing.