Blogs vs. Wikis

            A major similarity between blogs and wikis is that they are both very easy to set up and use.  It is fairly simple for just about anyone to use either one.  Another similarity is that both are accessible to anyone in the world as long as they have a computer.  A third commonality between the two is that posts in blogs or wikis usually involve the author’s personal thoughts/ideas/information.  I think typically a blog would have more personal thoughts/feelings while a wiki generally has more academic uses.     

           

           One difference between blogs and wikis is the amount of users who have access.  Typically in a blog there will be one user, while in a wiki there will be many authors who all have equal access.  Another differing point between blogs and wikis is their purposes.  For the most part the purpose of blogs is for someone to communicate their own personal ideas/messages to the world.  In wikis there is more of an emphasis on collaboration among users and less emphasis on communication.   A third difference is the type of feedback users get.  In blogs the feedback from other users usually comes in the form of comments, but in wikis the other users can either directly edit the content themselves, or leave a comment for the original user.           

            

           Convergence in my opinion is the most important aspect of the 5 C’s because of its underlying effect on new media.  New media has been made possible mostly by convergence.  A major part of new media is that it combines with and builds upon old media to some extent.  Therefore I think convergence is very important because it makes the transition from old media to new media a lot smoother by fusing the two together.  A positive effect of this is that users of old media will have an easier time grasping and understanding new media and at the same time users of new media with still be able to use some aspects of old media. 

            

            I think generally speaking blogs don’t have that much use for collaboration.  The reading “The New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework” talks about how unless there is a group of people who all have access to the same account, a blog really isn’t useful for collaboration.  Even so, I don’t think there is any advantage to using a blog for collaboration over using a wiki.  One example I can think of where a blog could be useful for collaboration is if a person posts something and asks other users to comment with their thoughts.  The original person can go back and change/edit whatever they posted based on the response of their peers’ comments.    

            

           There are so many uses for wikis already it’s hard to think of something original to use them for.  I’m not sure if this is already in existence, but I think it would be cool if professional sports teams had wikis that only players on the team could edit.  Since a lot of professional athletes already use Twitter I think it would be pretty easy for them to collaborate and post their own content as a team in a wiki.