Blogs v Wikis

 One of the biggest differences between blogs and wikis is who is doing the writing. Another big difference between blogs and wikis is the discussion surrounding the topic at hand. On a blog we start off with the author of the blog talking about something and then expanding on their points and expressing their views on the subject. Once the author finishes, people are allowed to comment and respond to the author's views. Take for example the presidential candidates and their campaigns. One person on a blog might talk about why they are supporting one candidate over another and others can respond to their views in a comment section.

Wikis on the other hand are more informative than a blog. By that I mean that in a blog the author  writes with a bias and might leave out some information on purpose or by accident. They might cherry pick their information so it suits their point of view and in many cases this has happened. On wikis the information is unbiased and for the most part very accurate. Wikis are a collaboration between groups of people where it benefits all users to post relevant and accurate information about the topic. On a blog users can comment and discuss their points of view however they can't change or modify the author's post.

The best and worst part of wikis are that anyone can edit the page. This leads to huge amounts of contributions which can be a good thing in some cases. However there could always be misleading or inaccurate or even out-dated information on a wiki. Since anyone can change a wiki page there have been updates to the pages that are aimed at reducing false information. According to the NY times article wikipedia has added what they call "flagged revisions" which makes it so that an experienced contributor has to sign off on the contribution so that it goes through. It makes a big difference to how accurate the information is. It allows someone to double check the information before its posted.

In my opinion I don't think blogs can be used for collaborations however they are good for discussion and ways for people to see different points of views. For wikis I believe it encourages discussions by having accurate information so that others can use it to their benefit. For new ways to use wikis I can think of maybe two ways. For small businesses it could work to help work out any problems that they might have with an app or product. After they make a change to the product they could add that they fixed it as a footnote. Another way wikis could be useful would be for medical purposes. There would have to be a way that only doctors could access medical information about a patient such as logging in with their employee id or something to that effect to protect the information of the patient. Other than that I would say that even though blogs are more biased they still have their uses as compared to wikis


Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/internet/25wikipedia.html?_r=2
http://www.informationweek.com/how-to-use-wikis-for-business/d/d-id/1034971?page_number=3