Blog v Wiki

Blogs and wikis are new media tools that help to share information. They are web pages that can be created or edited by anyone with permission. Both are collaborative, and can be used for personal or professional purposes. One difference between these online communication tools is that a blog can be based on opinion, whereas a wikis tend to be more factual.

In terms of how these technologies are currently being used, InformationWeek published a piece titled, "How to Use Wikis For Business." The piece states that many businesses use wikis when they are looking to establish a company intranet; want to publish corporate documents in a universal location and let employees manage this documents; and when the want to organize meeting notes, team agendas, and company calendars. Blogs are also used by companies to help generate sales, and to elevate the profile of the business or employees.

Beyond the business component, blogs are used in education, and in some cases to promote people's personal interests such as cars, travel, and sports. Additionally, blogs have been used to fight crime. Reporter Michael Wilson wrote an article, titled, "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid," which covered how residents in a Brooklyn community used a blog that once profiled community events and yard sales to shed light on a crack house and related drug activity. Residents kept up-to-date on the criminal activity and almost immediately reported when police made the drug bust and arrested the parties involved.

Moving forward, blogs and wikis should be explored more in K-12 to expose students to writing, research, and overall information sharing using these new media tools.

References:
InformationWeek - How To Use Wikis For Business.pdf
"How to Use Wikis for Business," by Ezra Goodnoe, Information Week, August 8, 2005
Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid By MICHAEL WILSON The New York Times June 26, 2008 available at:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html