A blog is a website in which an author’s entries are made pertaining
to any topics or the author’s own opinions on anything of interest. Wikis are
websites that are edited collectively by many individuals to create new
material and to edit existing material. Blogs and wikis discuss a central topic
of focus in an individual post or page that are published on the web. Both are
normally updated on a regular basis in order to stay current. However, on
blogs, there is normally less collaboration, and the information posted to blogs
is often more informal. Instead, there are comments that can be posted to individual
posts made on a blog. On the other hand, a wiki is highly collaborative and
depends on the edits of a collective group of individuals to remain reliable,
and sources are often used to back up what is posted to the website. Also, as discussed
in the Information Week article “How To Use Wikis For Business”, wikis have the
ability to be reverted to old versions of the same page in a few clicks in cases
in which incorrect information is posted onto the webpage.
In today’s networked world, convergence has become an
important part of how we stay up to date with events in the world through the
coming together of news outlets on the internet, internet connected devices, television,
and radio because of digitization and social media. The ideas and stances of
others relating to occurrences in the world can be shared easily to show different
arguments of a news story. Breaking news stories such as the deaths of famous
celebrities rely on accurate reporting. New information that is posted on these
individuals’ respective Wikipedia pages can help in spreading news out to readers
around the world. However, convergence must also come with multiple reliable sources
reporting the same facts before they are posted on a wiki to prevent false
information from being spread. The CNN article “Wikipedia: No longer the Wild
West?” by John Sutter discusses how editors assigned to certain Wikipedia pages
of living people must approve any edits to ensure that any new modifications
made to these pages are factually accurate.
Wikis are often used for collaborative efforts to offer information
about topics in places like a professional setting at a company or a university
for students and teachers in a specific class. However, the topic of coding would
benefit from wikis that help coders to identify a problem and to provide a solution
to a given set of code. Websites like Stack Overflow and Reddit can sometimes be
limited in helping out beginners in programming with any coding problems. These
websites often give general answers to specific questions. Specific wikis can
give both novice and professional coders of any experience level a central
space to give tips and solutions to the many types of problems anyone may have
in coding for their classes or in their place of work. These problems can be
categorized according to the complexity level.
In particular, blogs can be used for collaboration between individuals in constructive and helpful ways. Blogs can help individuals with similar interests come together and create a community to communicate, give each other advice, share life experiences, and give relevant news updates to targeted groups of people. Some examples include art blogs, savings blogs, parenting blogs, and geographically specific blogs. In particular, in the New York Times article “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid” by Michael Wilson, a group of seven people who met through the blog brought a case regarding drug deals occurring at a home in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to the attention of the authorities who were able to use this information to make arrests at the residence. This case shows that through the efforts of individuals who all corroborated their findings through blogging, the police were assisted in their investigation and the community benefited by becoming a safer place to live.
References
In particular, blogs can be used for collaboration between individuals in constructive and helpful ways. Blogs can help individuals with similar interests come together and create a community to communicate, give each other advice, share life experiences, and give relevant news updates to targeted groups of people. Some examples include art blogs, savings blogs, parenting blogs, and geographically specific blogs. In particular, in the New York Times article “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid” by Michael Wilson, a group of seven people who met through the blog brought a case regarding drug deals occurring at a home in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to the attention of the authorities who were able to use this information to make arrests at the residence. This case shows that through the efforts of individuals who all corroborated their findings through blogging, the police were assisted in their investigation and the community benefited by becoming a safer place to live.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxiYXJ1Y2huZXdtZWRpYXxneDoxZGQ4MDY2YmJiMmY1ZDY4
(Information Week Article; currently unavailable on their website)
