Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and wikis are both online mediums used to share information to the public or a selected group of people. Although they're used for different purposes, blogs and wikis have been commonly used by Internet users to share facts and ideas with users around the world. While blogs are published by a single user or a small group of users, wikis can be edited by anyone in the world (pending moderation from established editors). Both blogs and wikis can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection, however the difference lies in who can publish or edit content.

The purpose of the content published on blogs and wikis are one of the distinguishing properties of the two new media applications. While blogs are often used to post users' opinions and personal experiences, wikis are often used for collaboration and gathering information from a group of users.  Information Week states that wikis are used in the business world to "centralize all types of corporate data", which is only limited to"anything that can be displayed in a browser". Although blogs and wikis differed by the numbers of users who could contribute to them, wikis are becoming more like blogs in their recent restrictions on contributions to certain pages. According to CNN, Wikipedia "add[ed] a layer of oversight" by forcing "trusted volunteers" to "approve public edits before they're published to English-language stories about living people". The decision to create oversight by not allowing public edits to certain pages made wikis more similar to blogs by restricting editors' ability to post content or revisions.

Convergence in today's networked world is often seen in the level of interconnectedness within different sources of new media. Without convergence, Internet users would have a hard time finding content related to topics or specific ideas that interest them. Because of convergence, various people can communicate on a wide variety of topics, which facilitates user collaborations and expansion of information.

 Blogs can be used for collaboration when multiple users provide feedback in a timely basis.  In Michael Wilson's article "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid", bloggers in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn collaborated to remove drug dealers from an old building in the area. According to Wilson, their collaboration on the blog led to results when"peering turned to blogging, and blogging turned to action", in the form of complaints to the police department. 

 Although wikis have been used to gather information from large pools of users, wikis haven't been used to generate revenue. Even though some companies profited from wiki technology by providing special types of wiki hosting services, the technology hasn't been used to support commercial products or services. While I personally believe that wikis should not be used for advertising or non-beneficial purposes,  I believe that using wikis to promote products might be a lucrative venture if done properly.

Sources:

http://www.informationweek.com/how-to-use-wikis-for-business/d/d-id/1034971?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/26/wikipedia.editors/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html?_r=0