Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Blogs v. Wikis


* Compare and contrast blogs and wikis. 

The difference between blogs and wikis is that blogs are not edited by others and wikis are be edited by others. When you allow others to contribute it can become a problem or challenge if you don't put a limit on who can contribute to the wiki. Blogs and wikis are both posts that people can read and get useful information. 

Wikis can be a collaboration among people for major projects such as multi faceted reports. Also, wiki's are good for establishing intranet at a low cost and not worry about security and functional capabilities. For example, in "Information Week's How to Use Wiki's for Business" stated that wiki's are cheap, easy to use and extensive. This is a convenient way to connect with others in the organization when working on a big, major project collectively. 

Employees from different departments at different locations can contribute to the wiki to produce a cohesive project that others can read either for research, information, or for decision making. The New York Times stated that it became a challenge to keep track of the wiki they created about the war in Iraq when they invited anyone to contribute to what the wiki called wikitorial. The challenge was the problem that arose when people with no good intentions posted mean things that did not represent the topic The New York Times was trying to discuss; the newspaper then took down the wiki.

On the flip side, in The New York Times's article, "An Internal Wiki that's not Classified" describes how they have a more updated convenient way of working-the wiki. For example, when Political Diplomats from different countries come for a meeting, in the past would manually create a memo with the backgrounds of the Diplomats coming to the meeting. Now a wiki called Diplopedia is created and attach links of the Diplomats before the meeting. 

* Comment on the importance of convergence in today's networked world. 

"In New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework," Linda and Hershey Friedman described in the research convergence as one of the greatest of trends for corporations to use in transmitting various types of data. These same companies are also competing for the markets of digital TV and videos. Another example is old media is turning in new media via the internet. Newspapers are now online, TV programs are also online, as well as journals such as Accountancy Journal. This created a more modern convenient, efficient way of sending and receiving information globally.

* How can blogs be used for collaboration? 

"New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework," Blogs can be used to work on documents collectively among employees. An example is GoogleDocs; this allows employees to work on the same document and share updated information to create accurate, up-to-date reports. This can be a more convenient, efficient way to work on reports and documents that need more than one employee from different departments. 


* Can you think of a new use for a wiki that has not been done yet?


Maybe a wiki that can track fresh produce in grocery stores? This can be used by large chain stores like Key Food, D'Agostino, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's. They can have employees from the various stores take stock on the vegetables and fruits at their location. Create reports for their stores, and compare the results. They can take surveys from customers about their preferences and compile a collaborative report for making decisions about future amounts and types of purchases of produce. They can create a report on how to best buy, sell, and store fresh produce in a more efficient way for customers. 

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