I'm pretty sure that many people out there assume that blogs and wikis are similar applications...although, there are some differences! Blogs are usually use by a single author who wants to express his/her ideas or thoughts in journal form. I experienced an example of a type of blog when I used Xanga.com to customize my own Xanga webpage. I update my Xanga by posting new entries every now and then and then so people who reads my entries can comment on it. But it is dead now since I haven't use it for years. As for wikis, they are use by more than one author (aka. collaborators or contributors) who wants to expresses addition ideas and thoughts or make changes to certain information. Blogs are usually a more personal form of writing and wikis are more impersonal because other people have permission to changes the writing. As for the information that are given in these writings, blogs are more vague and opinionated where as wikis are more accurate and informative. For research purpose, it is easier to obtain information from a wiki than a blog because the information is put together all in one place. But blogs can be use for collaborations as well when interest groups get together to promote ideas/products. A group of people with the same views in a blog can give its readers a stronger sense to join the group or persuade them buy the product. I found a very interesting quote from the article "An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified" by Noam Cohen from the New York Times: "someone has to be prepared to be the first to write something, and deal with having those words changed by a complete stranger." This is the problem with wikis, there has to be people out there that take initiatives to write something that can be overwrite by someone else. How many people are willing to do that? How many people are open to the fact that their hard work can be easily erased and rewritten?
Convergence is important in today's networked world because it brings different people with different views, opinions, and thoughts together (aka. collective intelligence). From this idea of collective intelligence, people can put together innovative ways of networking that can be suit their interests better. New and old ideas need to come together or intersect at some point of time for something better to evolve.
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Great post Amy!
While wiki technology is over 13 years old (as old as the "internet") - what is important and what you are pointing out - is that it is going to take a mind shift for many people. I do know that for myself and others I know, when we found wiki, we were like - wow! this is how I think and want to be! - but for most, it is simply being exposed to this kind of thinking and acting.
We see collaboration as the only way to solve global problems that are created faster than solutions and we see wiki as a fundamental collaboration tool and philosophy!
That's my two cents and I am sticking to it :-)
Best, Mark
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