Blog vs Wiki

         I believe blogs and wikis do have a lot in common due to the fact that anyone can publish information online for the public. I used to be a frequent blogger that enjoyed blogging my everyday life in private just so I can have a platform to express my feelings for myself. The reason I like blogging so much is because I can always change my audience preference whether I would like my blogs private or to be shared with certain people. I also like the fact people can post comments underneath my blog to express how they’re feeling. However, I’m not too familiar with Wikipedia and I remember myself using it quite often when I was in elementary school up until I reached high school. Teachers and professors would not allow references from Wikipedia and I realized it was because anyone can publish information on Wikipedia and you need to do a lot of research on your own to prove if the information is accurate or not. Through one article I’ve read, it stated that Tony Pagliarulo “chose a wiki—a software application that allows groups of users to create, edit and comment on online documents—so that each team member could contribute and access up-to-date information on the project (Locher, 2008)”. Because of this great feature, “his team had the most current information, they were able to make better decisions and get the project done faster. And Pagliarulo has used wikis to manage IT projects at EMC ever since (Locher, 2008)”. The main difference between a blog and a wiki is who gets to write, share, edit and publish content on a website. Like I stated above, as a blog user, only I get to be in control of what content gets to be published on my website. I know I’ve stated people can also leave comments underneath my blog but that’s only if I allow them to under my blog settings. On the other hand, Wikipedia is a more collaborating space where anyone who has access to it, can write, edit and publish their thoughts on the specific topic. Even though Wikipedia gives access to everyone to publish their own information or thoughts onto the website, there is still an editing procedure to ‘prevent anonymous users from creating new articles for several years now, the new flagging system crosses a psychological Rubicon. But Mr. Chi also found that the changes made by more experienced editors were more likely to stay up on the site, whereas one-time editors had a much higher chance of having their edits reversed (Cohen, 2009)”. I think a new use of wiki that hasn’t been done yet would be convergence with social media platforms or YouTube videos which would create a bigger impact on us to use Wikipedia differently. Both blogs and wikis are great internet inventions due to the features they offer for the users to use.