How does a blog differ from a wiki?

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Revision as of 09:40, 27 July 2006 by Szahid (talk | contribs)

The difference between weblogs and wikis is rather simple. A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most available content, sometimes without the need for registration. (Wikipedia) Weblogs, also known as blogs, are frequently updated websites consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. (Walker)

Purpose of a Blog

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photographs, videos or audio. The word blog can also be used as a verb, meaning adding an entry to a blog. (Morgan)

Wiki

A wiki, also known as quickweb, is an editable website that does not require users to know HTML. Most have a system to record changes so that a page can be reverted to any of its previous states at any time. A wiki system may also include various tools, designed to provide users with an easy way to monitor the constantly changing state of the wiki as well as a place to discuss and resolve the many inevitable issues, namely, the inherent disagreement over wiki content. Wiki content, however, can also be misleading, as users are bound to add incorrect information, whether intentionally or accidentally, to the wiki. (Wikipedia)

The Difference Between

Blogs and wikis, because they are different spaces, manifest/take advantage of/engage different epistemic and rhetorical possibilities and serve different rhetorical and epistemic ends. They engage different rhetorics: one topical, carved from the inside out; the other chronological, staying on top of things (Morgan).

Simply put, blogs are about writing for a community and wiki is about writing within or in a community.

The main differences are as follows:

  • Use of time vs. topic-linking to organize the material
  • Ability to directly edit content else created - collaborative vs. individual
  • Use of linking to organize within the context of an ongoing discussion
  • Nature of content publishing (public or private)

Over time, the differences between blogs and wikis seem to be lessening as more and more bloggers invite input into their blogs and add hyperlinks. Recently a combination of blog and wiki has resulted in a new communication form entitled bliki.

Similarities

Both blogs and wikis:

  • Are types of content authoring, knowledge sharing, and media-publishing websites.
  • Have many tools to enable blogging and the development of wiki.
  • Have had separate languages spring up around their uses.

Key Characteristics of a Wiki

A wiki enables documents to be written collectively in a extremely simple markup language using a web browser. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire body of pages, which are usually highly interconnected via hyperlinks, is "the wiki"; in effect, a wiki is actually a very simple, easy-to-use user-maintained database for searching or even creating information. (Wikipedia)


Blog Entry

A blog entry typically consists of the following:

  • Title, the main title, or headline, of the post.
  • Body, main content of the post.
  • Permalink, the URL of the full, individual article.
  • Post Date, date and time the post was published.

A blog entry optionally includes the following:

  • Comments
  • Categories (or tags) - subjects that the entry discusses
  • Trackback and or pingback - links to other sites that refer to the entry

(Wikipedia)

Links


Works Cited

"Blog." Wikipedia. 2006. Wikipedia. 20 Jul 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>.

"Types of Blogs." Wikipedia. 2006. Wikipedia.com. 23 Jul 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_blogs

"Wiki" Wikipedia. 2006. Wikipedia.com 23 Jul 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

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