In general a blog is sort of like a "diary" or journal in which usually one person writes on. The reason a blog is popular is because the writer is in control of what they want to write. They can write about anything as long as its safe, thank god we have freedom of speech :] I guess the basis in which to distinguish between a blog and wiki is the format and the general usage of a blog is meant to be more personal and convey a writer's message, or ideals. The words of a blog is usually in a less formal format and is at times biased on certain subjects. On the other hand, we have wikis which is like a free online directory of information or encyclopedia. A collaboration of blogs can certainly be done. For example, one of my favorite sites which can be viewed on my bio is Gizmodo. This is a site where there is more than one blogger on a website writing about new tech pieces, interesting stories, or about the gadjets. This site is generally centered towards tech junkies. One of my favorite sites since there are so many different writers you can get a wide variety of stories that you generally would be unaware about.
In Ezra Goodnoe's article "How to Use Wikis For Business" she talks about how Wikipedia is essentially an open source project. Anybody who has the proper security or access can edit, add on wiki. The article talks about the advantages of using wiki such as the fact that its a lot cheaper in a business to use and easy to implement. Using wiki would cut down the cost to install a more sophisticated system. Another great advantage about wiki is the fact that it is very user friendly as it has a low learning curve. However if used in the business world companies should be ensuring that their internal wiki is protected behind a firewall. In the business application the wiki can cut project times as employees will may have several emails from different departments on a specific project. This centralization of data is essentially what makes it a "killer app" for businesses.
It is easy to see why wiki is one of the fastest growing open source databases. Its easy to use, straight forward and reliable provided that you have staff or people checking the updates being made. I believe that there should be a wiki strictly just for tourism. It would be a great idea to have one database just to list out tourist attractions and directions. I love to travel and personally it would save a lot of time and energy to just find information online with a single click. Think about it ! on online wiki that tells you all about a countries history, tourist attractions and places to dine !
"How to Use Wikis for Business," by Ezra Goodnoe, Information Week, August 8, 2005,
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