Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and wikis are both utilized by companies in order to promote the sharing of ideas and planning among its workers. The ways that blogs and wikis do this is different but the concept is the same. The main thing that is focused upon in both types of communication is who gets to be the authors of it. In an article published in the NY Times on March 2008, Wal-Mart had tried to use blogs that only praised their accomplishments and good deeds but ended in failure. The only way for their blog to survive was to allowing regular buyers to makes posts where they weren't really censored. And of course, anyone can comment on these blog posts but they cannot change article itself.

Wikipedia is not a corporate wiki but uses the same style to produce its pages. Instead of just the corporation's employees making the pages for their wiki, anyone who signs up on Wikipedia can become an editor/author. The problem that Wikipedia did face was intentional changes on articles to make them inaccurate. In an article on CNN, Wikipedia "says it will try assigning editors to some of its entries." This makes Wikipedia not as free as what a user-only edited Wikipedia but does allow more accurate articles. Overall, anyone can become an editor on Wikipedia but can only become an editor for corporate wikis if they have permission.

Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write a Blunt and Unfiltered Blog, NY Times, march 3, 2008, p. C1, at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03walmart.html
Wikipedia: No longer the Wild West? by John D. Sutter, CNN.com/technology, August 26, 2009. Available at http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/26/wikipedia.editors/index.html

Term Project Description: Comparing MMORPG's and Second LIfe

I will be comparing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games with Second Life, a 3D virtual world. This is going to be a hard subject to research on since i doubt the Second Life nor MMORPGs will have many scholarly articles written about them, let alone having even any articles describing them. The points that can really speak for themselves is that in both situations you are in a virtual world. What I would need to compare is how does using Second Life, in terms of setting, communicating, moving around, shopping, and related aspects, allows Second Life to be separated from the MMORPG group. Although I seem to have a gist of the differences, like I said, the hard part is finding articles, especially scholarly ones, to back up my theories.

Old vs. New

The is one major difference that separates new media from old media and that is the internet. With the internet, people can communicate with anyone around the world. Most of the new media that we use consist of using the computer to share information with other people whether you know them or not. The easiest example of old media to show this would be newspapers. Newspapers are distributed around a local area and contain articles that can only be commented through gossip or sending letters to the newspaper publisher. The counterpart new media would be blogs, which contains news that can be commented by anyone around the world who is interested in that particular article. Many distinguishing features between new and old media also includes who is able to access them and who can contribute to them. The internet contains all these features that makes new media possible.

What is New Media?

Hmmm... first blog post for me. If I were to describe what is new media, I would say that it is anything on the internet that is not just text and pictures on a web page made by a single webmaster. Since new media spawn based of the internet, you would pretty need access to the internet, a form of a computer to use the internet whether it be a desktop or a cell phone, and any peripherals to the computer to deal with multimedia like scanners and cameras.

Of course the internet would be a huge part of new media. New media doesn't consist of a single individual, it is form from contributions of many users of the internet. Everyone would read a person's work or look at their pictures / videos and share their own whether it be in text or a form of media.

New media is affecting our lives daily. It could mean the replacement of some old media such as newspapers and television, or it could improve a type of old media and even integrate it. Such an example is how a Chicago newspaper publisher will use blogs for their content. Another is how some people watching TV shows replace their TV with a computer. Even I watch my TV shows on my computer nowadays.

"Publisher Rethinks the Daily: It’s Free and Printed and Has Blogs All Over" by Claire Cain Miller.The New York Times, January 22, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/technology/start-ups/22blogpaper.html
"Who Needs a TV? I’m Watching on a Laptop ," by Laura M. Holson, New York Times, December 3, 2008; Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/technology/personaltech/04basics.html?emc=eta1