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