Blogs vs. Wikis

In an ever more global environment, the need for remote collaboration continues to increase across all industries and organizations. With more sophisticated digital documents and media emerging in our every day and professional lives, most of us find ourselves in dire need of easy and effective collaboration tools. Both blogs and wikis serve an important role of helping people within and across various locations, groups, etc., converse, discuss, share and collaborate on any topic. Both allow for various people to discuss a topic, share documents, links and resources.

Blogs tend to be more limiting in that the layout, format and publishing is restricted to the owner(s) of a blog, and ultimately, they can claim ownership and censorship over material on the blog. Wikis allow people to edit/modify page layouts and contents more freely, and therefore allows for more versatility in terms of collaboration. This is way wikis are preferred over blogs in creating knowledge bases within a corporation or educational institution.

Both present problems within organizations in terms of controlling information, as they both allow for information to be easily and readily disseminated. Many institutions/organizations find themselves trying to balance the push towards collaboration against their current management and operational structure. As Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV stated in a Sept 8, 2009 NY Times Article entitled Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog, "We as an institution still haven’t come to grips with how we want to use blogging."

Ultimately, blogs and wikis can be successful only if content is shared openly and freely. As Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales stated in a Harvard Business Review article, "If everyone’s afraid to modify a page on a wiki that was written or edited by senior management, what’s the point? Corporate wikis work best when management encourages everyone in the company to put forward ideas in good faith."

With organizations continuing to accept and adapt their communication and organizational structure to the needs of collaborative environments, it will be interesting to see the next wave of wiki use. We might even find ourselves using wikis to collaborate with our elected representatives in hammering out details of proposed congressional bills!

How New Media is Changing the Real Estate Industry

New Media has greatly affected the real estate industry. My project will take a particularly close look at how new media has changed the way real estate companies market and sell/rent residential properties. It will also focus on the ways in which new media help those in the industry to network quicker and more efficiently with each other, as well as helping them with easier access to educational seminars, classes, etc.

Describe New Media

Perhaps the best definition for new media can be attributed to Lev Manovich, in his article "New Media from Borges to HTML." In the article, he describes new media as, "the cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition." This includes computer-generated video, websites, computer video games, CDs, DVDs, mobile phone apps, MP3s, etc.

Old media can generally be seen as forms media which previously were not reliant on computer technology. This includes magazines, newspapers, radio and TV. However video that is posted online, such as on YouTube, now become part of the new media realm, as it now available online due to computer technology.

Synagogue App on My Cousin's Phone

I sat around at the dinner table of my cousin's home yesterday in Ossining. I found myself pulled in a million different conversations, but couldn't help overhearing my 2nd cousin (who is 17) showing my great aunt (who is 82 years old) a new app she has on her phone. It's an app that helps her follow and understand Rosh Hashanah service at her synagogue.

Of course my great aunt had a hard time understanding how this works, as the whole app craze is beyond her current understanding of phones. But, I couldn't help but laugh as I thought about all the countless hours of Hebrew school and studying I had to do in order to understand all the prayers during service. Now, my 2nd cousin just has to follow along on her phone and can completely avoid any premeditated work.

I couldn't help but wonder though, did the Rabbi find this rude that she was fidgeting with her phone during his service?