Blogs Vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis have been criticized for having under researched and less than credible content since their beginnings and for good reason.  In the internet driven information gathering frenzy that is today's web based research, and living in a world with a 24 hour a day news cycle, no one has the time to check the facts 100% nor do they care to it seems.  In comparing blogs and wikis, wikis do to their credit state that the information has not been necessarily checked by any outside source and that citations are necessary to complete the postings.  Blogs, on the other hand are generally just independent op-ed pages, advertising tools, or rants to be taken at face value and accepted as a forum for agreeing or disagreeing on information with varying degrees of accuracy, ignorance, pride and prejudice.  A great example of an innovation in blogging that captures all three elements would indeed be 'Checkout.com', the Wal-Mart blog written by actual buyers and novice bloggers that has impacted many retail manufactures drastically as described by the New York Times online March 3, 2008.  Is it truly reasonable however, to base purchases on the opinions of various consumers with little or no experience with some of the more important and significant features that consumer electronics may have.  One example of this would be the elimination of several features on a pro-sumer DV camera, that was impacted directly by the user driven blogging of highly inexperienced camera operators/filmmakers and consequently eliminated the cinematic capacity of said camera for someone like myself who is dependent now on searching out the in some ways inferior predecessor to my current camera.  With that, I think that I've ranted enough to have lost any objectivity about the subject matter.  If indeed, Panasonic had been using a company wide wiki to discuss strategy planning in developing a new camera based on previous experiences however, these features may well have stayed in the new unit.  This is an example of how Jimmy Wales would recommend Panasonic move forward in his interview with Harvard Business Review.org in April, 2008.  "Pretty much any sort of knowledge sharing that is enhanced by open, flexible, rapid collaboration, particularly in contexts where people are separated geographically and relationship-building is important. Wikis are great tools for helping people to come to consensus quickly, whether about what to put on a meeting agenda or how best to meet customers’ needs."