CATEGORIES

3/28/2005 13:19

Finding divas and harmony in blogs and wikis

As I type that headline, I smile, thinking: what would my 84 year old mother think of that headline? She'd shake her head and say something like:

"Janet's been in the computer business for years, and I never quite understood what she does. Now I can't even understand what she says."

Anyway, there was an interesting article in today's Infoworld, talking about companies (like Disney, Cisco, IBM and others) turning to blogs and wikis in order to foster collaboration among employees, customers and the public.

I loved this quote:

â€œBlogs and wikis play opposite roles,â€? says Martin Wattenberg, a researcher on the collaborative user experience team at IBM Watson Research Center. â€œBlogs are based on an individual voice; a blog is sort of a personal broadcasting system. Wikis, because they give people the chance to edit each other's words, are designed to blend many voices. Reading a blog is like listening to a diva sing, reading a wiki is like listening to a symphony.â€?

Finding the harmony in this new world will take a finely tuned ear and the ability to listen well - and practice makes perfect.

That's something my mother can relate to.

Posted by at March 28, 2005 1:19 PM