Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs and wikis have their share of similarities and differences on the online platform. Let us focus on wikis first. Wikipedias, wikis for short, can be seen as supposed "friendly battlefields" where users from all over the internet "fight" for their ideas to take center stage on webpages. With easy access, it is simple for anyone with a laptop to share his/her ideas with the world, and to have another person edit that person's ideas as well. On the other hand, blogs can be seen as more "private" spaces, where the owner has full control over the content that is displayed. Blogs can be used for collaboration through links to external blogs and the use of comments as well.

Many companies utilize wikis to allow their employees' thoughts to roam free in a safe and open online community space. With these wikis, collaboration can occur in a converged space on "everything from planning meetings and documenting best practices to brainstorming about new products and processes" (Morse). This is an example where organization on paper meets online easy-access planning, a strong emphasis on the importance of convergence in today's world. However, the more users that are involved in a wiki, the higher the chance for disputes. In a NY Times article called "A Rorschach Cheat Sheet on Wikipedia?," psychologists have expressed their disagreements on the availability of answer material to one of the oldest and most widely used psychological tests in the world (Cohen). With Wikipedia's free flowing culture, there are bound to be plenty of differing opinions as to how wikis should be run, and the level of content supervision. 

A new use for a wiki could be a wiki where songwriters and composers gather together to co-write a musical composition. Wikis could be especially useful for collaborating on lyrics if lyricists live in different time zones.   

References:

Cohen, Noam. "A Rorschach Cheat Sheet on Wikipedia?" (2009): n. pag. NYTimes.com. The New York Times. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/lobj-wiki-bb_bb60/wiki/BAR01_CIS_3810_NET2_1162_1/_23151070_1/Home?cmd=GetImage&systemId=Has+Wikipedia+Created+a+Rorschach+Cheat+Sheet__0.pdf>.

Morse, Gardiner. "Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales on Making the Most of Company Wikis." Harvard Business Review (2008): n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/webapps/lobj-wiki-bb_bb60/wiki/BAR01_CIS_3810_NET2_1162_1/_23151070_1/Home?cmd=GetImage&systemId=Wikipedia+founder+Jimmy+Wales+on+making+the+most+of+company+wikis__0.pdf>.

  

Beyond Pushing Paper: Human Resource Management and New Media

As a human resources (HR) major, I would like to research how new media has made an impact on the area of HR management, how HR has benefitted from these new technologies, and new emerging trends between HR and new media in the near future. The three areas of new media I would like to focus on in connection with HR are: social networking/media, online video conferencing/live streaming, and existing business communication platforms. As active undergraduate students, it can be assumed that most have been through one or more stages within a business's recruitment pipeline. It is a known fact that social media plays a decisive part in our modern era for recruiters/hiring managers, and is an extremely useful new media product to aid in informing web users about new job openings as well. This research paper will go beyond what is known to the average public, and will dive deeper into real-life examples of the positives and negatives of the new age technologies mentioned alongside human resources.