Blog or wiki--which tool to use?
From PLN
Blog or wiki--which tool to use?
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Blog software provides easy web publication and lightweight content management.
Wiki software provides lightweight content management and easy web publication.
Both blogs and wikis can be set up for free using hosting services or hosted on your own site using free or paid software.
The most prominent software for library-related blogs and wikis is open source software.
So which do you need--a blog or a wiki?
That depends on your specific task. Let's look at the core elements of each one and how they might play out in practice.
To the extent that this discussion makes assumptions about software, I'll assume the software most prominently[1] used for library-related blogs and library-related wikis: WordPress for blogs, MediaWiki for wikis. PLN highlights uses WordPress; PLN itself uses MediaWiki.
Blogs at the core
A blog consists primarily of multiple essays presented in reverse chronological order--last written, first read.
That's the heart of a blog: What you see first is what the author or authors wrote last--and you see a stream of essays, each usually titled and separated by date, going backward from that most recent essay to earlier ones.
A few other core characteristics typical of blogs and not of wikis:
- A blog normally has authors and readers--usually one author or an identified group of authors.
- Blog posts are usually signed (directly or indirectly) and not open to direct editing by readers.
- A blog typically has archives by date and possibly category, but the newest posts are almost always more prominent than earlier ones.
- Most blog posts don't get edited. When they do, earlier versions are not retained.
- You'll write or edit blog essays using a WYSIWYG[2] page or HTML--not a blog-specific markup language. You may never need HTML to maintain your blog, although you may find it more efficient and less frustrating than the WYSIWYG editor. In any case, there won't be a program-specific markup language.
- You may be able to post fully-formatted posts to your blog directly from other software, including Word. That's rarely (if ever) possible with a wiki.
Wikis at the core
A wiki is a collection of web pages typically designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content.
That's the heart of a wiki: Ease of multiple contribution and editing, whether by all users or some defined subset of users.
A few other core characteristics typical of wikis and not blogs (partly adapted from Wikis and libraries):
- A wiki typically has a much broader range of contributors (authors and editors) than a blog, and that range frequently includes all readers or at least all who choose to register.
- Wiki pages typically don't have explicit bylines or author names attached (PLN is an exception)--and typically are open to direct editing.
- Wiki pages almost always appear separately, not in a stream.
- New wiki pages don't automatically receive special prominence.
- Wiki pages are frequently edited, and wikis do retain version histories for each page.
- Wikis rarely have archives as such. The pages are out there, searchable and navigable through title and full-text searching, interarticle links and other tools such as categories.
- It would be difficult to look at "all pages added in July 2007" on a wiki, unless you do so in July or August 2007.
- You'll write or edit wiki pages using a WYSIWYG page or wiki markup language specific to that wiki software--and maybe be able to use some HTML. Chances are, you'll need to know the wiki markup language to do anything more than the simplest pages.
- Wikis encourage page-to-page linkage by making it extremely easy
- Wikis let writers identify needed pages by linking to them even when they don't yet exist.
Common characteristics of wikis and blogs
Both blogs and wikis provide cheap, easy web publishing and content management. Some other things they have in common:
- Both typically (but not always) provide for comments on each page or post, through talk or discussion pages on most wikis and through comment features on most blogs.
- Both tend to be strongly hyperlinked and encourage linking to other web resources through straightforward linking mechanisms.
- Both typically provide permanent URLs to allow linking from elsewhere directly to a single post or article--although, for blogs, you may have to change settings for the permanent URLs to be meaningful.
- In both cases, new posts or pages and modifications appear on the web immediately, without multiple review layers. (Both blogs and wikis allow the writer to preview changes, and most blogs can save drafts.)
- Both typically provide search mechanisms and frequently provide categories as another navigation mechanism.
- Both typically provide RSS feeds, although such feeds are more prevalent in blogs than in wikis.
- Both can have special pages in addition to regular posts and essays--e.g., help pages for wiki editing and "About" pages providing background on blog authors and purposes. That's particularly significant for good blog software.
- And, by the way, both are subject to spam problems, but have different solutions:
- Entirely open wikis will fall prey to spam entries unless there are good user-authentication controls in place.
- Blogs that support comments and have any significant number of readers will receive spam comments, but most blogging software has good spam-prevention add-ons. Use them if you allow comments--which you might not do for something like a current-events blog. Blogs that display trackbacks will receive spam links.
Would a table help?
| Characteristic | Blog | Wiki |
|---|---|---|
| Home page display | Newest posts first | No standard, typically welcome page |
| Prominence of newest pages | Automatic and continuous | None except through special pages or manual actions |
| Multiple pages display | Stream of posts, newest first | One page at a time |
| Authorship | Usually single and clear for each post | Frequently multiple and unclear for each page |
| Changes in published pages | Rare and absolute--no reversion | Frequent, with versions retained |
| Who can create and edit? | Usually one blogger or small group | Frequently anyone or all registered users |
| Conversations and feedback | Only comments and linkbacks | Talk/discussion pages, but also direct additions to pages |
| Writing and formatting | HTML, but also WYSIWYG | Program-specific wikitext markup and partial WYSIWYG |
| Post from other software? | Yes in many cases | Rarely if ever |
| Identifying pages that need to be written | No mechanism | Linking mechanism, very easy |
| Internal links between pages | Same as external hyperlinks | Easier than external hyperlinks |
| Permanent URLs for each page | Yes, but may not be meaningful | Automatic, using page title |
| When do changes and new pages appear? | Immediately, but can save draft | Immediately |
| Navigation | Search, categories, and dated archives | Search and categories |
| Indirect readership | Common via RSS feeds | Rare, also via RSS feeds |
blogorwiki?[3]
So which one should you use?
Sometimes the choice is fairly easy:
- Weekly or monthly lists of new titles? That sounds like a blog.
- Subject guides? That sounds like a wiki.
- New events at the library? That sounds like a blog.
- Frequently-asked reference questions? That sounds like a wiki.
Sometimes it's a little more complicated:
- Book reviews? That sounds like a blog...or does it?
- That depends. If you want to offer the latest reviews from selected staff, a blog will work just great. If you want community members to have their own opinions show up directly within the comments on a book, a wiki might make more sense. (Or you might want some other software entirely, such as a frontend to your online catalog.)
- Your library's website? You could build it as a wiki...
- But for some very small libraries, a blog might make even better sense. Consider, for example, Wetmore Public Library (Kansas) and Seldovia Public Library (Alaska): libraries that might not have a web presence at all were it not for blogs.
Sometimes it's not an either-or choice.
- Some wikis include blogs--or include feeds from blogs, as PLN does for Leader's Digest and PLN highlights.
- A blog page could point to a wiki, effectively making the wiki part of a blog, although that would be unusual.
- It would be plausible to have material--newspaper columns, book reviews, what have you--show up first on a blog, then migrate to a wiki for more structure and more direct feedback.
- Sometimes either one will work just fine--but if "newest first" is important, a blog's your best choice, and if "lots of editing" matters, a wiki's better.
Sometimes software can surprise you. For example, WordPress is full-featured blog software, but it can be used to do quite a bit more. One of the most impressive examples of just how far you can stretch WordPress is Casey Bisson's Scriblio (formerly WPopac), an online catalog front-end based on WordPress.
- ↑ Most prominently doesn't necessarily mean most widely: There may be more Blogger blogs in the library field, if only because it's so fast and dead simple to set up a hosted Blogger blog. As it happens, I have both a Blogger blog--C&I updates, used only to announce new issues of Cites & Insights--and a WordPress blog, Walt at random. What does seem clear: A high percentage of the most prominent library-related blogs use WordPress, and quite a few blogs migrate from other hosts and software to WordPress, while it's extremely unusual for anyone to migrate away from WordPress.
- ↑ WYSIWYG: What You See is What You Get. Editing what you'll eventually see, not a set of markup codes. All modern word processors operate in WYSIWYG mode.
- ↑ Thanks to Michael Sauers for the term "blogorwiki" from an October 30, 2006 post at The travelin' librarian--and to Steve Lawson for pointing it out.
by Walt Crawford, originally published August 27, 2008. Thanks to Meredith Farkas, who suggested this addition to the wiki cluster!
Related articles
- Wikis and libraries provides basic definitions, resources, why you should care about wikis and some examples of library-related wikis.
- Wikis--when and how? - Nina Simon provides a thoughtful discussion of when wikis make particularly good sense
- Transparency and MediaWiki - MediaWiki, the most popular software for library wikis, offers unusual transparency--which is good, as long as you're aware of it.
- Wiki notes - a variety of notes on wikis from Leader's Digest and elsewhere.
- What is a Wiki begins a series of pages on the Library Success Wiki, offering Meredith Farkas' take on wikis and why they matter for libraries.
- Blogs and libraries provides basic definitions, resources, and directories library-related blogs and may eventually lead to other blog-related articles.
- Should libraries host user generated content? - Kathryn Greenhill explores a related issue.
- Should libraries rely on free commercial web 2.0 services? - Many library blogs are hosted on free commercial services. Is this a good idea?
- Open source - Most blog software used by libraries is open source software. This category will help you learn more about open source software.
Your turn: Talk about it
We could use your additional examples, reasons to use one or the other, or arguments as to why I'm wrong here... Feel free to add your notes here or on the Talk page.
