Blogs and wikis have evolved from early online diaries. Blogs allow individuals to share information through regular posts. Wikis enable collaborative knowledge building through open editing. The document discusses the history of blogs and wikis, how they have been used both personally and commercially, and popular platforms for creating blogs and wikis like Blogger and Wikipedia. Users are asked to explore examples and start preparing topics for their own blog and wiki entries.

1. Communication Skills:
Blogs & Wikis
James Little.

2. 2
Overview
• Your knowledge
• Blogs
• History
• Types/uses
• What’s available / demonstration
• Wikis
• History
• Types/uses
• What’s available / demonstration
• Activity
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3. 3
Your knowledge
• Who knows what they are?
• Who has used a blog or wiki?
• Why have you used a blog or wiki?
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4. 4
Blogs – A short History
• Where did blogs come from?
• Before the internet or online communities (BBS) people
kept Diaries! (and still do)
• From around 1994 early-users of internet started using
BBS services and web pages to store their thoughts.
• An early example is Claudio Pinhanez's "Open Diary“
http://web.archive.org/web/19980128045041/http://www-white.media.mit.edu/~pi
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5. 5
Blogs - A Short History
• Historically diaries are kept as a personal
reflection on life
• Online diaries initially were an extension of this,
using a new medium
• As the web developed more people kept an
online diary.
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6. 6
Blogs - A Short History
• Where did ‘blog’ come from?
• "Blog" is …a contraction of "weblog," generally
agreed to have been invented by Jorn Barger as
a name for his web site in December 1997
• The domain name blogger.com was registered
on June 22, 1999 by Pyra Labs who wanted to
offer an easy to use service.
• Further info: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0804C&L=ADS-L&P=R16795&I=-3
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7. 7
Blogs - A Short History
• From 1998 onwards numerous services offering
a blog appeared
• Google bought blogger.com in 2003
• Have become extremely popular for a variety of
uses
• Newer technologies and blogging platforms have
added features and possibilities
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8. 8
Blogs – Features
• Originally: Simple text entries sometimes with
pictures
• Now: Interactivity and thematic (expanded
definition of what is a blog)
• Interactivity (comments/users/social media)
• Photo streams
• Podcasting
• Video-log (vlog) - YouTube
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9. 9
Blogs – An evolution of purpose:
Commercialisation? Politicisation?
• Have evolved from being a personal record to also
being used to:
• Promote a company/product (push of information)
• Connect with customers and invite comment
• Represent political parties / movements
• Enable a connection with like-minded people
• Used as a new format to publish mass-information
(e.g. newspapers)
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10. 10
Timeline
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11. 11
Blogs – Many types
• I n f o r m a t i v e : Guardian Politics Blog:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog
• P e r s o n a l : CiCS Director Work-life Blog:
http://cicsdir.blogspot.com
• C o m m e r c i a l : John Lewis
http://www.johnlewis.com/Shops/DSTemplate.aspx?
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12. 12
Blogs – The future?
• Social media/other services
(Facebook/Google+/YouTube/Twitter) all offer a similar
service for sharing/publishing. Complimentary?
• Some companies don’t have a blog (HTC) – just use
Facebook.
• However, stills remains a strong user-base of people
who want to use it for personal/political reasons
• Subversive uses:
• Can you think of any recent examples?
• Arab Spring, reporting from China. Alternative media outlets.
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13. 13
Blogs – Platforms Available
• Services ready to use:
• www.blogger.com
• www.wordpress.com
• (100s more)
• Still setup your own (but people don’t need to re-
invent the wheel):
• Website / Wordpress installation
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14. 14
Blogs – Demonstration
1. Sign into MUSE.
2. Open Uni E-mail
3. Open a new tab/window in the same web browser and go to:
www.blogger.com
4. Signup
5. Name your blog
6. Choose a template
7. Create your first post
I ssues of private or public blog (settings tab)
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15. 15
Wikis – A short history
• Historically there have been repositories of shared knowledge and
databases of information
• But a wiki as a concept was enabled by the world-wide-web
• Ward Cunningham invented the concept on the www/internet and
the name around 1994. Website was called wikiwikiweb and he
wrote the software that enabled it to work.
• Aim was to enable easy communication between developers
• Further details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wikis
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16. 16
Wikis – A definition
• Wiki means ‘quick’ in Hawaiian
• Wikis are websites that:
• Can be edited by the ‘many’ as opposed to
being published by a single source
• Can build to form a repository of shared
information
• Most well-known example: Wikipedia.
• Reliability of information?
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17. 17
Wikis – Uses
• Build up a shared body of knowledge for
sharing that everyone can contribute to
• Collaboration over long distance, in a more
structured format (than e-mail/discussion
boards/blogs)
• Removes some of the issues of working with
traditional (pen and paper) – your experience of
the Short stories activity?
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18. 18
Wikis – Future?
• Wiki-like collaborative features appearing in
everyday tools…
• Google Docs
• Office 365
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19. 19
Wikis – Demonstration
• Wiki in MOLE 2
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20. 20
Activity 1
• In your groups find:
• 2 blogs and 1 wiki you like
• Write a short paragraph for each summarising
what f e a t u r e s you like and h o w they
benefit the blog/wiki
• Post these on the MOLE 2 wiki in:
• BMedSci  SNM132 Communication Skills Blogs and Wikis We Like
• This will count as your contribution for using a wiki
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21. 21
Activity 2: Prep for next week’s
session
• Start thinking about your topic for creating your
own blog and wiki.
• Identify if you need any help with using
blogger.com or MOLE 2 wikis
• I can help
• Your classmates can help
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22. 22
Blogs – Formative Assessment
(Week 9)
• Create your blog
• Create your blog post(s)
• Invite module members and module staff to your blog (list on
MOLE)
• View and post a comment on 2 module member blogs
• NB:
• Blog invites and are to be sent out to fellow module members by 5pm 24th
November 2011
• Fellow module members and module staff must reply to these invites and
contribute the required information by Thursday December 1st 2011
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