Wiki vs. Blog < Discussion < Conceptmapping

Martin, another like me who needs an editor, is in tackle mode it seems with his new wiki about concept mapping. I love concept maps and want to marry them to the Platform.For-Pgh.org. But, I'm still searching for the right inspiration and utilities.

WikiVsBlog < Discussion < ConceptmappingPersonally, an analogy I've come to like is that wikis make space to represent the complex, ever-changing ball of concepts whose definitions continually accumulate opinions and whose relationships get reconfigured as the communities' shared language explores, teases apart and agrees on what is happening in their subject matter. By definition it is incomplete: never will everyone agree.

So if wikis are conversation tool, aimed at finding agreement, then by contrast, blogs are presentation. They are authoritative, statements of fact often presented in diary form. They get presented once, and each makes an independent stand in history. Sure, many people comment on the opinion stated in a blog, but those opinions will remain forever as comments, each separated and unintegrated in a silo kept away the speaker's opinion.