What is the Difference Between a Blog and a Wiki?

Here is a frequent question I receive when I talk about wikis and blogs:

"What is the Difference Between a Blog and a Wiki?".

The obvious place to start is defining each:

Here is Wikipedia's definition of blog and wiki.

In short, a blog is a "website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in reverse chronological order".

A wiki is "a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit, and change content...and allows for linking among any number of pages".

Blogs and wikis share some common traits:

• They are both websites.
• They are both user-generated (the content of blogs and wikis is created by the actual people who use the blogs or wikis.)
• They both allow users to comment on the content.

What are wikis better at than blogs:

• Wikis are better at archiving information for easy access.
• Wikis are better at gathering information from a group of people. For example, the wiki Library Success collects information from librarians around the world. (See this past MPLIC Tech Train blog post for more information about Library Success)

What are blogs better at than wikis:

• Blogs are better at quickly sharing new information.
• Blogs are better at starting and maintaining a dialog between the publisher and reader.
  

What are some common misconceptions about wikis:

• A wiki is limited as an encyclopedia-type tool. Not true. Because Wikipedia is so entrenched as the shining example of what a wiki is, many people make the assumption that you can only use a wiki to create some sort of list of definitions. A new wiki is a blank slate.
  
• Anyone in the world can edit every wiki. Not true. You can password protect your wiki so that only select people can add, edit, change the content.
• Once content is changed, it is lost forever, making it susceptible to intentional or unintentional loss of information. Not true. Every rendition of a wiki page is saved. If something happens, simply change back to any past version of the page.
  

What are some common misconceptions about blogs:

• A blog is just a diary. Not true. While online journals and early blogging seemed to focus more on diary-type writing, today's blogs are more varied. Blogs can focus on politics, food, travelling, technology tips, whatever.
  
• Only one person can author a blog. Not true. You can set it up so that as many people can publish information on a blog. Readers will be notified who authored each post.
  

Or, to sum it all up, as the blog Common Craft states in it's post "Introduction to Stocks and Flows: Weblogs, Wikis, and RSS", a blog is a flow of information. A wiki is a place to stock information.

Or look at it another way. In a workplace setting, a blog replaces the bulletin board. A wiki replaces the binder-manuals.