St. David Slays the Wiki-Weblog Dragon

[David]

Well, this is my first ever weblog after 8 years of working on SCN. Many people are saying “about time”. Truth is, I have always been more comfortable being the man behind the curtain like in the Wizard of Oz (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/quotes?qt0409920), but a topic came up in an internal conversation that I thought I could actually have a meaningful opinion about.

Several people including Marilyn, Gali, Martin, Moshe, and Laure were discussing what the difference between a Wiki contribution and a Weblog contribution should be. I have read many contributions in both areas. I have also seen many emails sent to sdn@sap.com over the years in which a reviewer rejected the proposed Weblog content and why the content was rejected. I think I have gotten a good feel on what the main difference is.

Wikis were better suited to dry material such as the how to guide genre. To illustrate I could have an experience where I killed a dragon.


In a Wiki I would write it up as:

1. Take sword in both hands.

2. Stand 40 feet away.

3. Throw sword in general direction of the dragon.

4. Watch sword pierce dragon then make sure he falls over and no more fire is being emitted.


In a Weblog I would write it up as:

 

Once upon a time I was strolling through the park with my sword in hand when I came upon this dragon burning up all the flowers. I realized I had to do something quickly so I ran up to about 40 feet away from the dragon, grasped my sword in both hands, and threw the sword with all my might in his general direction. The sword pierced the breast of the dragon. He heaved a mighty sigh and fell to his side. I carefully crept up on him and saw that the firery furnace within him and been extinguished and no fire would ever emit from that terrible orifice again.



 

So what you see is that Weblogs basically can convey the same message but tend to be more of a marriage between the how to guide and something that happened to illustrate how useful it was. My hope is that my little story will guide our future webloggers and my own example will show how you sometimes can come out from behind the curtain.

[former_member181931]

This started as an internal discussion and made us laugh. I am glad you published this David, it is a funny way to tackle a serious question.
Congrats on your first blog! An angel explaining how to fight a dragon, this blog will become SCN history.
Thank you David.

[Former Member]

Great work David -thank you.

For some time now I had been thinking about what the difference is and this helps to sort it out.

In my own case, I had written a few blogs on technical subjects before there was a wiki section in the forum (or around the time they were introduced). After wikis became more popular, I continued writing blogs on technical subjects.

So I guess it's time to move on.

Thanks again.

Rob

[former_member374]

Hi David,
Now that you have slayed the writing your first blog post dragon. Hope to see many more. You just can't continue to deprive us from your great sense of humor any longer. I want some SCN support stories and I hope there is some good guestification in there 😉
Thanks, Mark.

[JimSpath]

David - you are one of the most, nay, THE most supportive person in the SAP network world.  I'm glad you broke on through to the blog side.  Breaking barriers can be fun.

I like the analogy, but I'm afraid we're going to have to take away your 20-sided die now ;-).

Jim

[David]

I'll see about some other ideas like "Keeping the Mogwais away from the points water so they don't turn in to Gremlins".

[marilyn_pratt]

Thank you for honoring my request.  (When don't you?) I agree with Jim Spath about the THE most supportive person in the SCN firmament.
Now about that thread wondering about how to become a moderator....

[Former Member]

Hi David,

Good first blog. I suppose the way I use the two different tools is that I see the wiki as a placeholder for fact.

A weblog is your personal opinion on a topic, normally where you encourage comments and debate.

[marilyn_pratt]

I think another major difference is multi-authored facts vs. single authored.  So you could, for all intents and purposes have a wiki content that reflected multiple opinions but in the present context one cannot easily do that with a single authored blog entry.  A wiki page, like an editorial page can be the product of expert opinions but not sure I fully agree on the distinction between fact v opinion (although this is the premise of St. David as well I suppose)

[David]

Hi Mark,

I think you are correct in that when relating a personal experience, it is natural to inject one's opinion. In a WIKI, this would seem like a less natural thing to do.

BR
DB

[#11]

I would perhaps recast your weblog - instead of a blog being a flowery/personalised version of a Wiki, I would want it more to be challenging, requesting response... Imagine perhaps the blog post being:

"The other day I was strolling through the park...
...that terrible orifice again.
Which set me to thinking - should I have killed the dragon like that, was it the best way to kill a dragon, perhaps instead of a sword, (the generally accepted way to kill a dragon) I should have used Country and Western music?...".

Although it is nice to get a personal view on implementation, I love Thomas Jung's eLearnings because they not only informative but have a certain style, but I want a blog to surprise or challenge me when I read it. It is an interactive opinion piece. If it is only a story of how to kill a dragon, I'd prefer that it were in the wiki so that other could contribute to improving the dragon killing methods described. That way we don't end up with a reference library full of different ways to kill a dragon, all with their own small little problems.

Btw I love the post!

Chris

[Former Member]

How i missed this blog all this time I don't know...

Thank you DB!

[Former Member]

Sir Branan!

More than a pleasure to have you on the Wiki-Blog land -:D
This is a proof that when SAP let you out of your cage...you do great things -;)

Greetings,
Blag.

[marilyn_pratt]

You just popped it back into prominence, where it belongs, Julius. Which we could also do if we honor a St. David's Day (like in Valentine).  Having love fests for good courtly behaviour isn't a half-bad idea.

[former_member181915]

Hi David,

I just got to this blog through a mentor discussion regarding blogs with too much marketing.  So glad I got to read this little gem.  Thank you for sharing a little bit of yourself, and a great example of the difference between wikis and blogs!

Best,

Jeanne

[David]

I have to admit I was surprised that this blog has come back to recent attention. I am very glad to see that it still holds true and can offer good advice.

[GrahamRobbo]

Belated congratulations on this blog St. David.

Surely the real test of the value of a blog is its' long-term relevance.

Live long and prosper.

Cheers
Graham Robbo

[Former Member]

hi,

let me know when you create a query, as I can inncluir the fields domininarás Variable.

Thanks.