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1. Public access
Blogs are open to the public to enable easy and free
view of their content. All you have to do is type the
web address (URL) and you are able to view its content.
Checkout www.sethgodin.typepad.com
or www.chadbarr.com
or www.triangleperformance.com/leader/index.php
or www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/
for some blogs examples. Some forums are open to the
public and many require some sort of subscription and
approval process. Here is an example of an open view
forum that requires registration if you wish to post
www.forums.invisionpower.com
while this forum www.alansforums.com
requires registration, payment and approval before you
are able to view the content and interact with its members.
2. Community
Blogs are designed to enable their owner to easily write
content on the web. Visitors are then able to read the
content and on some blogs even submit their comment
and opinion. Due to the significant increase of Spam,
many blog owners have restricted the ability for visitors
to enter their comments. The ones that allow such feedback
have enable moderation, which means the blog owner is
notified when a visitor comment is entered and upon
their review and approval, the comment is then posted
on their blog. Unlike blogs, forums are designed to
enable easy interaction between members, and their design
is geared to create a sense of an online community.
A registered member can reply to a topic or even start
one allowing others to give their feedback. Successful
forums not only create an online community that enables
members to constantly learn from others wisdom, great
friendships are often created online and offline as
well as business opportunities.
3. Content
I find the majority of blogs to be one dimensional.
They are in sense similar to reading a book and articles.
Once you find a blog that interest you (which may be
a challenging task) you then can read the owner and
authors’ opinion about topics that are usually
in their core interest and expertise. Forums on the
other hand due to their community type access, are often
richer and much more rewarding intellectually. Not only
are you able to raise issues and questions that concern
you and get feedback from often smart audience, the
greatest benefit is being able to listen (virtually)
to issues and concerns raised by other members that
you may not have thought about yet. It is this concept
that I believe offers the highest potential to increase
your learning experience and your own wisdom.
Although there are some minor similarities between
blogs and forums, I believe the technology, interaction
between people and potential learning experience create
substantial differences between these concepts. If you
wish to easily write and post your thoughts and knowledge
for others to learn from, a blog makes a lot of sense.
If on the other hand you want to learn from others,
join or create a sense of community to interact with
others, a forum is the solution.
See you online,
Chad
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