Asynchronous Communication

   According to mondofacto.com, asynchronous communication is any act of exchanging information involving a delay between the sending and receiving of the message. Using this definition, we can see that asynchronous communication has been around for thousands of years, in the form of letters and books. If we fast-forward through history to today, the letter is still around, in both old(snail-mail) and new(e-mail) forms, however, asynchronous communication has evolved far beyond the letter and e-mail. Now it includes wikis, blogs, other websites, and so on.

The uses for asynchronous can be found in all four of the major network applications, and many blur the lines between these areas. Examples of asynchronous communication in the field of discovery wikis, web pages, and some blogs. In the field of communication, we find asynchronous communication in blogs, forums, and in social networking sites like Facebook. In Web applications, we see that blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and podcasts are all designed to be asynchronous. Collaborating in an asynchronous manner is an area that has many available applications, and deserves a closer look. To quote from an article on scialert.net, “People have been collaborating asynchronously for many years using email, newsgroups, bulletin board, web logs and more recently group calendars and Wikis. Riboulet et al. (2002) investigated a new set of tools for collaboration. Many tools have emerged that make collaboration more powerful and convenient. These tools usually integrate existing methods of collaboration and add some new features. Wikipedia has a partial list of collaboration tools. These tools present a wide range of different features. To just list a few, the features include email, announcement, instant messaging, chat, discussion board, Wiki, calendar, file sharing, folder synchronization, tasks, time sheet and Gantt chart.”¹

     In reference this assignment, asynchronous communication is in blog format. Blogs (from web log) are a means of communicating to the world. With few limits in the way, blogs are used in almost every way possible. Some blogs are devoted to a certain topic, like politics, and others, like mine, are whatever the blogger wants to post. Some blogs can be used for communicating to specific people, while others are designed for anyone who will take the time to read them.

¹ J. Xu, J. Zhang, T. Harvey and J. Young, 2008. A Survey of Asynchronous Collaboration Tools. Information Technology Journal, 7: 1182-1187. http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=itj.2008.1182.1187

About Me

For those who wish to know more about me, I am a homeschooled junior in high school. I play guitar, am learning to fly( your arms really get tired after a while), and am an Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts. At the end of this semester I hope to be more knowledgeable about Information systems and online class taking.

Blogs VS. Wikis

     A blog (from web log) is a form of communication from one person or group to some section of the rest of the world. It is designed to be edited by only the person or group who created it, though other readers are usually allowed to comment on a post. Wikis on the other hand, are a form of website that are supposed to be changed by people who may not even be members of the site. This has the benefit of making the postings a little more balanced, since more than one person can change the pages. This benefit comes at a cost, however; since anyone can alter a page, the "facts" presented may be totally fabricated. Both come in many different styles and are based on many different topics.
    
     The topic of convergence is a very relevant one in today's world. Technologies must be able to interact with each other in a manner similar to people, especially as their users needs become more specialized. The world is becoming a smaller place, and with the convergence of information, via various applications, information is much easier to attain than it was just a few decades ago. As the information out there becomes more and more easy to find, the planet "shrinks" all the more.

Blogs can be used for collaboration in several ways. A team leader may create a blog about the project at hand for his team to read and receive instructions through. Each team member could also create a blog of their own, so that everyone on the team could see what the others have done. Blogs could also be the starting point for a team; if someone blogs about a issue with a company's product or service, the company could have a person or team work with the blogger to fix the problem.

     Many of the possible topics for a wiki have already been thought of, but millions more exist. A club could have a wiki for their club or activity, i.e swimming, or a type of product or service, i.e vacuum cleaners (I looked for a wiki on vacuum cleaners and, big surprise, it seems to be nonexistent).