Something I’ve been working through on my whiteboard in the office and my head (in and out of the office!) are the differences in online communication messages. I wanted to capture some of my thoughts here and welcome any comments.

Most messages need a couple of data fields: Author, Date, Title, and Message.

That seems to the the core of a communication message. Depending on who initiates the message, how it’s received, and the level of interaction on it determines what kind of web application it is.

For instance, if only one person initiates the message and allows comments and it’s online, it’s a blog. If they don’t allow comments, it’s news or a traditional website.

If that same message is pushed to people instead of relying on pulling them to the web, then it’s email.

If the messages can be initiated by anyone (in a community) and comments are allowed and it’s online, it’s a message board. That’s the only real difference in the essence of a discussion board and a blog: a blog is a conversation started by one person (or group in the community) and you’re allowed to comment. A discussion board allows a conversation to be started by anyone.

Though I don’t have a lot of experience with a wiki, it seems it is a communication message where the author field isn’t very important.

[tags]communication, wiki, blog, message board[/tags]