Blogs vs. Discussion Groups

The debate about blogs vs. discussion groups is heating up again between TrDev and Blogs vs. Listservs: Which is Better for Community Conversation? (Definitely read Emily's comment.)

If you are interested in this discussion, it's probably worth looking back at some prior posts on this topic such as:

• Community Blogs - Maybe I'm Finally Getting It
• Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?
• eLearning Discussions - An Attempt at Better Discussions in the Blogosphere
• Move from Discussion Groups to World of Blogs?
• Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog
• I found it inside my blog reader!
• Blogs vs. Discussion Groups or Mis-Understanding Blog Reading and ...

There is still a lot of misunderstanding of what it's like to participate in a community of blogs. It really turns out that the functional capability of the two are fairly similar and you could likely create a very similar kind of conversation in each. However, the two have a tendancy to have different norms/culture emerge.

One thing I have experience myself is that a blog has been a much better personal learning tool than participating in discussion forums. It has also been a much better way for me to connect and build a relationship with other people (bloggers).