Google take on Wikipedia with 'Knol'
Friday, December 21, 2007
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html
Amazingly enough, the author managed to describe it without using the word "Wiki" or "Wikipedia". Such editorial constraint!
It differs from Wikipedia, in that there is only one author. But several authors can write seperate knols on the same topic.
In many ways I can see that this will suck as a reference tool. There will be 100's of knol's on a particular topic (e.g. "George Bush") each with a different point of view, which is useful but very time consuming to read. Sure, there will be ratings to help you choose which to read, but it will be rare to find unbiased knol's on any topic, so reading one won't help.
Bonus points for further reading: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/12/14/Knol#p-1 (read the comments too)
Tim O' Neill, Managing Director UK
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Amazingly enough, the author managed to describe it without using the word "Wiki" or "Wikipedia". Such editorial constraint!
It differs from Wikipedia, in that there is only one author. But several authors can write seperate knols on the same topic.
In many ways I can see that this will suck as a reference tool. There will be 100's of knol's on a particular topic (e.g. "George Bush") each with a different point of view, which is useful but very time consuming to read. Sure, there will be ratings to help you choose which to read, but it will be rare to find unbiased knol's on any topic, so reading one won't help.
Bonus points for further reading: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/12/14/Knol#p-1 (read the comments too)
Tim O' Neill, Managing Director UK
Labels: Web Culture and Trends
1 Comments:
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Craig Hepburn said...
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Post a CommentI was reading this yesterday actually and i was thinking that it makes sense in terms of editorial control and ownership - which i think the web is lacking.
I think they will actually compliment wikis instead of replacing them as you have identified in your points. Wiki's are meant to be collaborative facts managed by the masses where as Knol's are editorial opinions / facts written by the owner or editor.