[A2k] Google debuts knowledge project-competition to wikipedia?

[Zielinski, Christopher]

It looks like the knol (I guess, a unit of knowledge, although then it
really ought to be a "know") is going to be another sez-who? type of
encyclopaedia.

To raise a few concerns: Wikipedia has already been tarred for its basic
inaccuracies. To take a trivial, but to me suggestive, example - since
it is surely not contentious - the Federer entry provides a few
annoyingly wrong tennis statistics. (Is it fair to extrapolate from
this? Other comments suggest it is.) Never mind the plagiarism
(Wikipedia's main use in the classrooms), what about the wholesale
propagation of error? Those who forget their past are doomed to repeat
it differently!

Worse are the numerous examples of Orwellian reality manipulation,
particularly (but not only) by the great and the good. Can we really
leave the truth to whoever feels strongest about it? To the companies
and governments with a Chief Wiki Manipulator? To the psychotic
obsessives with time and/or money on their hands?

Regarding the advertising-driven model, all advertising is not bad, per
se - just look at non-state-supported TV, where the guy who buys the
soap powder or BMW pays for me to watch high-value copyright content for
free. Maybe the knol model offers something useful, as long as the
advertising doesn't distort the message, like
paid-for-by-pharmaceutical-company "scientific" journals.

Has a mechanism to edit/review/improve/disprove knol-edge been offered?
It will be needed, as Wikipedia recognizes (but doesn't solve). I think
this is an ethical issue and necessity.

Best,

Chris Zielinski
Geneva Switzerland
e-mail: zielinskic@who.int
Blog http://ziggysreflections.blogspot.com/2007/12/knol-and-wiki.html

-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org
[mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org] On Behalf Of Michelle Childs
Sent: 16 December 2007 17:07
To: a2k@lists.essential.org
Cc: ecommerce@lists.essential.org
Subject: [A2k] Google debuts knowledge project-competition to wikipedia?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7144970.stm
Google debuts knowledge project

The knol system is an attack on Wikipedia, say experts
Google has kicked off a project to create an authoritative store of
information about any and every topic.

The search giant has already started inviting people to write about
the subject on which they are known to be an expert.

Google said it would not act as editor for the project but will
provide the tools and infrastructure for the pages.

Many experts see the initiative as an attack on the widely used
Wikipedia communal encyclopaedia.

'Knol'

Writing about the project on the official Google blog, Udi Manber, one
of the heads of engineering at the search firm, said it was all about
sharing useful knowledge.

By indexing the web, Google strives to make information more easily
accessible. However, wrote Mr Manber, not all the information on the
web was "well organised to make it easily discoverable".

By getting respected authors to write about their specialism Google
hopes to start putting some of that information in better order.

The system will centre around authored articles created with a tool
Google has dubbed "knol" - the word denotes a unit of knowledge - that
will make webpages with a distinctive livery to identify them as
authoritative.

Mr Manber wrote: "A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the
first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time
will want to read."

The knol pages will get search rankings to reflect their usefulness.
Knols will also come with tools that readers can use to rate the
information, add comments, suggest edits or additional content.

Revenue from any adverts on a knol page will be shared with its author.

Industry commentator Nicholas Carr said the knol project was a "head-
on competitor" with Wikipedia. He said it was an attempt by Google to
knock ad-free Wikipedia entries on similar subjects down the rankings.

Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@cptech.org



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