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

[Mark Perkins lists]

Hi Chris

Beg to disagree - there was a face off a while ago between Encyclopedia
Britannica & Wikipedia a while ago which came out fairly even*. In using any
information source care needs to be taken - a basic of information literacy
that is often forgotten. With Encyclopedias - of whatever variety - IMHO
these should only be used as a starting point.

Interference in scientific research is not limited to Wikipedia - as current
complaints against the US government are showing...

As for Wikipedia per se - I use often, but also refer regularly to the
discussion page (especially important for controversial issues).

As for Google's knol

"Since Knol pages will be authored, users won't, presumably, be able to dive
in and edit another page. They'll be able to submit edits to the author for
approval, though. So much for open collaboration. But as a platform for
authors who might want to make some money from their work, it's a better bet
(Knol will allow authors to monetize their pages as they see fit)."
<http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9834175-7.html>

also see
Google Knol - Google's Play To Aggregate Knowledge Pages
<http://searchengineland.com/071213-213400.php>
Google announcement -  'Encouraging people to contribute knowledge'
"For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject."
<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.htm
l>

*Nature
<http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2006/03/wikipedia_vs_britannica_contin.php>

Wikipedia vs. Britannica Smackdown
September 7th, 2004 by Ed Felten
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/index.php?p=675

Wikipedia Reputation and the Wemedia Project
http://many.corante.com/archives/2004/08/29/wikipedia_reputation_and_the_wem
edia_project.php

Mark Perkins MLIS, MCLIP
www.markperkins.info

https://keyserver.pgp.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org [mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org]
On Behalf Of Zielinski, Christopher
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 10:19 AM
To: Michelle Childs; a2k@lists.essential.org
Cc: ecommerce@lists.essential.org
Subject: RE: [A2k] Google debuts knowledge project-competition to wikipedia?

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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