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

Fri Dec 28 16:33:02 2007

Christopher and all,

  Yes this is a similar set of events that mimics Angelfire.com of a few
years ago that sought to trash individuals reputations by other individuals
whom posted nonsense about folks they didn't like.  Google seeks
to borrow from Wikipedias mistakes and take the chance of worsening
them with attempting to seem extra-credable, when they as an organization
they are not.  Seems to me Vint Cerf should be frowning upon this
sort of nonsense.

Regards,

Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 277k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is
very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
===============================================================
Updated 1/26/04
CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS.
div. of Information Network Eng.  INEG. INC.
ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail
jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
My Phone: 214-244-4827

"Zielinski, Christopher" wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> A2k mailing list
> A2k@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
> _______________________________________________
> Ecommerce mailing list
> Ecommerce@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ecommerce