Google Launches Knol

Google Launches Online Encyclopedia, Crowd Need Not Apply

Yesterday Google announced the launch of its much-anticipated online reference site, Knol. The headline in Google's official blog reads, with some irony, "Knol is Open to Everyone." Make that, open to everyone to read. Like Citizendium, the Wikipedia-but-not project started by Larry Sanger, Knol will rely on experts to draft articles on given subjects. Citizendium has struggled to build critical mass. We'll see if the marketing muscle of Google can help Knol solve that problem (faced by all new online communities.)

Wired's Steven Levy provides a wide-ranging coverage of  Knol here. Some juicy bites:

While articles will be written by experts (some 200 have already been penned in order to seed the site with content), readers will be able to have some input.

Google isn't rejecting the wisdom of the crowd. Once an author creates a knol, the general public can improve it. People can suggest corrections, edits and amendments to the content -- a technique Google calls "a moderated edit."

Readers can also leave comments alongside the content. While the author is the arbiter of the item itself, and can reject suggestions, he or she can't delete the comments. Users can also rate knols on a five-star scale.

Further complicating the Google vs. Wikipedia storyline is the fact that Wikipedia itself has quietly but persistently been instituting checks and balances on the crowd's contributions. In fact, Wikipedian-in-Chief Jimmy Wales just announced an approval system for edits at the Wikimania conference last week.  We could even be seeing the emergence of some sort of consensus among the powers behind Knol, Wikipedia, Citizendium and now, even, Encyclopedia Britannica. Levy:

In fact, [says Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopedia Britannica], from what he hears about Knol, "it's very similar to things we're thinking and retooling Britannica to do." He hints that the company might be changing from its subscription model to a scheme where much of its content would be free to users -- and show up in search engines."

It seems that, roughly speaking, all four reference works are headed in the same direction: A hybrid approach that attempts to utilize both experts and the crowd. Makes sense to me. The best Wikipedia pages contain 1) the obvious involvement of someone well-versed in the subject at hand; 2) diligent scrutiny by a Wikipedian; and most of all, I would argue, 3) a long list of citations.

I have a pet theory about Wikipedia—it's evolved dramatically over the course of the last two years. I relied on it without reservation during the writing of the book, and I noticed that the quality of the material improved over that time (even within single articles, as I was often looping back to re-check sources) and that long lists of citations suddenly appeared. This last is what makes Wikipedia a crucial research tool. It's an impeccable first stop and a disastrous final stop in any research project. I would dip in, get a gloss on the subject, and then dive into the cited books, scholarly papers and articles in the popular press to double-check the information. In other words, I used it as a combo briefing paper and bibliography.

However, this raises a point: Aren't we nearing a point of redundancy? As Wales tells Levy:

What is the added value?" Wales asks. "People already can put up web pages somewhere on the internet, put some ads on it if they want to get revenue or not put ads if they don't want the revenue." Wales clearly thinks that his brainchild will satisfy most searchers. "If I type in Thomas Jefferson, there's a pretty good chance that the Wikipedia entry is more or less exactly what I'm looking for," he says.

Comments

[Mark Harmel]

In this Kevin Bacon world I have a connection to both Crowdsourcing (In the photo section) as well as Google Knol. My wife, Dr. Anne Peters is a leading diabetes expert that was invited to be a paid Knol seed writer. She finished the first drafts back in December on her Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Knols and I did a brief edit and added some photos and graphics and was in charge of wrestling with the the system bugs while uploading the information.

The Type 1 Diabetes Knol was on the featured list for the past two days and traffic on my website (where the photos live in an attempt to protect my copyright) shot off the scale.

Now that her featured place has been superseded by the the Knol on buttermilk pancakes the traffic has settled back down.

What is interesting is how the comments section that can be used to improve the Knol. The suggestions for improvement are sometimes harsh, but it is clear that photo captions from me and international units and more global information would be an improvement by Anne.

[Jeff Howe]

Thanks Mark—Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon indeed. First the disease (diabetes) and then the cause (pancakes!) I was just talking to Steven Levy (the Wired writer who wrote the Knol piece) about the commenting system, and I have to say I was impressed: I hadn't realized that suggestions were made in the form of edits, to be accepted or rejected a la the editing system in MS Word (or more appropriately, Google Writely).

[Mark Harmel]

Anne's diabetes Knols are listed as a closed collaboration so the feedback in this case is in the comment section, similar to this one.

The main feedback was that there were many readers outside the US that wanted the units of measurement in their system as well.

She has often spoke to groups of doctors from out of the US, but by default she wrote to a US audience and the story was broadcast worldwide. Her medical editors didn't think of this either so this is an opportunity for the crowd to participate in the writing of Type 2.1 Diabetes.

[Miro Jurcevic]

Knol needs a Dewey system. It is becoming an ideological big-bang. There is some joy in being able to source material by category.

[kraloyun]

Knol needs a Dewey system. It is becoming an ideological big-bang. There is some joy in being able to source material by category.

[buy generic tadalafil]

When Google launches its new web browser, will you try it out?
I definitely will.
If it isn't that great, I'll just go back to Firefox.
Y'all?

[viagra online]

Google AdSense, Yahoo Advertising, Chitika, etc.; which one is the best?
What provider of internet ads is the best one? I’m about to launch a news portal online, and try to figure out how to optimize the use of the advertising space.

[Dollar Item Suppliers]

Nice post. This post is different from what I read on most blog. And it have so many valuable things to learn. Thank you for your sharing.

[generic cialis]

I'mm 22, and love movies, but there are a lot of classic movies and other really popular movies that I haven't seen. I just signed up for Netflix and want to expand my movie repitoire. Any suggestions?

[Louis Vuitton Outlet]

One other passage caught my eye. Dwayne Spradlin, president and CEO of InnoCentive, notes that "more than a third" of InnoCentive solvers have doctorates. My immediate thought on reading this was: only a third?!? I'd always assumed that InnoCentive was one example of crowdsourcing that was resistant to the influx of amateurs that characterizes the phenomenon in general. I thought it an anomaly in this regard, but given that almost all professional science is being conducted by people with PhDs or those working on attaining one, this factoid indicates that maybe InnoCentive is as much an amateur network as, say, iStockPhoto. If anyone at InnoCentive's reading this, could you offer us more insight into the demographics of your solvers? How many of the non-PhDs are coming up with successful solutions?

[MBT Shoes]

have tried to contact you often -- I am a musician who is spreading positive music, and I often do

[Best way to invest money]

Crowdsourcing has become a very effective tool whether it's for personal or business matters. I often refer to Wikipedia which have records of almost every topic, it's more like an online dictionary which briefs the user with accurate informations.

[Health News]

Thank you for introducing me the wonderful information.And .....Totally boring.!

[Mulberry outlet store]

I'll have to go read up more here. It's always so much fun to read your blog, many thanks for sharing.

[Hermes]

The legislation would provide a quick $900 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority — essential to allow the government to continue paying all its bills — along with $917 billion in cuts from federal spending

[chaussures femmes]

We have gotten many great comments from our customers and earn a good reputation in foreign makerts, more than 90% customers are satisfied with our products and service, till now our online members are beyond 80,000. As of right now, we currently serve customers from over 18 countries, and we are still growing. We really hope to expand our business through cooperation with individuals and companies from around the world.

[クラシックアーガイルニットuggの]

を展開しています。特定の電気パワー部に準拠して、オフショアの管理は、直接3300万ドルをapplyed [url=http://www.ugg-rakuten.com/]ブーツ通販[/url] 、それはコストと小さな割合で太陽電池パネルのシステムを作るために中国語の会社を許可、本当に太陽光発電コミュニティですこのU. S.などSolyndraなどの企業が払い出しされています。太陽光発電のソリューションについての量が原因で、一部では、安価な中国製品の氾濫にかなり落ちた場合、Solyndraが追いつくために多くの高速なコストをスライスしないだろうJabuschが報じた。 "電気力を伴う事業をトランスフォームによって外に閉じ込めてしまった、"彼らは主張した。 "彼らは、若者が経済的に継続すべき計画されなかったSolyndra達成するために十分な市場の上に保持されていない。これでは購買管理とお祝いの種類はすべての時間を発生します。 "、 [url=http://www.ugg-rakuten.com/ugg-classic-cardy-ugg-5_10.html]クラシックカーディーuggの[/url] 、しかし、違いは、Solyndraの購入が納税者の現金、いくつかの保守派は、最初の場所で使用されているにしたくないだと感じられるような収入を使用して作成されたかされていた。

[Custom mlb jerseys]

I am happy to find this post

[NBA jerseys]

I like this blog. It is a rich content topic. It helps me solve a lot of problems. It updates at a very fast rate, and provides for me many opportunities. I think it can help me to solve many problems, thank you

[ugg boots outlet]

YES! I finally found this web page! I’ve been looking just for this article for so long!