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Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:24 pm Post subject: Google unveils the knol
Google has announced a new concept for presenting information online, the knol, meaning a unit of knowledge. So far the buzz has been about what challenge the knol poses to the wiki, the format made popular by the collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia. But a more interesting question might be, what will the knol make possible that isn't already a part of Google's plan?
From what we know so far, Knol is a wiki-like platform. Authors can create topics, and there are tools to interlink articles and content, but as Manber says, an article, or "knol," is "just a Web page." Where it differs from a wiki is its focus on the author. All knols will highlight who wrote them.
That small difference becomes dramatic when you put Knol alongside Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a collaborative system. There is no author listed on a wiki page because a page may have many authors (if you want to, you can divine who said what on the history pages).
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).
