Knol

Definition

knol is a Google project to promote a digital library of user-written articles on given topics. Knol also means Unit of knowledge, i.e. a given article in the knowl site.

Short description

• Authors must have a real identity and it must be approved by Google
• One article is written by one person, and it's one person's opinion
• Users can suggest corrections, edits and amendments to the content. These can be accepted or rejected by the author.
• Users can add comments which can not be deleted by the author.

Discussion

Sometimes, Knol is seen as an alternative to Wikipedia, i.e. provide a system that allows recognized authors to publish good quality articles. In Daniel K. Schneider's opinion this is very unlikely to happen since I don't think that Google is able to filter good authors. I suggest a simple test: Search for education. What I found in August 2008 was a few good articles, e.g. a correct but not really outstanding introduction to online learning, and then the rest was mostly disguised propaganda articles written by employees for companies. E.g. there is series on how to use Flash in education, but no source code and no details. Also knol does not encourage linking which is one of Wikipedia's strength.

There are also fears that Google the search engine will not remain neutral and sponsor their knol articles first.

Alternatives

It can be argued that both Wikipedia and peer-reviewed author-centered systems do have advantages and for now we shall not discuss this.

In any case, author-centered systems like Scholarpedia are a much better alternative for education than Knol. Its articles are in principle peer-reviewed.

Links

• Google Throws Open Rival for Wikipedia - Anon Authors Discouraged, by Steven Levy, Wired, 2008.

• [