More thoughts on a Wikipedia alternative https://plus.google.com/+LaurenWeinstein/posts/gDkmfYoZLiR
A bit more on this since my original comments earlier today seem to have attracted considerable attention. I am of course aware of Google's relatively brief "Knol" project, announced in 2007, opened in 2008, then closed and deleted in 2012. Any dispassionate reading of Knol's history strongly suggests that there was nothing inherently wrong with the concept, but that it was rendered impractical at the time mainly due to rabid attacks by Google haters and Wikipedia fanboys. But with the accelerating failure of Wikipedia along a range of vectors, it's more clear than ever that a model involving attributed, authoritative articles is absolutely necessary. And it is my suspicion that the fundamental nature of Wikipedia will prevent it from making the kinds of major course corrections that might help decelerate its decline. Whether a new alternative -- learning from Knol rather than jettisoning the concept -- might be best operated by Google or merely funded by them (and others) is an open question. Personally, a model I prefer would have Google operating this alternative -- leveraging already available infrastructure -- in cooperation with an internal/external oversight board to help defuse the haters. But one way or another, we need to start moving beyond the Wikipedia model, and we need to do that now. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
