This is pretty anti-wiki. It almost invites people to set up shop to 'own' representation of an idea. Presumably, Google's software will display the page when it's deemed appropriate. <br><br>I'll look at it in more detail when I have a chance.
<br><br>B.<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Dec 14, 2007 4:59 PM, Ilya Sytchev <<a href="mailto:ilyas@mit.edu">ilyas@mit.edu</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
The most important difference is that this new software is a knowledge<br>representation (not a collaboration) tool. A Knol is owned and can be<br>edited only by its author (easy attribution and peer review, better<br>access/license controls, etc) - which is completely different from a
<br>wiki article. So, I think it may be more useful to scientists (as a<br>platform for electronic lab notebook, for example) than a wiki.<br><br>Ilya<br><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>Bill F wrote:<br>><br>> In the Wikipedia world, people get compensated by having their words
<br>> represent topics they want to be known for understanding or being<br>> associated with. Or they may want to be more involved in a community<br>> that permits them to edit the words of others or provide/limit access to
<br>> those topics. Money or external reputation, to date, have not been<br>> relevant. The recent illustration compensation was the first direct<br>> attempt to attract contributors with cash awards. The real money being
<br>> made in the Wikipedia world may be to consultants paid to adjust content<br>> in articles to favor their client's specific agendas.<br>><br>> Google's pushing a model in which people's content is paid for. This is
<br>> a more Wikia-like approach. Google is simply cutting out the middle-man.<br>> If Google can charge less and provide access to more searchers than<br>> Wikia, Google will take business from Wikia.<br>><br>
> I don't see Wikipedia impacted greatly by this. Google clearly wants to<br>> find ways to starve the for-profit side of the Wikimedia Foundation of<br>> revenue . This keeps Wikimedia from developing a search engine better
<br>> than the present one. A side benefit is that Google will deprive part of<br>> Wikipedia from referrals based upon the quality of the content. Since<br>> Google alone knows what they consider to be the best quality content,
<br>> there will be some weighting of referrals to their own wiki site. This<br>> maximizes Google's revenue potential on the referral since Google knows<br>> that a Wikipedia referral will never directly be monetized but one to a
<br>> Google wiki may.<br>><br>> We'll never know whether this is happening since Google is 100% closed<br>> when it comes to the "how" of their page ratings system or of its<br>> history. Would Google ever choose to weight selections in favor of
<br>> Google wiki pages that have ads on them versus those which do not? It's<br>> hard to say. I would suspect that their system will use internal<br>> semantic infrastructure that will allow them to more precisely choose a
<br>> page based upon pure relevance than it does now on arbitrary web pages.<br>> If this is the case, Google will always be able to show that selection<br>> is made on a knowledge content basis, first and foremost. Will they
<br>> surface how that knowledge is mapped? From their perspective, this would<br>> only lead to more information for unscrupulous advertisers use in gaming<br>> the system and ripping off Google and their customers.
<br>><br>> If Wikimedia, both Wikia and Wikipedia, succeeds in keeping viewers<br>> from navigating back to Google for searching, it will mean a lot of<br>> money and increased relevance for Wikia. Alexa ranks Wikia at 580 now.
<br>> But they grew 51% in reach and over 250% in traffic in the last 3<br>> months. Wikipedia hovers around thr 8th highest ranked site. These are<br>> daunting figures.<br>><br>> Google still wants part of that growth for itself, despite the fact that
<br>> Wikia's ad referrals also directly fueling Google's profits. All paid<br>> ads on Wikia are from Google. Google is throwing relatively cheap<br>> R&D/operation dollars at the issue. It's good business.
<br>><br>><br>> On Dec 14, 2007 9:59 AM, Ricardo Vidal <<a href="mailto:rvidal@gmail.com">rvidal@gmail.com</a><br></div></div><div class="Ih2E3d">> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rvidal@gmail.com">rvidal@gmail.com
</a>>> wrote:<br>><br>> This could actually be a product of their acquisition of JotSpot<br></div>> <<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JotSpot" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JotSpot
</a>> - a structured wiki for<br><div class="Ih2E3d">> small/medium sized businesses.<br>><br>> On Dec 14, 2007 1:46 PM, Barry Canton < <a href="mailto:bcanton@mit.edu">bcanton@mit.edu</a><br></div>
<div class="Ih2E3d">> <mailto:<a href="mailto:bcanton@mit.edu">bcanton@mit.edu</a>>> wrote:<br>><br>> Google is testing a new project that sounds like an attempt to<br>> compete with Wikipedia.
<br>><br>> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html" target="_blank">http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html</a><br>><br>> An interesting sentence - " At the discretion of the author, a
<br>> knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads,<br>> Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share<br>> from the proceeds of those ads."<br>><br>> --
<br>> Barry Canton<br>> Endy Lab<br>> Biological Engineering Division<br>> Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>><br>> Tel.:(617) 401-7320 (Grand Central)<br></div>
> Email1: <a href="mailto:bcanton@mit.edu">bcanton@mit.edu</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:bcanton@mit.edu">bcanton@mit.edu</a>><br>> Email2: <a href="mailto:bcanton@gmail.com">bcanton@gmail.com</a>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:bcanton@gmail.com">bcanton@gmail.com</a>><br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> OpenWetWare Discussion Mailing List<br>> <a href="mailto:discuss@openwetware.org">
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http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/oww-discuss</a><br>><br>><br>><br>><br>> --<br>> Ricardo Vidal<br></div>> e: <a href="mailto:rvidal@gmail.com">rvidal@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rvidal@gmail.com">
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