Write Great Google Knols

Web luminary and Wikipedia contributor Tim Bray weighs in on Knol and how they might compare to the world’s biggest encyclopedia:

Yeah, it’s a problem that being a Wikipedia editor is a less-lightweight activity than it used to be. But it’s not fatal. Being a gamer is less-lightweight too, and Warcraft draws millions. The fact that I can’t contribute as easily as I used to irritates me, but at the end of the day Wikipedia doesn’t really need me, it seems.

Udi’s one of the Really Smart Guys and Knol is a genuinely new approach. But I don’t think that there’s a really big problem that will drive people toward it.

On a related note, John Batelle elicited a quote from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales:

We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

Very different from a wiki, and not likely to generate much of quality.

Maybe I ought to run a survey about predicting the long term effects of Google Knol entering the content creation market place?