[WikiEN-l] Knol goes live

[Fayssal F.]

As long as none of your links is of commercial nature (SPAMish) i support
your work Sheldon. Some knol editors link to family pictures from within
articles<http://knol.google.com/k/ryan-moulton/how-to-backpack/oggVvQ9h/aMOKbQ#>.
And as many people already know that articles there are full of urls
composed of "catalog", "productdetails", etc...

This is an example of a table of content with some commentaries:

* Why Backpack? --> because i do and here's my pic [link to Picassa album]"
* What to Wear?  --> the content goes like... "I wear a pair of Lowa Banffs
[SPAM] that I bought a few years ago after losing my previous pair. My mom
wears a pair of Gore-tex lined Vasque Skywalker leather boots that are over
ten years old (similar to these[SPAM].)" "To care for your boots, wipe the
dirt off with a wet towel and oil them with a product such as Nikwax
[SPAM]."
* What to Pack? --> content... "ridge rests [SPAM] aren't bad ."
* What to Eat?  --> no comment! But i am tempted, i just say it... "I don't
like rice."
* How to Hike?  --> very little encyclopedic content
* How to Camp? --> seems good
* How to Be Safe? --> seems good
* How to Enjoy It? --> this is like saying "i'd like you enjoyed my article"

I guess knol readers will get bored with that soon or later. My search of NY
led me to "New York City Coffee (NYCC)." There probably will be an entry
about NY soon but i am sure it will be full of links to places like NYCC.
This means that knol will be more a place for all articles that find no
place here.

To respond to someone's comment in this thread... it is not for us to
precipitate or have Knol ideas. It is their problem for now. There are 2
different business models. As for the New Yorker cartoons, I believe that
some would prefer, say, Pravda's probably for cultural and/or political
reasons. And for this main reason, Wikipedia cannot be a platform for any of
them.

Fayssal F.

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:33:49 -0500 Sheldon Rampton <sheldon at prwatch.org>
wrote:
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Knol goes live
To: wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org
Message-ID: <AA980800-940C-4E74-A7CC-B90EEA1DF963 at prwatch.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

A blogger at the LA Times wonders when the "gold rush" will start for
people to claim ownership of articles on Knol:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/07/knol-has-nothin.html

In particular, he pointed out that Knol does not currently have an
article about Wikipedia, so I decided to do my part and create one:

http://knol.google.com/k/sheldon-rampton/-/8r9tdjdcsltq/2#

I basically cut-and-pasted the existing Wikipedia article, although I
did make one minor correction. The current version fails to credit me
as Wikipedia's creator. It mentions some guy named Jimmy Wales
instead. Anyway, I fixed it in my Knol version. ;-)

-------------------------------------------

SHELDON RAMPTON
Research director, Center for Media & Democracy
Center for Media & Democracy
520 University Avenue, Suite 227
Madison, WI 53703
phone: 608-260-9713

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