[WikiEN-l] Why Google's online encyclopedia will never be as good as Wiki...

[WJhonson at aol.com]

You're right it isn't.  I was comparing Knol to Wikipedia  though.
The only reason I brought up Ayn was because Jimmy is a Rand (or was a  Rand) 
enthusiast, and the more I thought about it, the less I perceived WP as  the 
sort of product she'd endorse.  I don't recall clearly how at the end  of 
Atlas Shrugged, they decided on the rules for their new society.  It's  entirely 
possible that Ayn would encourage the meta-Wiki while at the same time  
discouraging the article-space.
 
My take on her view, is that she was very anti-committee, anything created  
by committee was almost always fatally flawed vis a vis items created by an  
individual.  Instead of the final result being "here is AN item which is  the 
ultimate expression of X", you would have "here are several items, each  
individually created, which each are AN expression of X, you the consumer  decides 
which is the best"
 
I'm not quite sure is the Knolian approach to how the consumer decides is  
really going to work or not.  But then every system has flaws.  I'm  willing to 
give it a shot and see.  I don't even think the Knol architects  really know 
what's going to happen or what they want to happen until a situation  appears 
directly in front of them.  The Knolian approach *does* however  almost 
entirely remove the aspect of edit-warring doesn't it?  And  edit-wars are really at 
the heart of 85% of WP problems.
 
Will Johnson
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 9/22/2008 6:55:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
snowspinner at gmail.com writes:

This  does not seem any more Randian than blogging does.

I mean, not that I  disagree with your basic conclusion, but there's no  
real reason to  tie the observation that Knol is personality-driven  
while Wikipedia  attempts to meld personalities into a consistent  
amalgamation to  controversial schools of political  thought.




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