On 17/12/2007, Andrew Whitworth wknight8111@gmail.com wrote:
Normally google's aims have been to counteract other companies, such as microsoft. It astounds me to learn that Google is trying to go head-to-head with a non-profit.
No-one knows what Knol will be. At the moment it's a Rorschach blot that people are projecting their own hopes and fears onto. The blog post was clearly floated as a trial balloon, with at least some intent of seeing what good ideas for them other people came up with. (Hence why I think we need to push really hard for them to make it entirely freely-reusable content, and get others to ask for that too.)
I dont know that I'm afraid of the "knol" as a true competitor to us, although google's brand recognitioncould help it along.
Remember that Google Answers fell flat on its backside.
you also have to worry that perhaps there aren't enough people in the world who actually want to write an encyclopedia to fuel Wikipedia, Citizendium, and Knol (among others).
Citizendium's small but not hurting for participants. They'll be fine.
If I may ask (and I certainly dont expect a good answer), what kinds of "big shots" are we talking about? Has the board been approached by such a person/people? Getting in with Google has been a financial miracle for the Mozilla people, and they seem to have kept their way without succumbing to too much corporate influence. Maybe this is the kind of issue that should be presented plainly to the community, for the community to decide.
In the last Board election, some people were pushing strongly for a professional board.
- d.