[Foundation-l] [Announcement] update in board of trustees membership

[David Gerard]

On 17/12/2007, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at 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.