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by Fred Grott.
Original Post: Jason Caclacanis is Wrong about Google Knol
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First let me state that I do respect Steve Gillmor, Michael (Are)rrington, and etc. While I can see Jason's point about felling that Google is competing with other content users its also true that they are also not competing with other content producers. Huh? Stay with me I do have a point.
Wikipedia is a collection of articles edited by the masses but controlled by a select few as far as what can be collaboration and what cannot be collaboration via the wikipedia foundation. Mahalo.com is a collection of wiki like articles by the masses also whereas collaboration is controlled by a select few by Mahalo.cm. Thus is by no means demeans or reduces contributions from both wikpedia or Mahalo.com its just that is the way they were set-up.
In both cases you have two clouds that collaborate between the two clouds. The controlling entity, Wikipedia Foundation or Mahalo.com, and the users. Its a mix of both direct and loosely coupled collaboration but the direction is somewhat non bi-directional in some cases. Now on to the unit part of the point.
While wikipedia has two distinct units a small article and a book size piece of knowledge Mahalo.com only has small bite size articles. Thus, it can be said that Mahalo.com does not compete with Wikipedia. Google's Knol has or goes from the small bite size article to a collection of articles just as WIkipedia so Knol can be said not to compete with Mahalo.com but more with wikipedia.
It is the indirect competition that matters here ie the composition of the interaction between the clouds of control and users. In Google's Knol case the controller cloud is the user that happens be author. The rating system serves as a 2nd editor with users being able to rate and review and offer suggestions for changes to the author. This indirect competition will force Mahalo.com and Wikipedia Foundation to review their own model where they may come up with new ways to configure the clouds to increase collaboration which by the way increases viewership for all three, Wikipedia, Mahalo.com , and Google Knol.
I must admit a few week sago I was incline to support Jason's conclusion. But, than I decided to try Knol and find out for myself what the interaction was and how it was different form both Wikipedia and Mahalo.com. Because I use all three for very different reasons and purposes, I certainly hope that I am right and not Jason.
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