In the last days I have seen several posts about the Google Knol project in relationship to wikipedia and its role in the aggregation of knowledge. I will list here all the links that I found concerning Knol, in order to get a spherical view of the subject. I must admit that most posts are severely criticizing Knol. I wonder if the reason is the blogosphere I have created around me - or if the positive views are actually so few (or so silent).

• Google’s official blog announces Knol
• Marshall Kirkpatric takes a short, objective view of Knol. Along with a small comment of Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki.
• Google Knol: Wikipedia with a face, or the new squido? My favourite (and most difficult) question about the Knol Project: Is highlighting the author the real answer? Also my posts Google’s Knol and the role of the author along with Authorship in the blogosphere are a couple of comments on the subject.
• Sizlopedia with the post “Google Knol free wikipedia” poses the question Knol= wikipedia + social networks. Why?
• Googlepedia. The term I love the most.
• Mashable with an interesting poll: Is google Knol a wikipedia killer? Also on mashable, a very thorough article “Google Knol more of the same“. Again talking about authorship and heavily criticizing Knol.
• Google Knol and the long trail. Bloggasm on ‘Google to create its own version of wikipedia‘.
• Nick Carr and ‘Google takes aim at wikipedia‘. Maybe the article that started the avalanche, with a list of very interesting comments.
• Wired about ‘Google’s Knol not being a threat to wikipedia‘
• Also two interesting views on the subject from wiredamp ‘knol and wikipedia begin to dance‘ and ‘Google to destroy wikipedia?‘
• Finally a fresh blog. Its title speaks for itself: savewikipeidia.wordpress.com
  

The entries of the above articles range from neutral to extremely critical to the Google Knol project. I agree with the opinion that Knol is not a threat wikipedia. They are targeting different groups. But, although I too was critical to Knol, I can see a positive side to the project.

• Authorship comes along with trustworthiness. If anyone of you is a student, you’ll understand the importance of this note.
• In some subjects neutrality is not the best solution. Debates and differences of opinion can occassionally bring better results.
• Knol has certainly more features. Comments, questions, rating, reviewing, referencing. These are important stuff. If used correctly can bring very good results. Someone commented on one of the above posts (sorry I don’t remember which post, or who commented), that knol takes the attributes of blog in wiki format. I like this feature.

The question that stands out, is how will people contribute to this community? And how will google handle this community?

If you have any additional posts about Knol and wikipedia, tell the group; leave a comment.