Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Google has officially launched Knol, its "Wikipedia competitor."  This is after seven months of testing, marketing buzz, and debate over its role in the online knowledge market.  The main difference between Knol and Wikipedia is that with Knol, the articles are written by specific knowledgeable authors and then edits to those articles can only be made with the author’s permission, instead of the free-for-all editing style of Wikipedia where anyone can put their two cents into any article.  The theory of self-regulation and community moderation in Wikipeida has proven to be largely successful, in my opinion, so the need for something more structured hasn’t resolved itself in my head as being necessary yet.  But I’ve been known to change my mind from time to time, so we shall see!