Knowledge Revolution: New Efforts to Organize and Authenticate Humanity’s Store of Knowledge
By chance, this morning’s BBC news coverage carries two major stories, with links to other related information, about ambitious new efforts to organize and make readily available world-wide the storehouse of human knowledge.
KNOL
Google has this week announced a new initiative to pull together an online encyclopedia authenticated by knowledgeable experts. It’s causing quite a stir on the internet. Google, for now, refers to the project as Knol. So how does this differ from the widely-known Wikipedia? By the authority of its sources.
Wikipedia, of course, is vast beyond belief in its coverage. I use it rather frequently, and this blog points occasionally to information there about various resources for writers. But Wikipedia suffers a fundamental flaw: its contributors sometimes don’t know their subjects very thoroughly — after all, Wikipedia is open to contributions from almost anyone [even though blue-nosed and politically-correct censors are beginning to make their mark]. As Wikipedia itself advertises: ”the free encyclopedia anyone one can edit.” I myself, for example, have found a significant error in Wikipedia’s write up about the British frigate Phaeton [I know this sailing ship quite well, due to my research for a forthcoming — someday — book]. I guess I should go and make the correction.
Google’s Knol will attempt to do better. Each article will be written by a recognized authority, someone whose work you can trust. Here’s what Google itself says in its own blog:
“Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.”
No wonder the internet world is taking notice.
READ MORE at BBC.
OPEN LIBRARY
Another recently launched initiative is Open Library. It’s objective:
To make available online a definitive homepage not just for “every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English; but simply every book.”
This project aims to go far beyond the offerings of Amazon, which is, according to Open Library sources, driven by commercial interests. Mind you, I personally turn to Amazon several times a week, where I find not only book listings, but professional reviews, user reviews, suggestions about similar books, author profiles and more. Open Library will over time likely dwarf Google Book Search , as well as WorldCat,, which is pooling library catalogs worldwide to help readers and research track down sources near to home.
READ MORE at BBC. The article is excellent.
OTHER RESOURCES
There are, of course, other important initiatives underway.
Project Gutenberg has already made available in its own online catalog digital versions of over 20,000 books in the public domain, including the classics whose copyrights have expired. Including its partners, affiliates and resources, Project Gutenberg offers altogether access to over 100,000 digital books. These digital books are limited to text only, no graphics — but they are ideally suited for the current crop of e-Book Readers. One can also read these books on one’s computer, as I currently do. I recommend the free yBook software, which mimics the paperbook layout, but which also allows readers to choose the typeface and font size of their liking.
An increasing number of e-books and documents are available in the PDF format, maintaining their original graphics and design. They are currently, however, more difficult to track down; I don’t know of a central repository to facilitate access. The best software reader for these materials is the relatively new Adobe Digital Editions reader [see my review].
WOWIO is more ambitious: it offers books in their full graphic richness, complete with color, graphics and layout. In fact, writers will especially enjoy a new offering there: Wordsearch Challenge.
Technorati Tags: e-Books, research tools
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