Peter Suber has a very interesting write-up on a new Google initiative, OA knols from Google. For a more thorough explanation visit Google's blog where the subject is set out in more detail. What I found interesting about Suber's commentary was that he noted right away the obvious potential competition with Wikipedia and other forms of collective knowledge, but he also realizes that what Google is proposing has the potential to compete with open access as it is currently conceived, that is, as connected to institutional and discipline-specific repositories.
Siva Vaidhyanathan has also noticed the announcement, and will be commenting on other aspects of the new Google initiative in keeping with his focus.
The idea of Google hosting a collection of pieces written by experts on subjects does drift pretty far afield from advertising and searching, doesn't it? What's up with this? What do *you* think?
Comments (1)
Although I think Peter Suber makes a great association between OA and Google Knols, I do wonder if academics will truly take full advantage of this feature.
Sites like Squidoo have been around for a while now, and they seem to be used more by the general public than by seasoned academics.
Posted by Ariel Deiaco-Lohr | December 18, 2007 9:19 AM
Posted on December 18, 2007 09:19