What is a Knol?
According to Google:
The goal behind the Knol is to provide more complete and versatile treatment on the different aspects of the subject being covered. In short CONTEXT is provided to better understand the subject.
So for example, if you were to read about a specific subject such as insomnia – you would be able to learn about variety of aspects about insomnia ranging from introduction, to sleep promotion, types of insomnia, diagnosis, medical and non-medical treatments, etc. – all in one article complemented with references.
From experience we know that content without context is difficult to value. Perhaps Knols are good attempts to improve understanding by conveniently providing well-researched context to content.
So far there’s no common format or standard on how to create Knols, how to comment on entries and how to collaborate on entries. However, Knol is an early beta project and it will certainly evolve so for time being we should keenly observe if it is going to help us in dealing with information quality.
Tags: Context, Google, Knowledge Management
