Warm-ups

THE ARTICLE

New Google service to rival Wikipedia

Task 5

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - c

2 -a

3 - d

4 - b

5 - c

6 - d

7 -a

8 - b

9 -d

10 - c

11 - b

12 - a

Google has unveiled a new service that is set to rival Wikipedia, the Internet’s most visited encyclopedia. Google’s new product, called Knol, aims to knock Wikipedia off of its perch as the web’s largest reference source. A Google spokesperson said the new project will get authors, experts and ordinary people “who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it”. The added bonus for contributors is that Knol’s writers will be able to put adverts on their work and take a share of the profits. This is a departure from Wikipedia, which relies on voluntary contributions. Knol is currently in a test phase but sources say it should be fully operational within months. It seems to be another step towards Google’s mission “to organise the world’s information and make it universally useful and accessible”.

The name ‘Knol’ comes from the word ‘knowledge,’ and a ‘knol’ represents one written article. A spokesperson said: “A ‘knol’ is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read…The goal is for ‘knols’ to cover all topics, from scientific concepts to entertainment.” The main difference between Google’s new service and Wikipedia is the lack of collaboration between authors. Knol hopes to encourage an element of rivalry among contributors. Authors will know there is a link between the quality of their writing and how much revenue their work might generate. Another difference is that on Knol, people will not be able to edit each other’s work. Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales doubted whether Knol would be able to generate enough “quality content” and suggested that Knol articles would lack balance.

1. KNOWLEDGE: Walk around the class and talk to other students about knowledge. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

rivals / encyclopedias / Google / Wikipedia / experts / profits / information / written articles / topics / entertainment / collaboration / editing / balance

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. EXPERTISE: You are now an expert on these topics. You have to give a short presentation on several/all of them. With your partner(s), decide on what you need to say in your presentation(s).

Google Wikipedia Facebook or MySpace iTunes

your country the English language bananas global warming

4. ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA: With your partner(s), rank the following features of an online encyclopedia. 10 = “It absolutely must have this,” 1 = “I have zero need for this”. Change partners and share your rankings.

___ a video clip that goes with every article

___ links to a bilingual dictionary for every difficult word

___ pictures

___ links to other sites that give information on your search

___ links to the pronunciation of words in the article

___ a discussion board to talk about the article/topic online

___ the e-mail address of the person who wrote the article

___ adverts related to the article

5. KNOWLEDGE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘knowledge’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

6. QUICK ROLE PLAY: Student A strongly believes that Google’s new service Knol will be better than Wikipedia; Student B believes Wikipedia will always be better than Google’s Knol. Change partners often. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations.

Дата добавления: 2015-01-03