Sean Kollak
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Knowledge is based on consent.
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Sharing knowledge makes sense.
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Knowledge is dynamical not set.
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A short explanation is often more helpful than an overload of information.
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Diversity is better than dogma.
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The wisdom of the many produces better explanations than the knowledge of a single expert.
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Quality and quantity are no opposites.
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There is no “neutral point of view”:
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Knowledge is formed by personalities.
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Relevance depends on the point of view.
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Knowledge can be explained, not edited.
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Valuating is more efficient than arguing.
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Positive support is more productive than regulation.
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Entertaining knowledge attracts more attention and is spread more quickly than pure information.
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A good links points to a source with relevant information.
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Regarding knowledge “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
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The more people join the explain engine the greater is the use for all.
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There are more important things that knowledge!
Family, friends, animals, nature, art, sport… – live.
Knowledge is an exiting expedition – not a crusade. The guidelines listed here are subject to discussion and not a credo carved in stone. The engagement in Twick.it should be fun for everyone and serve the use of the many.
Tags: concept, information theory, knowledge
Sean Kollak
Twick.it is not a scientific encyclopedia
such as Britannica, Wikipedia or Encyclopedia of Life – but an interactive, informative and entertaining explain engine.
Twick.it is not a classical search engine
like Google, Bing or Evri which uses bots to automatically index the web – but a knowledge data base filled and valuated by humans.
Twick.it is not a social network
á là Facebook or Linked in. There is no chat function – only the possibility to send direct mails (DM). The networking aspect is secondary and powered by topics.
Twick.it is not a microblog
such as Twitter where random news can be spread. Instead it is based on a structural encyclopedic basis.
Twick.it is not a counsel community
such as Ask.com or Yahoo Clever! No questions of individuals are answered. Instead topics are explained in a general way.
Twick.it is not a thesaurus
such as OpenThesaurus which only explains synonyms, abbreviations and specific terms. Twick.it is not limited to a certain area of topics.
Twick.it is not a slang glossary
such as UrbanDictionary which collects extraordinary topics.
Twick.it is not a bookmarking-tool
like Delicious or Mr. Wong where you can collect links on a neutral platform and tag and share them.
Twick.it is not a dictionary
such as LEO or Dict. But you can compare explanations of topics in different languages.
Twick.it is no…
cookbook, star forum, photo community, film data base, file sharing host, weapon dictionary, telephone book…
Twick.it is what you make of it!
Twick.it combines elements of the things it is not.
Twick.it could be described as a micro blog-encyclopedia in which you can explain specific terms, abbreviations, slang, synonyms and translations, which you can use to bookmark topics and build a topic driven social network. But most importantly the Twick.it search offers short, precise explanations written and valuated by humans.
Tags: concept, encyclopaedia
Sean Kollak
The true story of the explain engine
Soon there will be numerous legends concerning Twick.it – and while Markus and I have no objections to being worshiped – the true story of the explain engine is quite short, simple and a little silly, too.
Colleagues with mutual interests
Markus and I have met in an advertising agency where we both work. As a web developer Markus was dealing a lot with configurators, content management systems and web based applications whereas I as writer, SEO and PR consultant focussed on strategy, conception and text. We quickly discovered our mutual interest in social media such as Twitter and Wikipedia. From the beginning we were fascinated by the possibilities of Web 2.0: Most importantly it allows people to share and spread knowledge – the most important resource of modern times.
Disappointed by Wikipedia, encouraged by Twitter
After trying to participate actively in the German Wikipedia we were quite disappointed by the difficult publishing code and the seemingly unavoidable edit war. Regarding a participatory project the technical barriers as well as the criteria of relevance are far to complex and not up to date. Blogging and Twitter on the other hand are easy, quick and SEO-friendly. Moreover we soon discovered the potential of Twitter as “Wikipedia of news”. We launched a Corporate Blog for our agency, explored WordPress and searched for Twitter applications for the B2B industry.
Birth of Twick.it
The decisive impulse for Twick.it came by chance – in form of an e-mail of another colleague named Frank Schwedes. In this mail Frank asked Markus whether he knew Miki. Miki – mobile Wiki?! Markus didn’t have an idea what it was but it made him start a little buzzword game. What would it sound like to mix Twitter and Wikipedia in one word? What if we combined the best elements of microblogging and encyclopaedia in one application? A social lexicon with entries no longer than a tweet? Twi.ki, Twicker, Twick.it!
You could say that Twick.it started of as a typical German “Schnapsidee”. But we got hooked on the idea and quickly developed the concept of Twick.it with the voting system, semantic algorithms and so on.
Tags: concept, encyclopaedia, microblogging, Twitter, Wikipedia
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