Three Knols

Knol #1:

What is a knol? According to Google, it's the label for a unit of information. I'm guessing that Google invented the term and that it was done expressly for the purpose of rolling out their new Wikipedia alternative, Knol. Knol is meant to answer the critics of Wikipedia that it is not authoritatively authored, and any yokel can change an entry. Just for grins, I searched through the current information on "legal writing" and it does, in fact, seem that any yokel can contribute and just make stuff up as they go along. On the other hand, when conflict breaks out in an area I'm unfamiliar with, or I want to a map showing the latest hurricane, earthquake, etc., I head to Wikipedia first. So it's not all bad. You wouldn't want to cite it, but that doesn't mean much. You also don't cite Encyclopedia Brittanica; that doesn't mean it's useless.

Anyway, Knol apparently taps experts to write pieces on particular subjects (most of the current ones up have to do with medicine, and they are written by people who purport to have M.D.'s, Ph.D.'s and the like). It's also a little slicker looking, which is interesting because most Google stuff (which I love; don't get me wrong) is less slick than whatever it's competing with (case in point: Google Docs v. Buzzword).

Anyway, take a look at see what you think: http://knol.google.com/k#

Knol #2:

Apparently, you can buy a palm scanner that identifies someone by the unique bloodflow pattern in his or her palm for . . . are you ready . . . $1,000. It seems like every school with large sections of students taking the exam and with previous problems of cheating by impostor has to invest in one of these things. For $1,000, I'm trying to figure how I can use it to detect cheating. What I really need is something that linguistically detects whether the style of the submission (prepared out-of-class) is consistent with the style of submissions in class. I don't think it would come as a surprise to students that it's awfully difficult to determine whether someone has written something for them. Sometimes you get lucky and the quality of the submission is far and above anything that any first year law student would be capable of, regardless of how quick a study they might be. More often, though, the person chosen to ghost write the piece has little more skill than the student who turns it in (which makes sense -- how many truly competent lawyers have the time or inclination to ghost write documents for first year law students?). Ironically, the student would almost always be better off submitting his or her own work since they were actually in class to hear the professor's preferences. But I digress . . .

Knol #3:

Get to know some of the staff folks in your law school. I just started as the half-time dean for academic advising and discipiline issues (the other "half" of my job is a first-year legal writing class). In the short time that I've been doing this, I've learned that there's a TON that goes on in a law school that your average faculty member is completely oblivious to. I've always considered myself a pretty good faculty citizen, and I've always tried to know folks in each department, but I just had no idea what they did or how well they did it. Just like good writing, truly good staffing seems to take a tremendous amount of effort, and the goal is to be invisible and make it look easy. So my hat's off to staff members everywhere who work incredibly hard to create an environment that faculty can be oblivious to.