Yet Another Social Media/Question Answering Service Launches: Quora
They just keep coming. Another day, another new Q & A service.
It wasn't that many weeks ago when we posted about Facebook being in the early stages of testing a Q & A service. Facebook requires potential beta testers to ask "provocative questions" and then provide articulate and detailed answers.
If you're a Facebook user and are logged in, you should be able to see the Q & A submission page. You might remember that the gone-but-never-forgotten Google Answers required potential "researchers" to take a test.
Earlier this month, we also posted a brief overview of several Q & A services. It might be helpful in comparing what various services offer or once offered.
Today, members of the Facebook team (from the early days) who left the company went live with a new Q & A service named Quora.
It's impossible to comment on the user experience and the quality of results since we weren't able to access an early release.
So, we just registered for Quora and will provide reports going forward. We hope to answer several questions including what makes Quora different or the same as other services. Note: At least as of today, you have to sign up using a Twitter or Facebook account.
After reading the Quora about page, we think it will likely take some significant time to see if the goals that Quora has set for itself are met.
Here are a few key points from the "About" page:
Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.
In many ways, it sounds similar to Wikipedia but with the content in a question and answer format.
Over time, the database of knowledge should grow and grow until almost everything that anyone wants to know is available in the system.
That's quite a goal. Kudos on making the attempt.
Each question page on Quora is a reusable resource that should help everyone who has the question that the page is about. Answers on question pages don't depend on any context about the asker except for what is specified in the question text and details. There is only one version of each distinct question on the site, so everyone who is interested in or knows about that material is focused on that one place.
So, it's all about a database of asked and answered questions that can be updated by any registered user at any time. Again, somewhat Wikipedia-like but in a question-and-answer format and, to a certain degree, similar to what Google Answers wanted to do -- provide a knowledge base of asked and answered questions.
However, Quora seems to be placing more of an emphasis on keeping the knowledge base updated. That is good news.
Access the Remainder of the Article After a Click
BTW, who will decide if a question is distinct enough to create a new Q & A set? How will vocabulary be controlled? For example, if I ask a question about pop (Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up), will an automated system or a person add words like soda and soda pop? Another example might be athletic shoes, tennis shoes, sneakers, gym shoes, etc.
What happens if a member posts out-of-date statistics? Can someone else (who?) make changes? Can the first person change them back? According to the web site, "Quora relies on the good faith of everyone using it to make it a high quality resource." Yes, we're a bit cynical -- but many of the major news organizations relied on the good faith of readers to post relevant and maybe even thought-provoking comments. Now, for many news organizations it's a mess.
How does Quora make sure that answers don't becomes very carefully worded advertisements for various services and products? A good writer can do wonders.
Will answers and updates require citations as to the sources? If so, that could go a long way to establishing credibility for the entire service.
Almost any public space on Quora can be edited by anyone who knows how to improve it. This includes the text of questions and the details around them, what topics are attached to which questions, and the summaries of answers.
People can write their own answers to questions any time they think a question page could become a better resource with more information added to it. People who read question pages rate the different answers so that the best ones can rise to the top of the page and make it better. And people can comment on each others answers to help them make those better as well.
So if we understand this correctly, there can only be one distinct question, but there can be multiple answers. Users can then rate the "best" answer. (Will people do this? Can reputation be "gamed," and would a typical "non-geek" user have the time to review various answers?
People use their real names and pictures on Quora and have a short bio describing who they are; this helps anyone reading things they write to understand why they should believe what is written and take into account the author's perspective.
Excellent idea, but how will bios be verified? Can a person have multiple accounts using different email addresses?
We're also interested in learning where the actual answers -- facts and stats, quotes, etc. -- come from. Will people venture out beyond Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers or even Vark to find quality, current, and authoritative sources?
As we asked in one of our posts earlier this month, where do library-based Q & A (virtual reference) services fit into the mix? What happens if Quora or Facebook Q &A become successful? Should library-based services be partnering with commercial ventures?
That's it. We're ready to begin our Quora experience. More later.
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
