Knetwit: Intelligentsia Unite
A few weeks ago I met a buddy at the after party for a BarCamp in Chicago whose focus was social networking. In spite of having worked in the IT industry for the last 6 years I was clearly an outsider unable to claim familiarity with either the coding or business aspects that seemed to dominate most conversations. Regardless of this stigma I was briefly chatted up and given free drinks by a would-be businessman who was equally enthusiastic as he was naive regarding my duties as a NetAdmin.
This experience only strengthened my skepticism of Social Networking in its colloquial form. Given its heavy use as a buzz word the term has come to refer more to a specific platform often forced in to creation with the hopes of some quick cash than an actual service. Technically speaking I've been using all kinds of social networks over the years, from online forums to collaborative blogs or mailing lists. A social network is merely the series of relationships one has, the service being the medium which either enables or promotes interaction.
Facebook started out as such a platform available only to Ivy Leaguers and later other college students prior to its evolution into the all inclusive tour de force it is today. Any remnants of the educational background requirements have been buried under pokes, party pics, and a myriad of entertainment driven applications. These features aren't really detractors as the site is wildly successful but its place in any students' life is clearly separate from studies.
Enter Knetwit, the social networking site built on the desire for "a comprehensive resource for studying."
Of the site, co-founder Benjamin Wald says:
"College students see social networking and online research as part of their everyday academic life. As recent college students ourselves, we are familiar with the frustrations that often come with researching information online. And with Knetwit, we strive to make it easier for people to find relevant information around any topic."
Recent studies show 13.74 million college and 12.3 million high school students in the U.S. alone with home internet access, producing roughly 1.92 billion pages of notes each year. Knetwit offers a searchable, meta data filtered repository for this work to which a user's content can be uploaded, rated, and made available to anyone with an account.
Oh, and Knetwit pays you to participate.
So let's see, an online collective of intellectuals sharing notes in the pursuit of greater knowledge while bypassing geographical boundaries and the need for swanky journals or published studies. These individuals are sharing in the ad revenue from the platform to further fund their studies as part of an open meritocracy of rated content.
This should have existed years ago.
I'm sure that school is a different experience nowadays with the advent of better web content and the relative cheapness of personal electronics. Having been out of academia for 7 years now the thought of taking a laptop to lecture is kind of exciting, as is the concept of sharing notes with another student studying even the rarest of research topics.
It seems that the founders of Knetwit have created a simple solution to a simple problem while simultaneously finding a way to entice even the wariest of participants. At the same time they provide a means to feed the desire for a functional online community with roots in the education system.
Kind of makes me want to get back in school and, you know, actually go to class this time around.
Thanks for sending this in, Wade!
