The Chishikiyoku Project

UPDATE: Welcome readers of the "Featured Knols". This Knol is the profile of the Chishikiyoku Project, and as such you will not find encyclopedia-like knowledge here. Instead, it is a source of information for excellent Knol writers who want to get involved in a content building group aiming to bring together some of the best articles on Google Knol.

1  Who Are We?

The Chishikiyoku Project is a content building group aiming to provide great articles and information on the topics that you want to know about. Chishikiyoku is a Japanese word meaning "thirst for knowledge", and it is the aim of the project's collaborators to help to satisfy a reader's interest in a vast range of topics by providing simple, easy-to-use directories called ChiHubs. While the name and logo are derived from Japanese, the project itself intends to cater for all fields of knowledge, with a desire to receive contributions from some of the best Google Knol writers.

We are always looking to create new ChiHubs and link to great quality content, so if you feel you have an article or articles that you want added to our network, we will be happy to receive your contribution. To find out more about this, read "Submitting an Article" below.

2  What We Do

Besides writing high quality articles we are committed to building information directories for Google Knol readers, or ChiHubs as we like to call them. A ChiHub is a source of useful and high quality resources on a subject matter, written about and contributed to by Knol authors. Each must pass through a strict quality control procedure before it is listed on a ChiHub, to ensure that only the best content on a subject is shared with you. When a reader searches for a topic, we want the first link they find to be one of our ChiHubs, leading to great resources on the subject area.

3  Contributing to the Project

The success of this project is dependent upon the collaboration of Knol writers. If you think you have an article that is worthy of submission to one of our ChiHubs, we want to hear from you. There are a number of options open when submitting your article which we will now look at.

3.1  Types of Article Linking

If you want one of your articles to be added to a ChiHub then you can decide between 3 possible types of submission.

1. Basic - This is the simplest form. If your work is accepted, a simple link will be made to your article from the appropriate ChiHub.
2. Intermediate - Like Basic, but you also add the Chishikiyoku Project as an author. The added benefit of this method is that an image will be added to your work confirming it as certified by the Chishikiyoku Project.
3. Advanced - You get all the benefits of an intermediate submission with the added bonus that our profile will be added to your work and you will be listed as a contributor to the ChiHub. This will require you to add us as a co-owner. As a result, readers searching for us will find your article. Selecting this method may mean that at a later date if an ad-sharing feature is included you will be required to split a small amount with us, most likely 20%. Further, if you have chosen not to include ads of your own we may place ours on there instead.
   

Once you have selected the type of your submission, you are ready to submit your article.

3.2  Submitting an Article

The steps for submitting an article are very simple.

1. First you need to write a great article. Try to include lots of useful information, use images if appropriate, lay it out in an easy to follow way making use of the table of contents generator, and ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes.
2. Decide on the type of article submission that you want: basic, intermediate or advanced. Also choose the ChiHub that you think is most relevant for your article. If no ChiHub currently exists for your topic area then one will be created for you.
3. Send an email to chishikiyoku@gmail.com. In the subject field you must include the word "Submit", or it will not be seen. Include in your message the following information:
• A link to your article;
• The ChiHub that you want to include your article in or, where none exists, a suggestion for one;
• The submission type (basic, intermediate, advanced) that you have decided upon.
4. Your article will be reviewed and you will receive a response indicating whether your article has been successful. If it has not, you will receive suggestions on how to improve it and will have the option of submitting it again at a later date. You will only be able to resubmit once, so try to make your article as good as you can the first time.
5. If you have chosen the intermediate or advanced option, you will receive instructions on how to proceed. A link will then be added to your article.

3.3  Examples

You can find an example of what a typical ChiHub looks like at the following link: ChiHub Japan. To see the level of quality we are looking for in your articles see our article on the Japanese Ryokan. (Note that while both of these articles are on Japan we are not only interested in Japan related articles; this is just the subject area that we write about!)

4  Closing Remarks

We hope this article has been useful in introducing the Chishikiyoku Project. While Google Knol is still in its early stages, we are very excited about the prospects of this service as a source of excellent information to rival the sometimes dry Wikipedia entries. We look forward to hearing from you and reading your articles!