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The LookLex Project LookLex goes back to 1996, and has for 12 years been more or less a one man show. Up until now, it has been known as LexicOrient and its content was created by the Norwegian Tore Kjeilen. LexicOrient was devoted to a web-based encyclopaedia and travel guides for North Africa and the Middle East as well as an Arabic language course. LexicOrient has been a success, and is ranked high with search engines, especially Google. Tore attempted in 2000 to expand by inviting other contributors to the project. But he had not predicted the wave of response; it proved to be too successful, so many signed up that there was no way Tore could administer it all. Before the first external article was even published, that project was abandoned.But then, Wikipedia came, this fabulous endeavour allowing anyone anywhere to contribute to the largest encyclopaedia ever made. If you ask me, Wikipedia is a stunning human achievement. But it has three flaws:
1. Contributions are anonymous, meaning that people give away their knowledge without being credited. Knowledge is valuable, and it should be appreciated. Good writers and photographers deserve to have their name next to the text or photo. Nothing less! 2. As nobody knows who writes every single piece of information in the Wikipedia, the question arises over and over again: Can you trust this? What if people, organizations, cooperations or governments edit the articles where they have a certain interests? Scary! Perhaps the FBI edits the article on FBI, what if al-Qa'ida alters the information on Islamist terrorism, what if a multinational company controls what is written about its competitors? 3. Nobody is paid. People actually give away their knowledge, many contribute several hours every week for Wikipedia, and gets nothing in return. As if they by the end of the day go to a restaurant and eat for free, or have their pipings fixed by a plumber who asks for no money. The LookLex Project intends to take the best from the LexicOrient experience and the Wiki endeavour. In brief it will be this: Writers will not only be credited for what they write, they will own the material in the way that an author owns his book through his publishing company. And finally, writers will get paid. 66% of total revenues! Check Payment structure. What can you write for LookLex? What is an Author? What defines the task of an Editor? |
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