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| Public Enlightenment
Through Knowledge and Information
Distributed Freely (Knowledge Freely) |
| Providing Academic
Resources for Free |
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"Now it is
more noble to sit like Jove than to fly like
Mercury - let us not therefore go hurrying
about and collecting honey, bee-like buzzing
here and there impatiently from a knowledge
of what is to be aimed at; but let us open
our leaves like a flower and be passive and
receptive - budding patiently under the
eye of Apollo and taking hints from
every noble insect that favours us with a
visit - sap will be given us for meat and
dew for drink." -John Keats |
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Knowledge Freely
concerns projects designed in the spirit of sites
such as Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg, which use
the internet to provide public domain materials and
open source
information for free, with the additional requirement of
significant depth reminiscent of (or actually being)
academic research. Often the projects
supported by Knowledge Freely cover material overlooked by the major knowledge hubs. Knowledge Freely
hopes to one day provide monetary support for
eligible projects. |
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Knowledge Freely is an idea somewhere between mass
information and academic thesis. Its mission is to
provide, in particular, knowledge that is otherwise
difficult to find, often in the form of a website or
blog. These online "projects" satisfy a need not
already met by an easily accessible, existing
website. Projects supported by Knowledge Freely are
generally very specific and academic in nature.
Knowledge Freely is
staffed by a group of volunteers who appreciate
education and wish to pursue independent research projects to the benefit
of others. Many members of Knowledge Freely are
graduate students and young professionals.
Knowledge Freely was
established as a response to the surprise success of The Yung
Wing Project, an academic archive presenting
detailed research on a fairly unknown topic for
free. The work of Knowledge Freely is funded
exclusively by donations. |
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THE YUNG WING
PROJECT |
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The Yung Wing Project is an online
project dedicated to the research and
primary documentation of Yung Wing and the
Chinese Educational Mission (CEM).
Originally only containing a transcription
of Yung Wing's memoir, The Yung Wing
Project has expanded to contain a
variety of public domain texts on the
subject. |
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| Q: |
One more time, what is Knowledge Freely
exactly? |
| A: |
Knowledge Freely supports websites that
satisfy an academic need not currently met by any
online resource and provides this service for free. |
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| Q: |
Is this service really needed? |
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Consider Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. The
quality of both, if for no other reason than the
sheer volume of traffic, is self-correcting and
increasingly stronger... that is, for the topics and
literary selections that receive high traffic.
Knowledge Freely is about the information that
Wikipedia does not provide (think: article stubs)
and the texts that Project Gutenberg does not host.
It is the difference between a page on
Julius Caesar and
one on
Adolf Bartels. |
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| Q: |
Where is Knowledge Freely located? |
| A: |
Portland, Oregon. |
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Website copyright © 2008
Knowledge Freely. All rights
reserved. |