Forget social networking.
The next big Web-based thing is going to be “knowledge sharing.”
So says Benjamin Wald, who dropped out of Babson College his sophomore year to start a business that capitalizes on this concept, with his fraternity brother, Dean “Tyler” Jenks, who also dropped out (he was in his senior year).
Knetwit, which launched about a year and a half ago, encourages college students to upload their class notes (and any other materials they’ve created for their studies) and share them with others—promising to pay users who upload for every document downloaded. Revenue comes from ads sold on the site.
As for worries about plagiarism and related concerns, a FAQ on the site advises users to consult their student handbooks regarding their schools’ ethics policies.
Wald, who considers himself a serial entrepreneur, says the 22-employee business has raised about $5 million through angel investors and venture capitalists.
Although he declines to talk about revenues or whether or not the business is profitable, he plans to test the concept within the college market, then expand it to other industries.
Photo by Knetwit.
jaeda on September 21st, 2008 at 5:34 pm
i think this is a good idea, but somewhat it may lead other students to get lazy by just browsing information they need.
cassy on September 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I agree jaeda…It can lead other students to be lazy because they can easily get the information they need.
Benjamin Wald on September 27th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hey Everyone,
I can understand what you’re saying but - wouldn’t you agree those students are not going to be adopting new habits because of Knetwit. I firmly believe that you get out of college what you put into it. Knetwit is a platform that provides students with additional resources to suppliment their education and to help the students who need it! I welcome the debate though, what do you think?
Angela on September 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
“upload their class notes (and any other materials they’ve created for their studies)”
This is why I think the website is a great idea. It was hard enough to keep up with ‘taking notes’ in high school. I was terrible when it came to just jotting down important parts. I’d either write every word that came out of the teachers mouth, or miss large chunks of information, and my notes would have holes.
Sounds to me like Knetwit is helping people gather class notes that others have filled out, something that can be essential for studying.
The problem would be if they started uploading test answers so people could cheat. It doesn’t look like that would be the intention of his business. Actually, I like the fact that ‘notes sharing’ went virtual. There is a lot of potential here.
That’s just my 2 cents. :-)
AC on October 20th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
This is a great idea and is developed because of a need in the community. As for the bad aspects that were mentioned above, those fall true for every great power - it comes with great responsibility.
It cannot be avoided that there will be douchebags that mess up the system even if the system is designed for good.
Sean Conway on October 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
another site that is blowing up is Notehall.com, it still rewards students monetarily but there is a better reward system in place