A PLATFORM FOR KNOWLEDGE SEEKERS
The internet may be a treasure trove of information, but human curiosity knows no bounds. On some days, we become more curious than usual and ask questions that are so specific and complex that it needs input from experts.
The thing with free flow of information is that it’s easy for expert voices to be drowned in a sea of web commentary.
Essentially, Quora is a platform that makes use of crowdsourcing knowledge to solve a certain problem or answer a question. It was started in 2009 by former Facebook employees Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever to plug the information gap on what Adam calls ‘high-quality knowledge’ on the internet.
It starts with a question
To use Quora, you first ask a question. Then someone gives an answer to your question. That answer then gets upvoted or downvoted by readers, presumably depending on how helpful and well-researched that answer could be.
Here’s a question answered by Quora from its official company account that was upvoted 1100 times.
Quora encourages collaboration among its users, allowing them to edit questions and suggest edits to answers that have been submitted by other users.
Unlike Google, which uses algorithms to suggest links to websites that matches your search box queries, Quora relies heavily on the knowledge pool from the community of users. In other words, you’re getting answers from real people with real knowledge and experience.
Since its release, Quora has managed to grow its following tremendously with 100 million monthly visitors and some high-profile leading figures such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former U.S President Barack Obama.
The website is now not only useful for voracious fact checking individuals seeking to validate their questions with experts but also for day-to-day questions.
Who can benefit from Quora?
Quora works in the same way as a lot of other social networks – users can follow specific questions or people to learn more about the topics that they’re interested in.
Because Quora is dedicated to high-quality knowledge sharing, schools and learning institutions are encouraged to take on this new learning platform.
For experts, professionals, teachers and professors, Quora gives them the opportunity to give back some of the knowledge they’ve acquired over the years in their profession, giving them a sense of accomplishment and recognition for their knowledge contribution.
Here is a detailed answer to the question- who can write on Quora?
By having a crowdsourcing platform that is well moderated, Quora could serve as a model of how we may acquire knowledge in the future. And the world will be better for it!