[Foundation-l] PediaPress

[John Vandenberg]

On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 1:23 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> Tim Starling wrote:
>> ..
>> This distribution concept predates the Foundation, and has been
>> consistently supported by Jimmy and others. It's not antithetical to
>> anything.
>
> I think focusing energy and efforts on creating print versions of Wikipedia
> articles is antithetical to the idea of creating an online encyclopedia. The
> benefits of the Internet (and more specifically Wikipedia) include the
> ability to centralize information in one place and the ability to update
> information in a quicker manner. The idea that it's a good idea to
> distribute hard copies of these articles, negating two huge benefits of the
> Internet and of Wikipedia, is baffling to me. The business model seems to
> mostly consist of "hey, look, we've reverted to the printing press!"

I dont understand how it is antithetical.
The act of creating an 'online' encyclopedia is about how we build it,
and how we publish it.
How others distribute and use it is limited by the needs which we don't fulfill.

That said, I don't like the idea of print editions of Wikipedia ending
up in libraries without having gone through appropriate levels of
editing by real editors, as is reportly being done by Books Llc and
VDM Publishing.
I hope WMF is sufficiently in control of this partnership to ensure
that they are not in bed with a company which stoops to that level.

--
John Vandenberg