[WikiEN-l] Microsoft kills Encarta

[Delirium]

doc wrote:
> Whether wikipedia 
> will prove to be a significant milestone in the collection  and 
> dissemination of knowledge, remains to be seen. It rather depends on 
> what the next generation brings, and whether it will owe a recognisable 
> debt to Wikipedia, or whether it will take us in another direction 
> altogether.

The fact that Wikipedia is free content seems like it should at least 
raise the odds that successor encyclopedias of one sort or another will 
use at least some of its content. Maybe there's some mechanism by which 
it might disappear into the ether, never to be thought of again, but I 
find it implausible that people won't be (legally) cribbing some of its 
articles for one repurposing or another decades into the future, even if 
it shut down tomorrow.

(Of course, my prediction would be on more solid ground if instead of it 
shutting down tomorrow, it refrains from shutting down until after the 
long-discussed license change to a clearer and simpler one.)

-Mark