[WikiEN-l] Online Newspapers Considering Subscription Model

[David Goodman]

If these things come to pass, it can reasonably be expected that
almost all libraries in the  developed world will subscribe to such
newspapers as the WSJ and the NYT, and make them available online to
library members in their communities.  This will of course require
first, knowing about this, and second, getting a library card. At
present, many important resources are available this way that are not
obtainable directly without charge, and people at Wikipedia  often do
not know this, and complain about the difficulty of using them.
(Unfortunately, many other important resources are available this way
only from University libraries to their communities, or in public
libraries only from within the main library building)

We could easily establish some   system  to refer people to the
appropriate ones; to some degree, we already do it for books.

A much more serious problem is the availability of this material in
the less-developed world, which includes a great many people who rely
on the English Wikipedia--many of whom do not have practical access to
any good library.  For high-priced academic journals, many publishers
now make them available free in the least-developed countries (on the
principle that colleges there would never be able to afford their
subscription prices, & they are thus losing no potential revenue).
Unless such publishers as we are now considering do likewise--and they
have less incentive to, for they would probably be able to sell some
number of subscriptions almost anywhere--the world-wide availability
of information will be severely restricted.


David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG



On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:52 AM,
KillerChihuahua<puppy at killerchihuahua.com> wrote:
> Good idea though! What does eeryone think of writing a special Editnotice
> for BLP articles? More effective possibly than the talkpage notice.
>
> I can speak from experience, however, that some will still ignore. However,
> every little bit helps, yes?
>
> I am not speaking of writing policy there, mind you, merely a little notice
> to be aware.
>
> -kc-
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bod Notbod" <bodnotbod at gmail.com>
> To: <charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com>; "English Wikipedia"
> <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 10:23 AM
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Online Newspapers Considering Subscription Model
>
>>
>> Looks like you're right. You know there's a bit of text that appears
>> when you're in editing mode between the edit window and the 'submit'
>> button? I seemed to remember that it said something different when you
>> edit a BLP than when you edit say 'donkey' or 'saucer'. But it
>> doesn't. Don't know where I got that idea from.
>>
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