I've been approached by a major publisher about the possibility of
working with us to producing and publish a print edition of Wikipedia.
The concept that they are most interested in at the moment is a single
large volume, something similar to the Columbia Encyclopedia (a
desktop encyclopedia, 3200 pages) or Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(2067 pages).
The Britannica Concise has 28,000 entries. The Columbia has 51,000
entries. I have no idea of estimated word or byte counts for those.
One goal would be to have something ready for market by October 1st,
in time for the holiday gift season. I'm unsure of how early before
that *we* would need to be ready.
I've only begun talking to them about it, which is why I won't say who
it is just yet. But they understand our license and want to work with
us.
The question was asked of me, and I ask of the community: can we have
something like that ready in time? Or should we shoot for next year?
I have long stated a goal that "Wikipedia 1.0" be ready in December of
this year, although we haven't actually made any formal decisions
about how we're going to do that.
So this is more ambitious and less ambitious. More ambitious in the
sense that we'd be trying to meet an earlier deadline. Less ambitious
in the sense that we'd be trying to do something smaller than a full
Britannica-killer.
--Jimbo