2009/3/31 David Goodman <dgoodmanny(a)gmail.com>om>:
Britannica in its various incarnations and Encarta
were excellent and
useful reference works. Britannica remains useful. Encarta I think
could have remained useful also. I really regret that we had a role in
killing it. Why should we be pleased?
The commercial organizations need to compete. We do not. The more
encyclopedias the better.
Oh totally agreed. I haven't used Encarta recently, but in its heyday
(and my schooldays) it was a fantastic educational resource. I think
it was also my first introduction to hypertext, and I suspect so for
many others too. In fact for students at the time, I'd go so far as to
say it was Microsoft's "killer app".
I think the challenge now is for Wikipedia to try and fill the gap it
has made. Despite Encarta's disadvantages (cost, slow to update) it
had excellent multimedia - something Wikipedia is sadly lacking in.
Also its structured guides to topics were great, especially in the
later versions.
Pete / the wub