Ray Saintonge wrote:
So a question naturally comes to mind - how do our 75,000 >1,500 byte articles stack up again Britannica's 75,000 articles?
Really, how important is it that we be always looking over our shoulders to see what Britannica is doing?
Not very important! However, it's a nice yardstick and until we leave them in the dust, which we will, it's the gold standard to which we aspire. :-)
Again, never mind "relative to Britannica". It may be more important to know who our target audience is going to be, and what kind of marketing strategy will reach that audience. What retail price will the public find acceptable, and how does that relate to our costs of production and shipping? What infrastructure do we need to support the sales that we do get?
Well, the beauty of free software is that we really don't have to give such issues a lot of thought. Linus lets RedHat worry about that sort of thing. I'll let someone else worry about it. That's a half-facetious answer, but really, our goal in producing 1.0 isn't tied much to marketing issues.
I think the target date for WP1.0 is largely arbitrary. It should be chosen for the best market impact.
Well, I certainly sympathize with what you're saying, but I think we should think long-term. I'd rather wait 5 years before calling something 1.0 and releasing it for print publication and so on, and get it right, than to rush something out the door now. We don't face pressure from the marketing department to deliver early, and that's a good thing.
--Jimbo