Erik Zachte wrote:
Britannica is a well respected encyclopedia and
rightly so. I think it
wont hurt to set ourselves a goal and learn from the strengthes and
weaknesses of the 'competition'. It is not a deathmatch though, just
for honours.
True. However, I think it's also important to remember that
Wikipedia and Britannica, although similar in some respects, are
really very different beasts. Britannica's venture into the digital
world was slow and clumsy; by the time they has found their
footing, Microsoft's upstart Encarta was eating their lunch.
Someone pointed out before that Encarta is more our competition.
Even still, the first version of Encarta was simply the text of Funk
and Wagnal's encyclopedia rebranded, with added multimedia.
Wikipedia was born on the Internet, the strange and marvelous
result of a ménage à trois between Open Source, Nupedia and the
WikiWikiWeb.
I would hate to see Wikipedia push Britannica out of
the
market in four years time.
As strange and marvelous as Wikipedia is, I can't see that
happening. :)
Stephen G.