[WikiEN-l] Britannica quote of the day

[Neil Harris]

Mark Gallagher wrote:
>
> We aren't out there to create a new Britannica.  We're creating 
> something different.  We should look to Britannica, and its competitors, 
> as something to emulate.  We should *aspire* to be as good as them. 
> But, in the end, we're *not*.  There's always a niche market for 
> creatures like Britannica --- for people who are worried about accuracy 
> (but not money) and are not prepared to put in the effort required to 
> find out if a Wikipedia article is true or not, for example.
>
> Of course, unintentionally, we're hurting Britannica.  And we're hurting 
> the other encyclopaedias out there as well.  We're bringing an 
> encyclopaedia into the homes of people who couldn't afford the fees 
> charged by the others.  Decent and free will always trump excellent and 
> bloody expensive.  It's only natural that Britannica, whose management 
> presumably know one or two things about business, will see this and get 
> scared.  They don't want to peddle to a niche subset of the 'paedia 
> audience, and they don't want to risk going under if it doesn't work.
>
> And frankly, that's not just Britannica's problem --- it's ours as well. 
>   "Decent and free" is fine when there are better encyclopaedias out 
> there.  If we're the best the world can offer, then we *have* to be 
> great, not good, not decent, but *great*.  We'd owe it to the world, 
> after taking away their best encyclopaedias, to provide a valid alternative.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>   
That's why we should now, after hitting the psychologically important 
1,000,000 article mark in the en: encyclopedia, be focusing on quality 
improvement, not growth.

-- Neil
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