On 20/02/2008, Keith Old <keithold(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The Independent reports:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/frances-favourite-encyclopaedia-fa…
"The brave new world of instant enlightenment at the touch of a computer key
has claimed a heavyweight victim. The 2008 edition of Quid, France's
favourite encyclopaedia,
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=FR&ts_mode=country&lang=n…
We're #14 in France, as compared to #9 for the world.
has been cancelled by its publisher for lack of
interest. The annual sales of the 2,000-page tome, which reached more than
400,000 in the mid-1990s, collapsed to just over 100,000 last year. "
As I said: [[worse is better]] in practice. We may not be competing
with the paper encyclopedias, but they appear to be competing with us,
and failing to do so.
To what extent this is a good thing is open for discussion. e.g. what
can we practically do to become a replacement as good as the thing we
appear to have replaced?
- d.