[WikiEN-l] Microsoft kills Encarta

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 11:51 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
<cimonavaro at gmail.com> wrote:
  

>> I think this casts a new interesting perspective on
>> the decision by Microsoft to buy out powerset.com.
>>
>> I will be watching with interest, how they will develop
>> that product, and whether they intend to incorporate
>> it more extensively into their other product offerings.
>>
>> I have to admit I was skeptical initially when I heard
>> powerset.com would be "gobbled up". But should it
>> turn out that Microsoft were to really seriously put
>> effort into powerset.com, any relief Encyclopaedia
>> Britannica may have gained from the reduction of
>> competition for number two spot, may prove a little
>> short lived. That is unless of course Microsoft/Powerset
>> make some kind of deal with EB that they can use
>> powersets semantic search engine on also EB
>> product.
>>
>> Of course it is possible that MS have made the
>> judgment that the whole sector is not good for
>> them, but actually I would prefer to be hopeful
>> that this means they would give more impetus
>> to powerset now. I personally think powerset is
>> currently the best interface for wikipedia, bar
>> none.
>>
>> On the gripping hand, if developing powerset is
>> not on the cards for Microsoft, perhaps now that
>> they have decided to not hold onto encarta, they
>> might be persuadable to sell powerset off, since
>> holding on to it is not fending off a competitor to
>> encarta. The question of course then would be,
>> who would be willing to buy powerset off their
>> hands?
>>     



David Goodman replied:
>  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.
>
>
>   

I think the answer is that we should be pleased that we
became so much *more* useful. This is the _sentimentally_
sad, but logically *glorious* facet of competition as a
concept.

You won't find a world record holder in any sport that will
not admit to a sadness when somebody surpasses theirs,
and likely the fans of that particular sportsman will feel a
pang in sympathy. But ask the sportsman squarely if they
don't feel that their result being an inspiration for others
to excel and surpass that result is and was a source of
pride for them too, and I guarantee 99,9 % of record holders
will say they genuinely thought their record was there to be
broken, and as an inspiration for others to go faster, higher,
stronger.


Yours,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen