Keith Old wrote:
"In a move to take on Wikipedia, the
*Encyclopedia Britannica* is inviting
the hoi polloi to edit, enhance and contribute to its online version.
New features enabling the inclusion of this user-generated content will be
rolled out on the encyclopedia's website over the next 24 hours, *
Britannica's* president, Jorge Cauz, said in an interview today." (More in
story)
What's their business plan? Vetting the information to the standards
they profess is going to take a considerable staff to keep up with the
work that could in theory come their way.
What will be their revenue source to sustain all this? There's a
limited market for multi-volume dead-tree encyclopædias, and depending
on advertising revenues in the middle of a global financial is not very
secure. Maybe a sugar-daddy with bottomless pockets and insatiable vanity?
Ec