[WikiEN-l] Microsoft kills Encarta

[Peter Coombe]

2009/3/31 David Goodman <dgoodmanny at gmail.com>:
>  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.

Oh totally agreed. I haven't used Encarta recently, but in its heyday
(and my schooldays) it was a fantastic educational resource. I think
it was also my first introduction to hypertext, and I suspect so for
many others too. In fact for students at the time, I'd go so far as to
say it was Microsoft's "killer app".

I think the challenge now is for Wikipedia to try and fill the gap it
has made. Despite Encarta's disadvantages (cost, slow to update) it
had excellent multimedia - something Wikipedia is sadly lacking in.
Also its structured guides to topics were great, especially in the
later versions.


Pete / the wub