[Wikipedia-l] Re: Wikipedia v. Britannica / Statistics

[sgilbert at nbnet.nb.ca]

Erik Zachte wrote:

> Britannica is a well respected encyclopedia and rightly so. I think it
> won’t hurt to set ourselves a goal and learn from the strengthes and
> weaknesses of the 'competition'. It is not a deathmatch though, just
> for honours.

True. However, I think it's also important to remember that 
Wikipedia and Britannica, although similar in some respects, are 
really very different beasts. Britannica's venture into the digital 
world was slow and clumsy; by the time they has found their 
footing, Microsoft's upstart Encarta was eating their lunch. 
Someone pointed out before that Encarta is more our competition. 
Even still, the first version of Encarta was simply the text of Funk 
and Wagnal's encyclopedia rebranded, with added multimedia. 
Wikipedia was born on the Internet, the strange and marvelous 
result of a ménage à trois between Open Source, Nupedia and the 
WikiWikiWeb. 

> I would hate to see Wikipedia push Britannica out of the
> market in four years time.

As strange and marvelous as Wikipedia is, I can't see that 
happening. :)

Stephen G.