[Wikipedia-l] Re: Encarta goes wiki - sort of...

[Timwi]

Magnus Manske wrote:
> 
> You can mow add to Encarta articles online. After a review by the M$
> staff, your edit may be added to the Encarta.

I've thought about this some more, and I have come to a number of 
conclusions.

I don't believe that any noticeable fraction of submissions is even 
looked at by a human. I cannot believe that a commercial organisation 
could or would spend the resources necessary to do that.

I don't believe that the purpose of adding this feature was to allow 
users to improve Encarta. Though of course that's what everyone thinks.

I do believe that they added this feature due to a growing public 
awareness of Wikipedia, and in an effort to retain a certain amount of 
market share. I believe that they are explicitly trying to reduce faith 
in Wikipedia or wiki projects in general, thereby implicitly increasing 
faith in proprietary encyclopedias (or strengthening the superior faith 
that already exists).

At the same time, they are probably trying to show that they are "ahead" 
of other proprietary encyclopedias by being the first to introduce a 
significant feature, and that they are more customer-oriented by making 
it look like they allow feedback to reach them.

That's what I think,
Timwi