Encyclopedia Humania

Factual Questions
1

I recently had a chance to browse through a selection of old ‘Encylopedia Brittanica’ editions. The biggest difference by far was that the articles in the oldest (1911 or so) edition were FAR more comprehensive and scholarly than those in the newer editions, and that the difference became more pronounced the newer the edition was. I have a 1999 edition on CD: that edition’s article on, for example, Augustus, the first Roman emperor, is like a Cliff’s Notes version compared to the near-monograph of 1911.

I can see two reasons for this: one, there is a lot more ground to cover now, so there is less space for each individual topic, and two, the general level of literacy has declined.

OTOH, I see specialty encyclopedias that focus on some particular field, like chemical engineering or decorative arts, running for many volumes in much more detail.

A general encyclopedia with that much detail over all fields of knowledge would doubtless run for hundreds or even thousands of volumes, and would be impractical to publish on paper, but what about DVD? Is there a market for such a product, and would it be cost-effective to create?

Bill

2

My first thought would be that for the last 30 years or so, people have gradually been “educated” by TV to expect their information in very small chunks, i.e. the “sound bite”. I don’t know if there would be a market for an “Encyclopedia of All Human Knowledge.” Like you said, people tend to specialize anymore–no one person can possibly know everything (except Cecil, of course!) :smiley:

Before you invest any startup money, look at all the other encyclopedias that are already out there, that are scrambling for market share themselves. Is there room for yet another? I dunno. Just don’t ask me for venture capital… :slight_smile:

It’s possible, too, that the Internet may eventually evolve into something so massive that in 10 years, the concept of an “encyclopedia” will be obsolete. You’ll just look up stuff on the Internet. Ask Jeeves to help you write your report on Argentina, and he’ll obligingly bring up the article on Argentina for you to copy. :smiley:

3

I’ve noted that same phenomenon in the EB just during my lifetime. My first WAG is just that the spectrum of subject matter to be covered has broadened so much that they had to start trimming somewhere to keep acquiring a set a viable choice.

That’s where we’re heading, but two significant problem areas occur: 1.) copyright issues and 2.) credibilty issues (i.e., w/o any peer review, anybody can put anything up; there’s a lot of contradictory info out there).

4

This is an interesting thought!

For market I’d have to know what is already online. What’s available at all the sites I don’t visit because I don’t have kids - I know there are resources for kids–how good are they? how many? how easy?

I’d have to know how many people have bought the EB on line (use for a fee or subscription per year) as well as CD, maybe the MS Encarta version as well. I’d think for Encarta you’d want to know what percent were purchased stand alone at “full” price and what was given to buyers of MS products for little or nothing.

You may already know that the EB is written for adult level and The World Book Encyclopedia is written on several reading levels. (If this topic is usually read by 4th graders, the reading level for that section will be set for 4th grade level and so on. A fantastic advantage for families with school age children.)

So I’d want to know what that company has been doing for volume and compare it to the EB and Encarta.

If there is anything else being sold along these lines I’d want to know that, too.

There actually are companies that will do all of the above for you.

Ditto for cost effectiveness - mean, there is a lot of detail that goes into cost effectiveness and companies that would evaluate that for you, too.

However, (I forget how to make small print in UBB) when all the figures and statistics are in, “it’s all a crap shoot.*”

  • Marketing’s first, last, and only rule.

Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley

5

There is no doubt that the Internet is an amazing thing. Was it Master Adams who said that the Internet lets you spread pure bulls**t at the speed of light? The great attraction of the old EB articles was that they were written by the recognised authorities in their field, and could be (mostly) relied upon as an accurate summary of the current state of knowledge in that field. I hardly need to point out that any similarity of the information on today’s Internet to the truth is purely coincidental. I use the Internet every day, and can hardly imagine doing without it, but unless a site has established to me that is reliable, I take everything with a few tonnes of salt.

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that I myself wanted to publish such an encyclopedia… I was simply wondering if there was a market opportunity for ‘someone’ to do this.

Bill

6

GK Willie, I figured you were just giving this a think. I often do the same and, of course, kick myself later when I see someone DID do what I thought was not quite possible.

But you might/or not be amazed to know how much gets started and underway before someone says, “Warehouse?” or “Packing?” A small company I know put together a great package, paid $25,000 up front and couldn’t be bothered getting someone to market it. You never know!

Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley

7

How about this?

A major new encyclopedia project, upedia.com, requests expert help in constructing an “open content” encyclopedia, planned to become the largest general encyclopedia in history. The project has significant financial support, and its leaders and owners are committed to a years-long, intensive effort – to founding
an open, public institution.

If you are an expert in any subject, your participation the project will be welcome. We are in need of well-qualified writers, editors, and peer reviewers, and will be doing searches for subject area editors. Moreover, if you are a good writer and researcher, you may be interested in contributing short biographies, descriptions of cities, and other brief entries.

What does it mean to say the encyclopedia is “open content”? This means that anyone can use content taken from Nupedia articles for almost any purpose, both for-profit or non-profit, so long as Nupedia is credited as the source and so long as the distributor of the information does not attempt to restrict
others from distributing the same information. Nupedia will be “open content” in the same way that Linux and the Open Directory Project (dmoz.com) are “open source.” As has been the case with
those projects, we plan to attract a huge body of talented
contributors.

Because Nupedia will be open content, it will be in a freely-distributable public resource created by an international public effort. It is not an exaggeration to say that your
contributions would help to provide an international public a free education. We believe Nupedia is, thus, a project worthy
of your attention.

Since making our initial press release last Thursday, over 500
people from around the world have signed up as Nupedia members,
including some very highly-qualified people (including Ph.D.'s
in very many relevant subject areas).

If you want to join us or stay apprised of the progress of
Nupedia, please take a minute to go to the Nupedia website at http://www.nupedia.com/ and become a member. (Becoming a member
is quick, easy, and free.)

Thank you very much for your attention.

Larry Sanger, Ph.D. expected May 2000 Philosophy, Ohio State
Editor-in-Chief, Nupedia.com
San Diego, California

P.S. If you wish to help promote this project – something we would greatly appreciate – please do forward this announcement to any appropriate forums and to colleagues you think may be interested (including your local/departmental mailing lists and
newsgroups). Or, if you would rather that Nupedia make the announcement on a forum you frequent, please just give us a pointer to the forum and we can take it from there.

Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley