Wednesday, April 25th 2007

Wikipedia going compact

Free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia could soon be available on a CD as volunteers work on an offline version of the website. A preliminary version of the CD has already been released earlier this month, with Wikipedia hoping to become available to those without access to the internet - although this obviously destroys Wikipedia's aim of allowing users to contribute to the encyclopaedia themselves. The CD, which can be purchased for $13.99 plus postage, is intended to be of a higher quality than the online version with all bad language and vandalism is being removed. Although the current version only features 2,000 articles, it likely to slowly expand to become a comprehensive offline encyclopaedia to compete with the likes of Britannica and Encarta.
Source: Australian IT
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7 Comments on Wikipedia going compact

#1
Sh00t1st
thats nice i was wondering when they would do it. i always hated britanica on cd and encarta just pissed me off, this was like ten years ago hehe.
Posted on Reply
#2
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Good for them. I applaud this move. I cant wait to see this compete with Encarta and Britannica.
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#3
Benpi
Wikipedia is awesome, but wiki (IMO) will suck. If you have the internet, there will be no point in getting it on a CD. If you don't have the internet, then you're a total noob and you don't deserve wikipedia anyway.
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#4
kakazza
Wow... Germany had that when? One year ago? Two years ago? And it was a DVD ;P
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#5
overcast
Wikipedia is not a valid source for reference anyhow. You try putting that as a source in University and you'll receive a zero.
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#6
lemonadesoda
Quite right... wiki is not the source for primary research for your thesis. But, if like 99% of the population, you are NOT trying to write a research paper, then wiki is very very useful. Just be aware that it's not a 100% complete body of knowledge, it's accuracy varies depending on subject, and is sometimes politically loaded. But otherwise, it's BRILLIANT. As a quick litmus test: would you rather HAVE wiki, or NOT? Pretty obvious answer there.

I'm a wiki fan... it's helped me get started on various topics/facts in seconds. I can then choose whether or not to take my research further, or whether the information presented is enough.

P.S. Have YOU contributed to wikipaedia? (Addressed to all)
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#7
S^line
I think that this is useless. I mean if you don't have the internet, Take your $13.99 plus tax. go out and get a $2 dollar library card and look you still have like 14 dollars left.
Posted on Reply
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