Wikipedia Available on CD
Wikipedia version 0.5 is available on CD for $13.99! This project has been started by a collaboration between Wikimedia Foundation and a French company Linterweb, through the efforts of Wikimedia France. You can buy the CD here. Its a good first attempt but not enough to shake off Britannica which for $ 49.95 offers a larger range of content on its CD/DVD and a free 90 day subcription. Britannica states on its website that it offers the following on its CD/DVD:
- 100,000+ articles
- 166,000+ Magazine and Web Links
- Virtual Notecards: Make your research more portable and productive.
- MULTIMEDIA CONTENT, Atlas, Timelines, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus, & More
The Wikipedia 0.5 CD will have only 2000 articles from the English Wikipedia — so it will be of very limited appeal for even those who have regular Internet access but might want keep the CD to access Wikipedia offline.
Apparently the project is aiming those users who have very limited access to the Net and want to access Wikipedia content. I think full/larger coverage is the only way this project will succeed. The plan ofcourse is that the project scope will be expanded:
Articles were chosen based on criteria for quality and importance set by the Wikipedia community. Topics covered include, among others, geography, arts, literature, science, history, and natural sciences. Users can browse articles using a built-in search engine or by surfing navigational pages.
Martin A. Walker, a chemistry professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, played a central role in the production of Wikipedia Version 0.5, and in setting criteria for article selection.
“Although this is only a test release, we really tried to produce something the Wikipedia community could feel proud of. We wanted to cover the major topics, while also including a selection of articles considered to be the very best of Wikipedia. These ‘featured articles’ aim to be well written and comprehensive, and also free from errors, bias, vandalism and marketing ”, states Walker.
The community members are welcome to take part in this innovating project, either by helping for the selection process, or by helping at the development of the open-source project Kiwix, which is the software part of the CD.
As an avid wikipedia user I look forward for more!
Tags: 182, 196POSTED IN: Wikipedia
4 opinions for Wikipedia Available on CD
IndianPad
Apr 25, 2007 at 12:05 am
Wikipedia Available on CD posted at IndianPad.com
indya
Apr 26, 2007 at 7:56 am
Linked on http://www.bestofindya.com
Anonymous
Apr 26, 2007 at 7:58 am
Wikipedia version 0.5 is available on CD for $13.99! This project has been started by a collaboration between Wikimedia Foundation and a French company Linterweb, through the efforts of Wikimedia France.
SallyF
Oct 13, 2007 at 2:55 am
For anyone with an adequate Internet connection, this seems like a product that would quickly be, a few months after it is purchased, not worth the plastic it is written on. If your obsession is pop culture, then maybe the Wikipedia CDROM is the right product, but, of course, their pop culture info is, by its nature, dated and gets out-of-date quickly.
What matters with Wikipedia articles are the external references linked to, hence, again, the need for the Internet connection. The links are what give the wikipedia.org domain name its high traffic ranking overall.
You can purchase something like the Encyclopedia Britannica Ready Reference on CDROM for about the same price. Same for the other EB products like the Children’s Encyclopedia and the “Homework Essentials” CD. EB is much better product at a comparable price.
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