[WikiEN-l] Everyone's favorite FUD-master is at it again

Tue Mar 22 06:21:51 UTC 2005

Fastfission wrote:

>Wikipedia alone isn't behind the problems (current or looming) faced
>by print encyclopedia manufacturers. The internet as a whole is behind
>that. Wikipedia's just one aspect of a greater shift in the
>technologies of communication and representation which makes massive
>tomes less likely and makes expensive subscriptions seem unnecessary.
>I doubt print encyclopedias will go the way of the dinosaurs, but I
>can understand their dis-ease. The die has been cast -- their
>authority has been questioned and directly challenged by a legion of
>people willing to work for nothing at all. It's an understandable
>concern, but it's far too late at this point.
>  
>
Agreed, what we are witnessing (or better still experiencing) is a major 
paradigm shift in the full sense that Kuhn had forseen.  It is as great 
as anything seen since Gutenberg.  Gutenberg laid the way for unilateral 
mass communication.  The present shift lies in what has made two way 
mass communication technologically possible.  That can be pretty brutal 
on those who had invested in the permanence of unidirectional 
communications.

Ec