[Foundation-l] sell wikipedia

Mon Jan 25 08:09:23 UTC 2010

On 01/23/2010 02:59 AM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen wrote:
> William Pietri wrote:
>> I note that just last night I was browsing EBay to see what a set of the
>> 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica goes for. For $10, I could get it on DVD.
>> Or I could pay hundreds for a physical set. I would never buy the DVD,
>> but I might buy the physical set. And I already own a reproduction of
>> the 3-volume 1768 edition.
>
>    
> Out of curiosity, how does the three volume edition
> measure up?
>    

I'm not quite sure how to answer that. Is there something you wanted me 
to measure it against?

Personally, I find it a delight, and am prone to flipping through it 
when I'm wondering what exactly an encyclopedia is. More for inspiration 
than knowledge, of course. But it's nice to see the familiar features: 
articles, large and small; redirects, see-alsos, illustrations, 
references; even a proto-NPOV, where on topics of dispute, both sides 
are explained.

My second-favorite thing about it is that the three volumes, which were 
published serially, are A-B, C-L, M-Z. I've always suspected they 
started out with a surplus of ambition and then realized what they were 
up against. And my favorite thing is the preface, which starts out, 
"Utility ought to be the principle intention of every publication." 
Reading through it never fails to remind me what a great enterprise an 
encyclopedia is, both theirs and ours.

If there isn't a copy in the WMF office, I'm glad to leave mine there 
upon request for a while.

William