[Wikipedia-l] To Randall Stross re: "Anonymous Source Is Not the Same as Open Source"

Tue Mar 14 17:40:10 UTC 2006

Re: "Anonymous Source Is Not the Same as Open Source"
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/business/yourmoney/12digi.html):

Thanks very much for this thoughtful article on Wikipedia.

One thing I would like to note: although the English edition is not at
1.0 release stage yet, the Wikipedia model can in fact produce a
finished product - as proven by the German edition, which has just
done its third release on DVD, selling several tens of thousands of
copies at 10 euros each. And DigitalMedia, the company that released
the DVD is now working on doing a 100-volume paper edition, to be
released from 2007 to 2010. I'll be first to admit we're nowhere near
Britannica in quality (although we tested about as good in science
coverage in a recent survey by 'Nature'), the Wikipedia model does
produce publishable results that people will pay real money for.

- thanks, David.