> I've been asked to write a short editorial about this development from > a Wikipedian's perspective and am curious about (and would love to > include) other Wikimedian experiences -- did you use print > encyclopedias as a kid? Was a love of print encyclopedias part of your > motivation or interest in becoming a Wikipedian? Is there any value in > them still? Will you miss it? > > cheers, > -- phoebe
I did use print encyclopedias as a kid and actually even as adult, until late 1990s when it became clear that they are getting surpassed by electronic media, and it became easier to find information on the internet and fact-check it. Since I was born in 1967 and grew up in Soviet Union, we did not have easy access to Britannica, and we had to be satisfied with the third edition of Great Soviet Encyclopedia - and I guess I read the major part of it, but still there were things I was interested in and could not find there. I remember at some point, at the age of 12, I got in my possession two volumes of an old encyclopedia (smth like Universal Encyclopedia, I do not remember) from 1913, in English, which had something on O and P. I remember that they had a long article on Portugal which contained some extensive info on the history of Portugal, which I could not find elsewhere - so that I had to decipher it (I basically did not speak English at the time) and to try to understand what it is about. But I do not think I will miss them - the information is still there, readily available, and better structured. I would not say that love of print encyclopedias was my motivation to start editing Wikipedia - rather, I had and still have broad range of interests, which motivated me reading handbooks, encyclopedias, and looking at maps when I was the kid, and since I still know these things better that 95% of wikipedians I felt I can considerably contribute here. Cheers Yaroslav _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
