On 03/06/2012 18:10, Erik Zachte wrote:
I doubt most subscribers to Britannica Online access it almost every
day, at home and at work, for even most mundane information needs.
Wikipedia is much more filled with practical information that helps
us save time and avoid costly mistakes every day. Is Britannica
Online comparable in content to the paper edition? Ask any owner of
that paper edition how often they grabbed a volume from the shelf,
even before Wikipedia came along. Mainly for this reason I doubt
people would mass subscribe to Britannica when Wikipedia
disappeared.
Personally I used the paper version whenever I wanted to check things
out. That probably wasn't as often as I use the internet to check stuff
because I didn't have that much need then. I still use the CD version of
Britannica if I want to be reasonably sure of some idea before
researching it further.
(still this leaves Thomas argument that money spent does not equal
financial gain)
There is little value to the economy from being able to settle a pub
bet. Or to furnish an argument on USENET or facebook.
One would, I think need to establish that the work was being used for
educational purposes that 'matter' educationally, and those that had
read the material were better as a result.
Unfortunately the coverage of history, philosophy, geography, and arts
subjects are unreadable and almost worthless.
EXAMPLE:
Charles IV died in 1328, leaving only a daughter,
and an unborn infant who would prove to be a girl.
no modern writer writes like that.
EXAMPLE:
The senior line of the Capetian dynasty thus ended,
creating a crisis over the French succession.
There was no crises in France about it. Philip VI took over in the same
way that Charles IV had succeeded. Both examples come from two
successive sentences in the 100 years war article. The rest of the
article is riddled with such stupidities.
At first Wikimania, at Frankfurt, Jimmy gave an estimate how much
money we could have earned from advertisements, and it was already
more than a million per month in 2005.
To Government that would be a net loss as they would otherwise be able
to collect taxes on profits.
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