Fans of general resource material likely had mixed emotions about Encyclopedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz’s announcement and subsequent fightin’ words this week. Adding public editing Britannica.com is an exciting step, but bloviated rips on Wikipedia was all ooh and no ahh. That’s because there’s no need after all (for us, Google, or Wikipedia) to feel defensive—any thunder Cauz could bring down is still a long way out. Remember Scrappy Doo? Don’t know why I bring him up. Just thought of him for some reason.
Like most bloggers I know, I tend to link to information resources online when I’m writing about a particular topic. One reason is simply that linking to an explanation of something provides a reader of your content with an opportunity to find out more, or see something in more depth, without you the blogger having to explain it all in your blog post.
Piece o’ news number one: Google intends to make Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as Merriam-Webster’s dictionary and thesaurus, available in Google Docs. Piece o’ news number two: if you don’t feel like waiting on the Mountain View-based company, you can access those same resources right now.
Several noteworthy thinkers consider the whole Web 2.0 meme as part of their series of discussions appearing on the Britannica Blog. We're still waiting for them to talk about Web 2.0.
Sometimes you just have to put aside the world of search engines and ad campaigns to read, or write, something a little more fulfilling.
A lot of angst has been suffered in recent weeks over Wikipedia, the free open-source encyclopedia.
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