Notes on life, art, photography and technology, by a Danish dropout bohemian.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses, article.
244 years in continual publication!! And the digital age has ended it. If that doesn't illustrate the power and pervasiveness of digital publication...
“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a Chicago-based company, said in an interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”
You can't argue with that, a paper book is a bitch to update! Especially one the size of EB. Whereas any bit of a web site can be updated in minutes. And these days, data and knowledge changes so fast, that nothing is too fast.
This is the kind of thing, like magazines and newspapers as well, which work better in digital form.
ReplyDeleteSome billionaire should bankroll a free online Britannica, the people could get accurate info written by professionals and Wikipedia would die a needed death at last!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that will draw out our old friend P-04, who is notorious as a Wikipedia lover... Bring on the pain, P-Diddy! Channeling Joe Swanson: LET'S DO THIS! ROCK 'N' ROLL! ROCK 'N' ROLL!
ReplyDelete