Geek Debate: Should German Wikipedia Be A Book?

So Bertelsmann is publishing a book of the 25,000 most popular of the 750,000-plus entries German Wikipedia next fall, to be titled ‘The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia.’ Weird, right? After all, why churn out an paper encylopedia when there’s a free open-source one perpetually being updated online? Well, for two reasons: to take a snapshot of what’s most popular (“Wikipedia,” “Wiki,” “United States,” “Switzerland” and “penis” are the top 5 entries. Fascinating, right?) and to enable people without internet access to enjoy access to the crowd-wisdom of Wikipedia. Also, to make Bertelsmann some cash money — the material on the site can be used for free as long as Wikipedia is credited as a source, though Bertelsmann will also pay Wikipedia one euro per copy sold just to be nice.

On nerd-news site Slashdot, nerds are debating the merits of this publishing project. In response to the question “Why freeze a living thing?” one commenter replied, “Apparently they think that people in Germany would like to have a hard copy. I’m certain my grandparents (who read tons but do not have a computer) would be interested in a $40-50 edition of this book. Or even, you know, the local library.” Another responds, “Dude, you just mentioned two things that are obsolete: your grandparents and the local library.” Still, it’ll be interesting to see how many copies of this book grandparents and libraries — and other assorted Germans — actually buy.

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