Encyclopaedia Britannica Gets ‘Wikified’

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By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 6/11/2008 2:00:00 PM

Encyclopaedia Britannica is about to go the Wikipedia route—sort of. In the coming weeks, it will launch a new project that will allow experts and the public to create, document, and share knowledge on its site.

“The main thrust of this initiative is to promote greater participation by both our expert contributors and readers,” says Britannica. The hope is that the new Britannica site will create an online community that will engage thousands of scholars and experts, as well as regular users.

Under the new plan, the carefully edited Encyclopaedia Britannica will continue to exist. But there will be another section for its new “community of scholars,” where thousands of invited experts can publish their works, scholarly papers, and drafts on a wide range of subjects, from sports and pop culture to art and zoology, says Spokesman Tom Panelas, who says this may be first time a traditional encyclopedia has taken an open content approach. Britannica currently has about 4,000 expert contributors from all over the world, including the United Kingdom, China, and India.

Readers and users are also invited to another online community where they can work and publish at Britannica’s site under their own names. Interested users will be able to prepare articles, essays, and multimedia presentations on a range of subjects.

What’s the purpose of this new collaborative effort? “To create more coverage and content on our site about subjects that we might not cover, and also to help maintain and revise existing coverage in the encyclopedia,” Panelas says. Academic, public, and school libraries can easily access this information for free.

Scholars will receive an undisclosed monetary incentive for participating, as well as the added benefit of receiving peer reviews and promoting their work to a massive audience.

Unlike Encyclopaedia Britannica, works posted by experts and users will not be checked for spelling, grammar, or punctuation, however, there are decency guidelines that need to be followed.

The new project isn’t entirely like Wikipedia, the open content, community-built encyclopedia, because each contributor will have total control of his article and can decide whether to permit others to contribute, Panelas adds. There’s also a rating system, which allows readers to rank the accuracy of the information posted.

“We believe that by allowing our users the flexibility of using existing Britannica content, properly quoting or modifying it, and by doing so under their names, we will not only facilitate their ability to learn more about that topic, but also inspire in them the responsibility that comes with having created a new treatment under their name,” says Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Under the new launch, users will see a complete redesign and new editing tools.

Britannica’s new project isn’t entirely new. Citizendium, a wiki that launched last year, says it’s more accountable than Wikipedia because contributors use their real names and are not anonymous. The brainchild of Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger, the goal is to “improve on the Wikipedia model with accountability and academic-quality articles as cornerstones of its work,” the company says.

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