Monday, June 22, 2009

Real-time encyclopedia: from 0 to 2009

NYTimes via Cnet:

Recognizing that the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is increasingly used by the public as a news source, Google News began this month to include Wikipedia among the stable of publications it trawls to create the site.
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The graph shows several qualitative (10X) historical changes in the technology. The authorship transition is remarkable: from a person (Pliny The Elder) to a private company (Britannica) to a world-wide community of volunteers (Wikipedia).







A brief history of the technology:
- 77AD - Pliny The Elder produces encyclopedia of the natural world;
- 1768 - first edition of Encyclopedia Britannica;
- 2001 - Wikipedia is launched.

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