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April 8, 2005
Microsoft Emulates Wikipedia
Posted by Ross Mayfield
Funny how Encarta doesn't come up in the Wikipedia vs. Britannica debates. Well, now it seems they are enabling wiki-ish editing of Encarta encyclopedia articles. Jimmy Wales puts it perfectly:
Hmm, now people have a choice. They can donate their time and energy to a nonprofit effort to make the world a better place by giving away an encyclopedia under a free license. Or they can go to work for free, enriching Microsoft.
I wonder what the most talented and dedicated people will choose. :-)
Funny how Microsoft never came up in the list of potential donors to Wikipedia alongside Google then Yahoo. I signed into Passport and tried adding some facts about Microsoft being a convicted monopolist to the Bill Gates entry, it is still pending editorial approval.
Comments (5)
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1. Mathias Schindler on April 9, 2005 6:05 AM writes...
Actually, it's Britannica, not Brittanica. I remember that Corante has a faible for the other spelling :)
Permalink to Comment2. Ross Mayfield on April 9, 2005 4:59 PM writes...
Thanks. It's not Corante that has bad first draft spelling, it's me.
Permalink to Comment3. john.e.boy on April 11, 2005 4:45 AM writes...
Hey, you should just add lots of entries like this:
Bill Gates, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
ho. ho. ;-)
john.e.boy
Permalink to Comment4. Amgine on April 11, 2005 1:48 PM writes...
There's another story here too... the enhancement, uhm, introduced a sort of security breach.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/MSN_Encarta_introduces_wiki-like_enhancements
Amgine
Permalink to Comment5. Andrew Lih on April 14, 2005 11:09 PM writes...
FYI, my post to the Wikipedia-L list:
------
Something I just found on the Encarta Feedback FAQ, that might be of interest:
---
How are my suggested edits researched?
Graduate students at the University of Washington Information School are fact-checking all proposed changes to Encarta. They are trained in research and passionate about corroborating facts. Stay tuned for possible plans to expand our pool of researchers to the Encarta community.
---
Interestingly, donors to the school include:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Corbis Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
http://www.ischool.washington.edu/events/docs/newsletter-fall-04.pdf
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