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animated Category: Life
In 1969 my father arrived home from work and announced that we were to become the proud owners of the "Encyclopedia Brittanica", a compendium of encyclopedias issued monthly, building up into a complete set from A to Z over a period of (wait for it) ten, yes ten years! A total therefore of 120 volumes, starting with "A" – the indefinite article, and ending presumably, with some obscure word starting with "z". My brother and I loved these volumes of encyclopedias; they were colourful, packed with illustrations and full of useful information about such things as aardvarks, abacuses and Isaac Asimov.
As you can probably guess from the examples above, Dad never completed his marathon purchase. These books cost over 15/- each, therefore a complete set would have cost over £90.00, a considerable sum of money in those days. Mum became pregnant with my younger sister in 1970 causing all such encyclopedic purchases to be cancelled. Never mind, at least we had an encyclopedia going as far as "
However, even at the tender age of ten, I could see problems with this method of supplying and storing information. During the period when the books were arriving every month, man (allegedly) landed on the moon. However the encyclopedias did not refer to this momentous fact, only going as far as "Apollo 10" which, of course was the precursor to the famous Apollo 11. Given that the vendors of Encyclopedia Britanica insisted that once you collected the set, this was the only compendium of encyclopedias you would ever need in your lifetime, it occurred to me that there were serious flaws in their argument.
Of course! It was "static" information – as new inventions occurred, they were not represented in the compendium. There would have been no mention of compact discs, mobile phones or even hand held calculators in these books, no matter how many times you read them.
In 1995 Microsoft introduced "Encarta", a brilliant new invention with the entire sum of all human knowledge, all on one CD. It was easily accessible, showed moving pictures and contained sound – a big step up from all previous encyclopedias. (or should that be encyclopediae?) It was also copyable, so as long as one of your mates bought a copy every year, you could always obtain a free update. However, it was still over £30 and was still out of date, as soon as it arrived on the shelves. Someone famous, somewhere would inadvertantly die just after the cd came out, making it out of date.
What's the solution? I love encyclopedias, I love having instant access to knowledge and information. Who designed The Millau Bridge? What year was Albert Einstein born? Who starred in "Love Story"? What is a Perfect Number (no it's not the same as a prime number).
The answer of course, lay in the internet. In 2001 Wikipedia was launched, a global, non profit making, online encyclopedia, written by the people for the people. And most importantly, it was FREE! It is the third most accessed website after social networking sites and ebay. Everything is there; if it is suitable for inclusion in an encyclopedia it is included on Wikipedia. It includes pictures and links to other websites that can further your knowledge if you need to know more. It is instantly accessible, just by typing into the search term box. The total sum of all human information is there, and it is updated all the time, every second of every day. The information you read is as up-to-date as any peer-reviewed information in the world. It truly is an amazing and wondrous resource. It was started by a group of academics led by Jimmy Wales and others and everyone is invited to contribute provided that their contributions are a) accurate and b) not controversial.
As an example, it was announced on the news on Radio 2 at 8am this morning (20th January) that the famous American author, screenwriter and educator Erich Segal (he wrote Love Story among other things) had died the night before. By the time I had typed his name into Wikipedia, at 8.30 am this morning, it read
Death
Segal died from a heart attack on January 17, 2010[2] and was buried in London. In a eulogy delivered at his funeral, his daughter Francesca said, "That he fought to breathe, fought to live, every second of the last 30 years of illness with such mind-blowing obduracy, is a testament to the core of who he was -- a blind obsessionality that saw him pursue his teaching, his writing, his running and my mother, with just the same tenacity. He was the most dogged man any of us will ever know."[3]
(Taken from www.wikipedia.org 20th January 2010 © Wikipedia)
What more can I say – it is the absolute ultimate encyclopedia. Wikipedia is one reason why I sincerely believe that the internet is only the third great invention of mankind since the dawn of time, (the other two being control of fire, and the wheel). Wikipedia is the supreme example of how human knowledge can be pooled and shared by all and for all.
 | Currently reading: Wikipedia: The Missing Manual |
I've got to agree with you. Certainly over the past couple of years I will use Wikipedia rather than a general Google search. It is a fantastic resource. I hadn't thought along the lines of just how important the internet is but although a profound statement, We didn't invent fire, we discovered it and arguably the same could be said about the wheel! (given that mathematically at least it existed just waiting to be discovered) Would this then promote the internet to number 1 invention?
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