That happened long before Wikipedia. I loved Encarta. Well, before Encarta, I used to read this thing a lot:
But then Encarta arrived and I loved it. It did fit into single CD and didn’t take too much space on disk. I could look up all these articles in it, without having to use expensive dialup, fast. I remember my school buddies coming over and watching those tiny movies in it. I could rip it off for my school works, and look incredibly smart (now people rip off Wikipedia and don’t get too much credit for that :).
People on the interwebs suggest that employees at Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica will be throwing parties tonight. Oh well, Wikipedia is already up to date about this. Every encyclopedia out there was an inspiration for Wikipedia, more so than any technology or “web-two-oh” hype. There’s not much joy seeing good things die.
Ten years ago I imagined, that once I have my own home, I’ll have a place to put a full set of dead-tree Britannica, like my parents had “Lithuanian soviet encyclopaedia”. Wikipedia changed my plans (now there’re two flat panels staring at Wiki, inside and outside), but it seems it already is changing the world around it way more. RIP Encarta. You were inspiring, and really too young to die. If it was us, we didn’t mean it, really. By the way, that content of yours, I’d be glad to see it free. *wink*
domas mituzas 