When I was a kid, my parents bought me the full set of Encyclopedia Britannica for me to use in school projects, etc. Nowadays, if you need something like that, you probably wouldn't even consider something hard copy - and thus not as current as you might want. You might use Microsoft's Encarta software or even Wikipedia. Some of you might wonder if that has meant the death of the Enclopedia Britannica.Well, it hasn't. Of course, they released DVD versions of their product, and also an online version. With the advent of Wikipedia, though, why would you use E.B.'s online version? You have to pay for access to it, after all.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, undoubtedly seeing a large number of users defect to Wikipedia, has opened up a program called Britannica Webshare. Here's how it's described:
A special program for web publishers, including bloggers, webmasters, and anyone who writes for the Internet. You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you like, an easy way to give your readers background of the topics you write about with links to complete Britannica articles.
The way it works is: if I enter through the Britannica site, and I don't have a membership, I can't read full articles. If I link to it from a website, readers can see the whole article, but can't explore the E.B. site any futher.
Also, E.B. has widgets that can be embedded, as below.
While this is an interesting initiative, they really ought to open up viewing to everyone and forget their subscription model. I mean, the resource of choice is - and is going to remain - Wikipedia. They could use the fact that their articles are written by experts, and thus vetted, to differentiate themselves Wikipedia. Perhaps they could even allow user editing, a la Wikipedia, as long as all articles are moderated.
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