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Encyclopædia Britannica Online

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Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Britannica Online is a Web site, run by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., with more than 120,000 articles and is updated regularly.[1] It has daily features, updates and links to news reports from The New York Times and the BBC. Roughly 60% of Encyclopædia Britannica's revenue comes from online operations, of which around 15% comes from subscriptions to the consumer version of the Web sites.[2] Subscriptions are available on a yearly, monthly or weekly basis.[3] Special subscription plans are offered to schools, colleges and libraries; such institutional subscribers constitute an important part of Britannica's business. Articles may be accessed online for free, but only a few opening lines of text are displayed. Beginning in early 2007, the Britannica makes articles freely available if they are hyperlinked from an external site.[4]

On 3 June 2008, an initiative to facilitate collaboration between online expert and amateur scholarly contributors for Britannica's online content (in the spirit of a wiki), with editorial oversight from Britannica staff, was announced.[5][6] Approved contributions would be credited,[7] though contributing automatically grants Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. perpetual, irrevocable license to those contributions.[8]

On 22 January 2009, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that the company would be accepting edits and additions to the online Britannica Web site from the public. The published edition of the encyclopædia will not be affected by the changes.[9] Individuals wishing to edit the Britannica Web site will have to register under their real name and address prior to editing or submitting their content.[10] All edits submitted will be reviewed and checked and will have to be approved by the encyclopædia's professional staff.[10] Contributions from non-academic users will sit in a separate section from the expert-generated Britannica content,[11] as will content submitted by non-Britannica scholars.[12] Articles written by users, if vetted and approved, will also only be available in a special section of the Web site, separate from the professional articles.[9][12] Official Britannica material would carry a "Britannica Checked" stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content.[13]

Information can be found using subjects or a search function. Current news is provided by The New York Times, BBC, and SBS World News. Videos are available for viewing online. Timelines give interactive breakdowns of the history of different subject areas. Data and statistics are available for every country. Maps are provided. Quotations are available by the author or subject.

For research purposes, the search function allows the user to cover broad areas in little time. Photos are presented along with the search results. The search function is rather picky about wording, although boolean searches help refine the subject.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Britannica Online". Britannica.com. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  2. ^ Graham Charlton (10 February 2009). "Q&A: Ian Grant of Encyclopædia Britannica UK [interview]". Econsultancy. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  3. ^ "Britannica Online Store—BT Click&Buy". Britannica.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2006. Retrieved 27 September 2006.
  4. ^ "Instructions for linking to the Britannica articles". Britannica.com. Retrieved 26 March 2007.
  5. ^ Collaboration and the Voices of Experts Jorge Cauz, 3 June 2008
  6. ^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (9 June 2008). "Encyclopædia Britannica To Follow Modified Wikipedia Model | Epicenter | Wired.com". Blog.wired.com. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  7. ^ Staff writer. "Encyclopædia Britannica dips toe in Wiki waters". PC Pro, 9 June 2008.
  8. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Corporate Site". Corporate.britannica.com. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  9. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica fights back against Wikipedia. The Telegraph. 01-22-2009
  10. ^ a b "Britannica looking to give Wikipedia a run for its money with online editing". Tgdaily.com. 23 January 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  11. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica takes on Wikipedia". DigitalJournal.com. 25 January 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  12. ^ a b Britannica 2.0 shows Wikipedia how it's done. Times Online. 01-22-2009
  13. ^ Britannica reaches out to the web. BBC. 01-24-2009
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