Wikipedia to be Set in Stone ... Well Pressed to an Aluminum Film

[Joe]

Wikipedia is to be Distributed on CD but only containing a fraction of the articles available on then massive information repositories online incarnation.

So it may seem odd that Wikipedia volunteers are now working on a static version on CD, a preliminary version of which was released earlier this month.

The goal is to extend Wikipedia to those with limited or no Internet access. Success with the CD could ultimately lead to Wikipedia in book or other forms.

"Plenty of people do not have Internet access. They have a computer and no Internet, or just a slow Internet connection," said Martin A. Walker, the Wikipedia volunteer who helped coordinate the project. "There are many times when you may be offline anyway. You may be at a camp or something like that."

The CD is available for $14 plus shipping through the project's Web site, wikipediaondvd.com.

Despite the site's name, Walker insisted the contents must fit on a CD, noting that many home computers do not yet have DVD players. The CD works with

Windows 98 and later, Mac

OS X running on Intel-based Mac computers and

Linux x86 systems.

|Source :: Yahoo|

 

[llwyd]

CD?! lets see some justification for the money that has been poured into the development of Blu-Ray for christ sake. Wanting it to be widely accessible is no excuse, even £300 dell desktops come with DVD-RWs these days

 

[PP Mguire]

YEa seriously. They could put a whole lot moer on DVD.

 

[ionicle]

4.7Gb compared with 700mb, hell, a dual layered dvd could even hold 9.4, double the space!

 

[nathan]

well there not planning on putting everything on there, so im sure 700 will be fine.

 

[Rastalovich]

Hmmm, I guess they`re only considering the stuff that is 110% correct also ???

 

[Joe]

Hmmm, I guess they`re only considering the stuff that is 110% correct also ???

damn its only gonna be like 2 articles on the disk == info about jimmy wales and a description of wikipedia

 

[Toxcity]

To be honest, I wouldn't get it.

If it is all on the web what is the point... Unless you don't have the internet..

 

[Rastalovich]

I can actually see a really good use for this.

If u had an infrastructure where a really large user-base use Wiki a hell of alot - and some companies do, u could include the cd/copy of the cd, into u`r server and have it search that b4 going onto the net.

Save a fair bit of `net traffic perhaps, depending on how much content they get.

 

[Toxcity]

I can actually see a really good use for this.

If u had an infrastructure where a really large user-base use Wiki a hell of alot - and some companies do, u could include the cd/copy of the cd, into u`r server and have it search that b4 going onto the net.

Save a fair bit of `net traffic perhaps, depending on how much content they get.

You have a good point...

But how much net traffic does wiki pull?

 

[nathan]

I can actually see a really good use for this.

If u had an infrastructure where a really large user-base use Wiki a hell of alot - and some companies do, u could include the cd/copy of the cd, into u`r server and have it search that b4 going onto the net.

Save a fair bit of `net traffic perhaps, depending on how much content they get.

Most, if not all big companies will have some sort of proxy cache, so they wouldnt really need it.