EncycloWikiSemantiPedia?

What form(s) will the 21st century encyclopedia take?

Compared with its traditional progenitor—the printed, bound, multi-volume mini-library often shown off and delivered by a door-to-door salesperson—what will it have in common, and what limitations will it overcome?

Will it:

• Know who, where, and when you are
• Allow you to be a contributor
• Be with you anywhere and everywhere
• Grow exponentially every year, week, or day
• Maintain its authority
• Be initiated by a small group of people
• Be “completed” by a large group of people
• Have a clearly defined scope
• Have a good match between its reach and its grasp
• Have boundaries
• Have a single interface
• Consist of a big, open dump of data into the circulatory system of the networked environment and be expected to fend for itself
• Cost you money
• Be necessary

Feel free to contribute your answers or further questions in Comments.

~ by jockuly on February 10, 2010.