IVP - Addenda & Errata - Electronic Publishing Archives

I ♥ Wikipedia

People sometimes ask me what I think of Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia. I use it all the time. And sometimes I’m amazed at what I find. But in my opinion, the Wiki model works best when a topic enjoys a widely distributed knowledge base and a large pool of people with time on their hands to contribute. But as one climbs the ladder of specialization, the knowledge becomes less widely distributed, and those who do have the knowledge are too busy pursuing it to care about contributing to Wikipedia. So as a general rule, the higher one climbs up the pyramid of specialized knowledge, the lower the quality of wiki articles.

Back to the Book

Did I mention that I'm a believer in books? I mean real, ink-on-paper books as opposed to electronic facsimiles. Over the years I have enjoyed putting forth the argument that people like the tactile, three-dimensional, artifactual nature of books--and thus the book has a future.

The New York Times has an article today on how some web "books" are becoming print books. I enjoyed the comments from one person, who said he "wanted something I could put on my shelf.” And added, “There’s nothing like holding the weight and smelling the paper.”

Is this a generational thing? I think not (read the article). After all, what generation came up with the term "cool stuff"?