Britannica to Look Like Wikipedia

Greetings,

A librarian at Chattahoochee Technical College set us the following link about Britannica attempting to model itself after Wikipedia by allowing users some ability to edit and add content.

Note: To access Britannica off-campus, you may need to get the current Galileo password from your local Georgia public and/or college librarian.

Britannica to Allow User Edits Like Wikipedia

Britannica is making a mistake with this one.

Britannica is attempting, whether they admit it or not, to become another Wikipedia. They should rather focus on what makes them unique from Wikipedia, which is existing as an authoritative, academic , online encyclopedia. Rather than try to copy Wikipedia, Britannica needs to strengthen what I feel are its weaknesses as compared to Wikipedia. These would include what I feel are poorer interfaces, layouts, and graphics when compared to Wikipedia.

Also, I don’t see how their new user-added feature will entice patrons away from Wikipedia. First, Britannica has it articles written by experts in a field. I find it hard to digest that Britannica will have a Classics expert on call 24/7 to vet a user submitted entry on the Alexander the Great article. Also, one appeal of the user edit feature in Wikipedia is that you can see your edits instantly, not twenty minutes later.

Wikipedia, because of its nature, is much more exhaustive than Britannica. You can find articles in Wikipedia on the novel adaptations of the different Star Trek television series. You won’t find that on Britannica. And you shouldn’t find that on Britannica , if Britannica continues to promote itself as an academic source.

Despite its level of acceptance by many of our younger patrons, Wikipedia is best viewed as a pop culture/quick reference resource, that has to be taken with a grain of salt. Britannica should recognize this and not try to copy them, but rather should play to its own strengths and increase its viability as an academic and referenced alternative.

I liken this situation to the current state of affairs at General Motors. One of their few bright spots the last decade has been Cadillac. They made the decision to make the line unique from Buick and other GM lines, and play to Cadillac’s strengths as a high end luxury line with lots of features. One area GM failed was its half-hearted attempts to copy Japanese/Korean successes in smaller cars without giving the same level of quality and fuel efficiency that the imports offered.

This is akin to Pepsi changing it can color to red and white because Coke is selling more product.


JWF