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
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
From way up high
A bit of news posted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on 14 Jan 2009. Google Earth and the Museo Nacional del Prado in Spain have joined to put art into Google Earth.
Open up Google Earth (you may need to install it on your computer but it didn't take me long to do that). When you search for Museo del Prado, click on the museum, 14 pictures appear, click on a picture and read about the painting. Fascinating!
I noticed in my glance at a Google Earth page, a mention of Shakespeare. When I went back after loading Google Earth, I couldn't find the entry. I was able to find the Google Earth Blog reference for Shakespeare. Many places mentioned by Shakespeare are noted on Google Earth. Click on a picture of Shakespeare and zoom in to see what the location looks like today.
Fascinating! It does remind me of my foray into Second Life - flying over the land- setting down to visit.
I've added the Google Earth Blog story to delicious and tagged it for ENG 193 and Humanities 191.
-kls
Open up Google Earth (you may need to install it on your computer but it didn't take me long to do that). When you search for Museo del Prado, click on the museum, 14 pictures appear, click on a picture and read about the painting. Fascinating!
I noticed in my glance at a Google Earth page, a mention of Shakespeare. When I went back after loading Google Earth, I couldn't find the entry. I was able to find the Google Earth Blog reference for Shakespeare. Many places mentioned by Shakespeare are noted on Google Earth. Click on a picture of Shakespeare and zoom in to see what the location looks like today.
Fascinating! It does remind me of my foray into Second Life - flying over the land- setting down to visit.
I've added the Google Earth Blog story to delicious and tagged it for ENG 193 and Humanities 191.
-kls
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Feeding the info tiger
Really Simple Syndication is one way to get the news and commentary delivered to your desktop.
This morning I read on Titus One Nine the news about the WhiteHouse.gov site. The Obama team had their first blog posting at 12:01. Fast, very fast. I've created a feed to my Bloglines because I find it easier to check Bloglines than to go from site to site checking for a new post.
Various vendors in GALILEO offer RSS feeds for searches and publications. I like getting the latest publication delivered to my desktop (quicker than theUS Mail, cheaper than a print subscription. RSS really is simple.
Yes, the password to access GALILEO is available from your Georgia librarian.
-kls
This morning I read on Titus One Nine the news about the WhiteHouse.gov site. The Obama team had their first blog posting at 12:01. Fast, very fast. I've created a feed to my Bloglines because I find it easier to check Bloglines than to go from site to site checking for a new post.
Various vendors in GALILEO offer RSS feeds for searches and publications. I like getting the latest publication delivered to my desktop (quicker than theUS Mail, cheaper than a print subscription. RSS really is simple.
Yes, the password to access GALILEO is available from your Georgia librarian.
-kls
Card-Pitt
Greetings,
This past Sunday, the last four remaining NFL teams competed for a chance to represent their respective conference in Super Bowl XLIII. The Pittsburgh Steelers eliminated the Baltimore Ravens to win the American Conference and the Lamar Hunt trophy, while the Arizona Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles to win the National Conferenc. Thus, the Cardinals and the Steelers will face off in neutral Tampa to see which team will hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy as the champions of the National Football League fo the 2008 season.
The Super Bowl matchup is quite interesting, for a number of reasons. The Arizona Cardinals are, according to their own website, the oldest pro football team in the country that has been in continous operation since their founding. The Cardinals were founded in 1898, predating the NFL itself, serving as one of the charter members of the league. Since the NFL began, the Cardinals have played in Chicago, serving as the city's south-side team, in St. Louis, and mostly recently in the Phoenix area. However, in their long history, the Cardinals have won exactly one NFL championship (the name of the league title prior to the Super Bowl), and were the last NFC team to make the conference championship game since 'modern' NFL history began in 1970 with the AFL/NFL merger. Now that the Cardinals have made both the conference championship and the Super Bowl, they leave only the New Orleans Saints, the Detroit Lions, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Cleveland Browns, and the Houston Texans as the teams that have never made it to the Super Bowl. Of those, only the Texans have never made their respective conference game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are considered one of the NFL's premier franchises. According to the Steelers' official website, they are the fifth oldest NFL franchise, forming in 1933. The Steelers were one of the lowliest franchises in the league until the hiring of Coach Chuck Noll in 1969, who led the team to four Super Bowl titles in the 1970's. The Steelers have been to the Super Bowl six times prior to this appearance, winning five times.
The Steelers have been owned by the Rooney family since their inception. The Cardinals have been owned by the Bidwill family for most of their existence. During the World War II affected 1944 season, both teams combined to form the Card-Pitt team, which lost every game it played that year.
If you are interested in news and information about these two teams, try Galileo . Go to the 'search' page. Try using the 'Pittsburgh Steelers' and 'Arizona Cardinals' as your search terms. You might want to limit your search to full-text. You will get results from publications including Sports Illustrated. (Note: you may need to get the current Galileo password from your local Georgia librarian.)
JWF
This past Sunday, the last four remaining NFL teams competed for a chance to represent their respective conference in Super Bowl XLIII. The Pittsburgh Steelers eliminated the Baltimore Ravens to win the American Conference and the Lamar Hunt trophy, while the Arizona Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles to win the National Conferenc. Thus, the Cardinals and the Steelers will face off in neutral Tampa to see which team will hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy as the champions of the National Football League fo the 2008 season.
The Super Bowl matchup is quite interesting, for a number of reasons. The Arizona Cardinals are, according to their own website, the oldest pro football team in the country that has been in continous operation since their founding. The Cardinals were founded in 1898, predating the NFL itself, serving as one of the charter members of the league. Since the NFL began, the Cardinals have played in Chicago, serving as the city's south-side team, in St. Louis, and mostly recently in the Phoenix area. However, in their long history, the Cardinals have won exactly one NFL championship (the name of the league title prior to the Super Bowl), and were the last NFC team to make the conference championship game since 'modern' NFL history began in 1970 with the AFL/NFL merger. Now that the Cardinals have made both the conference championship and the Super Bowl, they leave only the New Orleans Saints, the Detroit Lions, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Cleveland Browns, and the Houston Texans as the teams that have never made it to the Super Bowl. Of those, only the Texans have never made their respective conference game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are considered one of the NFL's premier franchises. According to the Steelers' official website, they are the fifth oldest NFL franchise, forming in 1933. The Steelers were one of the lowliest franchises in the league until the hiring of Coach Chuck Noll in 1969, who led the team to four Super Bowl titles in the 1970's. The Steelers have been to the Super Bowl six times prior to this appearance, winning five times.
The Steelers have been owned by the Rooney family since their inception. The Cardinals have been owned by the Bidwill family for most of their existence. During the World War II affected 1944 season, both teams combined to form the Card-Pitt team, which lost every game it played that year.
If you are interested in news and information about these two teams, try Galileo . Go to the 'search' page. Try using the 'Pittsburgh Steelers' and 'Arizona Cardinals' as your search terms. You might want to limit your search to full-text. You will get results from publications including Sports Illustrated. (Note: you may need to get the current Galileo password from your local Georgia librarian.)
JWF
What did that mean?
The English language evolves with use. What a word means today is not what it meant 96 to 181 years ago. On LM_NET Sybil Finemel of Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)supported by The ARTFL Project. Fun to type in a word and see what it used to mean!
GALILEO offers access to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (in Encyclopædia Britannica Online). It too is easy to search and includes the older meanings.
The grandaddy of dictionaries is the Oxford English Dictionary (also available through GALILEO)
The fun part of the OED is the timeline of use with dated quotes.
So many ways to find out what a word means yesterday and today!
You get the current password to access GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.
-kls
GALILEO offers access to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (in Encyclopædia Britannica Online). It too is easy to search and includes the older meanings.
The grandaddy of dictionaries is the Oxford English Dictionary (also available through GALILEO)
The Oxford English Dictionary is the "accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium." The OED gives definitions, etymological analysis, and quotations to demonstrate the use of words in the English language over time.
The fun part of the OED is the timeline of use with dated quotes.
So many ways to find out what a word means yesterday and today!
You get the current password to access GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.
-kls
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