Re: [school-discuss] Open source encyclopedias; message

["Douglas S. Blank" <dblank@brynmawr.edu>]

jkinz@ultranet.com said:

[snip]

> For those schools we have to enable E. Britannica on Linux or write
> our own Open Source equivalent of the E. Britannica.  This is clearly a
> non-trivial effort that would take years.  Of course the Open Source
> community has already demonstrated its ability to dedicate itself to
> large projects. However this does not seem a project likely to occur. :-)

I'm not sure how one wants to measure "equivalent", but there certainly are
open source/content encyclopedias under development. Two that come to mind:

http://www.nupedia.com/
http://www.wikipedia.com/

And also, the open directory project (itself a kind of open source
encyclopedia) mentions a couple more, some limited to specific content, like
music. See http://dmoz.org/Computers/Open_Source/Open_Content/Encyclopedias/

As to the religious debate between free and open source: we all know the
arguments for and against each side, so let's not argue here. 

I do think that we all agree that there isn't enough money available for
education. So a message to any company thinking about making a lot of money in
educational software or content: *eventually*, you will be competing against
free/open source alternatives. 

If the Schoolforge community does believe that, that message might be a
possible topic for the next press release. On the one hand, that might open us
up for attack by anyone that makes money off of education. On the other hand,
it might encourage others to donate software, donate source code, or lower prices.

-Doug

-- 
Douglas S. Blank,       Assistant Professor         
dblank@brynmawr.edu,          (610)526-6501
Bryn Mawr College,  Computer Science Program
101 North Merion Ave,  Park Science Building
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 dangermouse.brynmawr.edu