mindlace

Britannica is the oldest English-language encyclopedia, published since 1768. The first edition was printed in Scotland, and was an instrument of the Enlightenment that fomented there.

The former Editor in Chief of the Britannica does not have a high opinion of Wikipedia; he calls it “the Faith Based Encyclopedia”. Wikipedia offers a “random page” feature; Britannica does not. I used it to choose 5 articles, and attempted to find the same, or a similar article in Britannica. I’m not providing links to any of the Britannica articles because it is behind a paywall and I’m accessing it via reverse proxy.

The first random page was “Cahoots”, an album put out by a band called The Band. Wikipedia features the album, reviews, a picture of the album cover, and a link to an article about The Band itself. Britannica has an article for The Band that mentions “Cahoots”. It has no links to reviews, but there are two ‘interactive’ shockwave elements that look like they’re from the CD version. Both come out strong on this one; Wikipedia has more links to other sources, but Britannica has more media.

Next article was Hillsdale, New Jersey. Wikipedia features a map that shows the borough’s relationship to its county and New Jersey as a whole, GPS coordinates, demographics, and links to the official site along with other map and photo information. Britannica mentions it in its entry on New Jersey. Wikipedia took the prize this round.

Then came the Chislehurst Caves, which are abandoned mines in Chiselhurst, England. Wikipedia has two paragraphs about them; one about their history and another about their mythology, with two links, one to the ‘official’ page, and the other to an English guidebook’s opinion of the area, which itself runs to over a page. Wikipedia again.

The page on John Murray Gibbon was a brief two-paragraph discussion of the Canadian historian, and his advocacy of folk arts. There was no information on him in Britannica.

Wikipedia has a paragraph or so page on Dollis Hill, an area of London, England. It describes its location, how it got its name, and famous residents and visitors. Britannica mentions the Dollis Hill house when discussing the borough of Brent.

While both Britannica and Wikipedia show a strong Anglo-Saxon bent, Wikipedia is clearly the more useful reference source, if only for its extensive linking to other reference sources. That seems to obliterate the argument advanced by the Britannica editor – that it was a bad thing for the unwashed masses to be able to change anything – the level of trust you need to click on a link is really low, and it’s obvious (and rapidly remedied) when that trust is breached.