Beliavsky wrote:
> When I was a kid about 30 years ago my parents bought for me the World
> Book set of encyclopedias. It was fairly common for the families we
> knew. I used to just browse volumes of the encyclopedia sometimes.
> What do people think now about making such an investment, where there
> are alternatives such as Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias (for
> a fee).
My children tend to go straight to google (and then get frustrated when
they can't find what they want). This appears to be encouraged by their
schools.
We do have an extensive collection of textbooks and encyclopedias, but
they don't seem to turn to them in the same way as I did when I was a kid.
> Steve Sailer wrote an essay comparing Wikipedia and Brittanica
> http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/07/real-problem-with-wikipedia.html
,
> asserting the former is dull.
Hmmm, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but Beliavsky, you are
allowed to have your own opinions, without backing them up with some
blogger or journalist :-) . You do have a tendancy to rely on other
people's ideas: I'd like to know what *you* think about an issue.
(FWIW, I've been on usenet for 15 years, and it has been real practise
in me developing the confidence to express original ideas.)
--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three
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