CompuServe Messages

Jan, Great thread on Cd pricing and the OED! I think your flaming the publishers of the OED a much. I expect that there price will come down eventually. After all if you remember, for many years the miniature version was given away as a gift to join the book of the month club. Therefore the effective market price couldn't have been more than $15. I am impressed that the publisher moved quickly to replace the original CD version with a much improved new version in terms of seach engine and ease of use. The OED is a unique product and in terms of competition now it is its own competitor. That is if you don't want to pay up for the CD you can buy the miniature version or go to the library and look at the multivolume edition. Also are you aware that the OED is available on a worldwide computer network. I have instant access to th OED now at the office through a dedicated Financial Market news service called Bloomberg Financial News that I use at the office. I can also access the network by modem from home. I had suggested that the OED might be available on Compuserve, but it seems some people were afraid of the connect time charges. BTW, I think the time frame of the people at the OED is a bit longer than other publishers. Afterall, the second edition of the OED took about 50 years to complete. The original editor Sir James Murray labored from 1885 until his death in 1915 and had only completed about half. As to the profit motive, the OED was nothing if not a labor of love. Most of the word compilers were amateurs who were paid nothing and funding was always limited as it was by no means certain the project could be completed. I you're interested in this background, you should read "Caught in the Web of Words", which is the story of Murray and the OED. My understanding is that the publisher intends to update the OED on a regular basis, now that computers make that possible. Therfore it could be possible to price it so that for $750 you get all future updates free, while at $150 it costs $50 each year for an update. Tim