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#Encyclopedia Britannica

11 messages in this thread

#52763From: Gene TrinkerJul 14, 1993 5:21 PM

By any chance is the Encyclopedia Britannica available on CD-ROM?

#52777From: Rich Bowers/OPAJul 14, 1993 8:38 PM

Gene: No, EB is not. Until recently, they owned Compton's NewMedia (purchased last week by the Tribune Co.), their lower-end entry in the field. Expect it will be some time before Britannica is on CDROM, for various reasons relating to marketing, tradition, etc. Best – Rich

#52820From: Gene TrinkerJul 15, 1993 3:32 PM

Thanks

#52788From: MarcusJul 15, 1993 1:20 AM

The only thing of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica you can get on CD-ROM are two discs with the index, but not the EB itself. I asked someone there and got the answer: People don't want it. In 1886 (I think) Carl Benz invented the first automobile. Noone wanted it. Regards, Marcus

#52804From: larry buckmasterJul 15, 1993 11:09 AM

Any idea how much the index costs? That's not a bad idea…combining a searchable, cross-referenced index with the printed volumes. Best of both worlds, really.

#52827From: MarcusJul 15, 1993 4:00 PM

Larry, in that time I did'n ask for the price because I wasn't interested in it. I will look it up if I find the phone/fax-No. somewhere in my office. I will send you a message, if you want. Please leave a private EMail as reminder. Marcus

#52821From: Gene TrinkerJul 15, 1993 3:32 PM

Thanks.

#52879From: Jason KanterJul 16, 1993 7:50 AM

>I asked someone there and got the answer: People don't want it. [Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM] >In 1886 (I think) Carl Benz invented the first automobile. Noone wanted it. And back when silent films were the thing, one of the movie studio greats, Warner or Goldwyn perhaps, said "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" I think it's about disc space really. Grolier is able to fit a whole encyclopedia on disc because the articles are all pretty short; Britannica must be three times the wordage at least. And they'd have to do a major multimedia piece of work to compete with Grolier and Encarta – more disc space. I think they're waiting for better compression.

#52911From: MarcusJul 16, 1993 3:07 PM

Jason, I think it has not to be a multimedia-encyclopaedia. Just take the text and pictures, the effort on doing this would be so much. You can reserve the sound and videoclip stuff for version 2 or 3, then you will have better quality than MS Video or Intel have today. In Germany for example you get the entire Bertelsmann Encyclopaedia (15 books in print version) on CD. Just text, no pictures. OK. EB is twice as big, but why not put it on two discs? That would be easy to do because they have the text in the computers. Just add an retrieval program and you have it. Marcus

#52925From: Werner SchienleJul 16, 1993 7:18 PM

Marcus, yes, in Germany they do have the 15 volume (6000 pages) Bertelsmann Encylopedia on CD-ROM, but do You know for what price they sell it? Halte Dich fest: 2,800 Geman Marks! If one compares that with the American 21 volume Groliers, which I bought for somewhat 200,- or so German Marks, than one can (once more…..!!!) become desperate about German prices… And they sell Immanuel Kant in German for DM 750,-; in English You get about 1000 books on one CD for several hundred Dollars… Gruesse WErner

#52866From: Dheerendra PrasadJul 15, 1993 11:24 PM

No ! Only the index to the Brittanica is available on CDROM.